Real Estate Agents Trading Their BMWs For Bikes: What Next?

Berkeley is a pretty bicycle-friendly city. The serious, Lycra-clad crowd convenes at Peet’s on Domingo Avenue before tackling the steep climbs into the Oakland hills. For those who cycle for more pragmatic reasons — getting around or commuting to work — a network of Bicycle Boulevards eases their path through the ever-present traffic (see green streets highlighted on map below).

I have seen security staff and even police officers on bikes, but I have yet to see a real-estate agent on one. It could happen, though. According to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, “some real-estate agents have traded their suits for spandex and are leading clients from house to house on two wheels instead of four” (pictured right: Pedal to Properties in Boulder, Colorado).

The move has been prompted, inevitably, by high gas prices and growing environmental concerns, as well as the fact that more home buyers are seeking out bicycle-friendly neighborhoods. If you love bikes, it follows that it will make a favorable impression if your realtor turns up on a bike to give you a house tour.

Somehow I don’t see Berkeley’s largely sharp-suited real-estate agents abandoning their BMWs any time soon. In the meantime, find out all you need to know about cycling in Berkeley here. And then consider these three homes currently for sale on or near some of Berkeley’s Bicycle Boulevards (BBs). Buying one could see you embark on a whole new, largely car-free life:

1631 Belvedere Avenue is close to Virginia Street which is a BB. It’s a 3/1 Craftsman with a large garden and significant storage space in the basement. Also convenient to Cedar Rose Park and North Berkeley BART. Price: $619,000.

2209 5th Street #C is a 2/2 contemporary townhouse near 9th Street which is a BB. Good looking interiors, close to University Avenue and upmarket shopping on Fourth Street. Price: $945,000.

338 63rd Street, Oakland is intriguing because it’s a 5/5, nice-looking brown-shingle home in a good spot, close to Rockridge and College Avenue as well as Rockridge BART, and the price is $1,350,000 — or a reasonable sounding $495/sq ft. It’s right near Hillegass Avenue which, you guessed it, is a BB.