Wanted: real estate buyer. Reward: $100,000.

In a grim real estate market where homebuilders and sellers across the nation are offering incentives from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to widescreen TVs, a Hawai'i couple is upping the ante by offering a $100,000 bounty to anyone who can locate a buyer or two.

David Bangert and Linda Harris of Kailua listed their two high-end Hawai'i properties on the market about five months ago with real estate agents, but amid a declining market and lackluster response, they recently decided to include a $100,000 reward for each property in hopes of locating a buyer soon.

"It's definitely worth it to speed up the process for us because we would like to have it over with," said the 62-year-old Harris, who wants to retire.

The couple's first property is a 2,500-square-foot, four-bedroom home on a 35,000-square-foot oceanfront lot in Hau'ula. It's listed for $1.7 million, down from the initial $2.3 million.

The second is a 38-acre undeveloped parcel near the ocean in the Kea'au area of the Big Island for $1.2 million.

"We've had some bites, (but) at this point in time in the real estate world, it's not whether people want it," Harris said, "it's whether they can finance it."

She said the $100,000 reward would be paid out by escrow during closing if a property is sold for the list price. If it sells for lower than the asking price, the reward would be 3 percent of the selling price. For example, if the home sells for $1.6 million, the reward would end up being $48,000.

The couple is willing to put up the cash, despite having licensed professionals already trying to sell their properties. They are still willing, and required, to pay commissions to the agents.

"With a bounty, I can put it out to the world and have an army of bounty hunters looking for a buyer," Harris said.

Harris got the idea when she worked in Europe and the Middle East in the 1970s. It was her job to track down everything from prized cloth to 5,000 tons of paper to be used as currency for the Bank of Greece. She described it as "treasure hunting."

She and her husband, both with doctorates from Harvard, teach business strategy and policy, entrepreneurship and leadership at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's business college. They first mentioned the bounty a few weeks ago to their friends, colleagues and MBA students. One hopeful "bounty hunter" has since created a Web site advertising the properties.

The prized referral fee was first reported as a blurb in a neighborhood column in Midweek, the free weekly newspaper.

Harris believes the offer is legal under Hawai'i law, so long as the bounty is collected by someone who is not a real estate agent.

The state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs said it was the first time it had heard of such an offer and urged all parties to check with an attorney to make sure it doesn't violate laws.

Bounty hunters must register with the couple before submitting their potential buyers.

"They can't just call us with a telephone book. It has to be somebody that's going to look at the property," Harris said.