Close Escrow and Pack Your Suitcases

To win your business, real estate agents are coming up with tempting gifts, like cash rebates and discounts on moving and pest control services.

But one local broker, Mark Ackrich of Re/Max South County, is taking a tip from the credit card companies and offering something some find more enticing: frequent flyer miles.

Ackrich recently cut a deal with Northwest Airlines and its affiliates. Now sellers who list their homes with him earn one frequent flyer mile for every dollar’s worth of the sale price.

There’s a catch, though. You have to let him list it and find a buyer. If it hits the multiple listing service, the perk is cut to half a mile per dollar. Still, Ackrich thinks many sellers will take the bait.

“People love to travel,” he said. “If everything else is equal, why wouldn’t they want to get the most bang for their buck?”

a Ackrich has the exclusive rights to use the Northwest miles in Orange County. If he sells a $300,000 home, he gets an $18,000 commission and the seller earns 300,000 frequent flyer miles--enough for two business-class international tickets. The miles cost Ackrich $6,000.

But experts say a shrewd buyer should deduce from the catch that the commission is negotiable and should ask for a discount on his fee instead.

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Melinda Fulmer covers real estate for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7832 and at melinda.fulmer@latimes.com