Photo by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Marty Martin, owner of the interactive iREALESTATE kiosk at Valley View Mall, talks with real estate agent Jackie Boyd, who rents advertising space at the booth to talk with potential customers.

As the housing market continues its slump, Roanoke real estate agent Jackie Boyd is headed to where she knows people will spend their money -- the shopping mall.

Boyd, with Long & Foster in Roanoke, is in the market for face time with potential buyers, even if it's a harried mom toting hungry kids toward a slice of pizza.

Boyd is one of about 30 agents from 10 different firms who are supplementing traditional advertising with a little face time with Valley View Mall shoppers.

Boyd spends a few hours a month sitting at the kiosk, nestled between eateries and a book store inside the mall.

"You could come out here, see a house for a sale, talk to the agent here and write a purchase agreement on the spot," said Marty Martin, the local agent who brought the interactive real estate kiosk to Valley View Mall in August.

All this underscores the concerns of a real estate industry in which business as usual just isn't good enough right now. July home sales fell 1 percent from a year ago to 497 units sold in the Roanoke Valley and nearby communities.

This marked the fourth consecutive month that fewer homes changed hands than during the same month of 2006, according to the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors.

The kiosk is plastered with 8-by-10-inch back-lit graphics of homes for sale in the Roanoke Valley. Touchscreen computers allow passers-by to view homes for sale at the tip of a finger. A real estate agent sits behind an elevated desk below an iRealEstate logo.

It's an idea that was born out West and has had mixed results in a number of housing markets, causing some to speculate it might work in Roanoke.

"It sounds like a good idea, but real estate is one of those things when people need it they need it. When they go to a shopping mall they're usually there to go to shopping for something else," said Saul Klein, chairman of the Business Technology and Information Services forum with the National Association of Realtors. "So the idea of developing a lot of business off of a kiosk hasn't really panned out."

Klein, a real estate agent and business owner in California, said that the modern kiosk has evolved from the idea of one man who put up similar stations in drug stores in California. Although the original idea wasn't a success, the move sparked the creation of an online multiple listing service where agents could feature homes on a Web site.

That history, combined with the volatility of the market, might mean more hardships than successes for Martin.

But the former law firm marketing manager remains confident. Martin said that in just two weeks the kiosk has helped pay off start-up costs, such as the six computers at the station. And as with traditional realty, one agent can sell another agent's homes, so customers are not restricted to the homes for sale by the agent on duty.

Martin came up with the idea while browsing a North Carolina mall with his wife.

Martin rolled his eyes at the thought of the shopping trip but recalled a bright kiosk that really caught his attention.

He knew there was something missing from the collapsible ad station: a real estate agent.

So, after seven months of research, Martin gathered the more than $25,000 needed to buy a kiosk, created a selling plan and e-mailed real estate agents in the Roanoke Valley about the opportunity to sit and chat with potential customers at the mall.

Boyd, who has been in the business for six years, actually prefers sitting at the kiosk. The shifts are flexible, she said, and people walk by and see her face, not a photo in an advertising magazine.

"Even if I don't get any clients, my face is still being seen," Boyd said. "How many times do you put an ad on the TV show or the magazine and you never ever get a call?"

After a few shifts at the mall, Boyd, 48, said she has talked a lot of real estate with shoppers but hasn't had anyone interested in buying or selling a home.

Boyd has used the kiosk as a marketing tool, telling potential sellers that their home will be featured at Valley View.

Boyd said that the kiosk is much cheaper than traditional advertising, too. Boyd said it might cost her about $200 to advertise in a print publication for just three days. A yearlong block at the kiosk is $1,500, or $125 a month, plus the advertiser gets the chance to sit and chat with potential buyers. The annual commitment can also be split up for $525 for four months, which is still less than the $4,800 Martin estimated it costs to buy a full-page ad in a realty trade magazine.

And while some feel mall shoppers are looking for less extravagant buys, Martin said that a buying mood will help perpetuate interest.

Take David Hasty, who works at the nearby Sprint Nextel kiosk. Hasty and his wife are looking to downsize from their home off Orange Avenue. The 30-year-old pops over to the real estate kiosk on his lunch breaks. He likes the idea of not being tied to one agent. He and his wife have even driven by a small cottage for sale in Roanoke that he saw featured on the computer touch screen.

"It just makes it less stressful, low profile. I can come by here and take a peek at some things and find out what's out there, what's changed," Hasty said.

The kiosk has a special place among cellphone accessories and cheap sunglasses. But mall management said that it isn't rare to have houses in the midst of it all.

"I've seen little bit of everything out there, to be honest with you," said the mall's assistant general manager, Kendall Hurt. "Anything from gutter cleaning to college to model agencies. People just realized the value of being in the mall and attracting that customer when they are in that buying frame of mind."

Hurt said that she has tried for years to get real estate agents to advertise in the mall. She had one client take her up on the proposition a few years ago, but for only six months

Martin plans to stick around longer. He hopes to bring a kiosk to Tanglewood Mall, Smith Mountain Lake, the New River Valley and even Lynchburg. From there he might move north to Charlottesville or south to North Carolina, he said.

"Right now it's a novelty; people are really intrigued by it."