RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE : Home-Buying Lures: Down-Payment Cash, Picnics and Antiques

To generate the crowds needed to boost sales these days, home builders are finding that they have to be at least as good at promotion as at building.

Trouble is, buyer incentives like vacation trips, discounts on upgraded carpets and drapes, or even free cars are becoming as commonplace as $1,000 cash rebates for car buyers.

So builders are casting further afield in their search for lures. Some recent promotions: picnics and drawings for cash for down payments.

The developer of the Foothill Ranch community near Lake Forest is hosting a major antique and exotic car show Saturday, hoping that thousands of people show up and that many will want to take a peek at home models while there.

In San Clemente, where several large planned communities are being built, two developers have teamed with the city and the local Chamber of Commerce to fund a campaign promoting tourism and boosting the city’s image.

The builders are Arvida Co., which is developing the 2,200-acre Talega Valley community in the hills above the city, and Centex Homes, developer of the nearby 1,077-acre Marbrisa community.

Paula Laskelle, director of sales for Marbrisa, said the first-year campaign budget is about $45,000.

“Most people think of San Clemente as a place on the freeway between San Diego and Los Angeles,” she said. “We want them to get to know our hotels, restaurants and shops and beaches, and the communities we are building here.”

And the builders hope that some of those who come to visit San Clemente will like it enough to want to live there.