"These events, properly done, target people who have lifestyles similar to the current owner's lifestyle. It's a fabulous way to get prospects in to see the house -- not in the traditional sense of walking through with the real estate agent for a standard showing, but a way to see the lifestyle that the house represents," she said.

They're also a way to create momentum when the market is slow, when people of substantial means can take their pick from a buffet of big-ticket properties. Real estate agents say this is one of those times, a lull that's due partly to the holidays, but mostly to a real estate boom that has faded in the highest price ranges.

So that's why, on a recent night, Frumentino was racing around a 16,000-square-foot house in Highland Park, making sure that the wine had been poured and that there were plenty of cotton "footies" available to insulate the house's inlaid African cherry floors from the high heels of her incoming guests.

She straightened the Russian sable bedspread in the master suite and turned to escort an early arrival down the curved marble staircase and beyond, where she was about to explain, one more time, about the chapel in the basement.

This house did not have the kind of clean-lined, generic "meditation room" that pops up with some frequency these days. In this case, the homeowners had brought in European artists to create a vibrantly gilded and icon-filled altar, dedicated to St. Helen of Kiev. Occasionally, the homeowners' clergyman would conduct services there, Frumentino said.

Periodically, guests would wander toward the room, and at first glimpse most of them would utter a muted "oh."

"The house is ornate," Frumentino explained, in a classic example of understatement.

Such ornateness -- gold-leafed Grecian statuary, gold-plated Venetian glass chandelier, gold-ornamented window moldings -- has presented a marketing challenge, as they say. So this night she has invited about 100 people to sip wine, nibble shrimp and peruse the contents of about a dozen tables filled with purses, hand-stitched pillows, jewelry and other wares. Frumentino had brought in local craftsmen to create a holiday bazaar within a cocktail party.

"They can do their Christmas shopping here, and we use the house as a backdrop," Frumentino explains.

The partygoers, in this case, are mostly real estate agents. Frumentino says that the house has been on the market for months, and she wanted the party to serve as a reminder to other agents that the home is still out there, with its price reduced to $5.7 million.

"Think 'deal,' guys! Think 'really, really good deal!'" she exhorts her colleagues at the party.

Though agent-to-agent events are fairly common, they're usually considerably less elaborate than this. Frumentino estimates she's personally spending $1,500 this night. Other costs are being born by a mortgage company, as is the luxury-properties arm of her brokerage, Koenig & Strey GMAC.

"At a big party, you might spend $10,000 by the time you pay for the valet parking, the piano player, the wine," Frumentino estimates. "That's why I like the idea of partnering with other companies."

Charity fund-raisers are often the ostensible reason for agents to host big bashes. The substantial cost of the ticket usually ensures that attendees are at least nominally within the pool of potential buyers, or that they know someone who is. It also makes it easier to "partner-up" with other firms.

"Maybe you could do a special event on a waterfront property," explains Moore-Moore, citing an example from many she has heard about.

"You could create a theme party tied to the waterfront lifestyle. You might get a boat broker to bring in a yacht and park it at their dock. An upscale boutique could come in and do a fashion show that relates to the boating life."

The yacht broker would invite his A-list clients. The wine supplier would offer the list of his best customers. A local luxury-car dealership, which has invited its repeat buyers, might be recruited to park the guests' cars, Moore-Moore suggests.

Agents who host these affairs say that for security reasons, they're usually -- but not always-- held in unoccupied houses.

Linda Feinstein, of ERA Jensen & Feinstein in Hinsdale, says she gives an average of five marketing parties a year, almost always in high-end spec homes being sold by builders.

"Typically, I go to a printer and get some very nice invitations made up. I send them to people who live in the neighborhood, as well as to a selected mailing list of potential buyers," she says.

But sometimes, on the day of the party, she also advertises in publications that typically have a more affluent readership.

"I've had anywhere from 50 to 300 people," Feinstein says. "The affair is catered, and we usually have lavishly appointed flowers in the house, and finger foods, cheeses and desserts.

"It's a different spin on the open house, a different way to get people in," she says. "I tend not to serve alcohol. I stick to sparkling waters."

Feinstein says she typically spends $3,000 to $4,000. Does it work?

"Do you mean, has it sold a house for me? No, it hasn't," she says. "But it has worked in the sense that the seller is very pleased. More people were exposed to the house than would otherwise have seen it. They tell their friends about it. It does increase the showings."

Nor has Frumentino sold a home as a direct result of a party -- that she knows of.

"You never know. Does the advertising work, does the charity event work?" she says. "We did get an offer within three days of a party, but the negotiations fell apart."

Frumentino looked around at her fellow agents as some of leaned forward to inspect a mantelpiece frieze depicting Adam and Eve.

"Hey, I could spend $1,500 for one high-end magazine ad for the house, and not get this response."

© 2004, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.