New Home Marketing: Put Walkability in Your Buyer's Sights

Did you happen to see the recent Builder article, How to Make a Home More Appealing to Millennial Buyers? Redfin's Whitney Bennett suggested several ways to make a home more Millennial friendly.

SalesTouch highlights your community's walkability!

In an earlier CPS Solutions blog (you can read it here), we mentioned the author's first sales/marketing point: Create an Open Floor Plan and highlighted how CPS' interactive touchscreen system, SalesTouch, with its mix/match floor plan and drag 'n drop furniture features helps buyers imagine and design their new home consistent with their interests.

Another Bennett suggestion is to Tout Your Community's Walkability.  What's particularly noteworthy about this idea is that the Boomer demographic is also becoming interested in the livability features associated with new urbanism and considering moves away from the suburbs.

SalesTouch is particularly effective in showing buyers that your community is "close to everything" of interest: shopping, dining, recreation, transportation. Interactive touchscreen systems are particularly good at narrowcasting -- allowing home shoppers to focus on those items of particular interest.  Are you an Arts and Culture fan? Just as easy to see the museums, concert venues and studios in the neighborhood!

One extra benefit of highlighting walkability: Bennett suggests each point on your community's walkability score can can increase a home's price by an additional $3,250!

Marketing Homes to Today's Millennial Buyers

There's a recent Builderonline article called How to Make a Home More Appealing to Millennial Buyers (you can read it here). 

Redfin's Whitney Bennett points out  the Millennial demographic makes up a large portion of the home buyer market and suggests several ways to be more Millennial-friendly in your marketing.

SalesTouch: Let buyers start creating their multi-functional living space!

We'll focus on Suggestion #1 and follow-up with others, soon: Create an Open Floor Plan.

Bennett (and the National Association of Realtors in 2014) says most younger buyers are interested in large, open spaces with fewer walls and partitions. Why? These buyers like entertaining in large spaces and are also interested in multi-functional rooms.

How to market that open floor plan? Let's look at a recent CPS SalesTouch installation at Cornerstone Homes' new Agave community in North County San Diego. You'll notice a great open first floor area -- along with the ability to interact with the floor plan and drag and drop furniture letting home shoppers dream and create their new living space!

Next on the Millennial wish list: walkability -- and according to Redfin.com's recent study, each point on the walkability score can increase home prices by an average of $3,250.  More to follow!

Homebuilder Vendor & Buyer Portals Improve Efficiency & Productivity

Are you familiar with the concept of a Portal -- sometimes referred to as a neutral platform in the cloud?

Portals provide users with the ability to view -- and sometimes update -- information developed by a variety of systems and managed by different organizations in a single location. Typically, they're accessible via the Internet and available, anytime/anywhere.

What can a construction Portal do for your organization, vendors and/or buyers? An effective Portal provides data access, governed by credentials, to all appropriate stakeholders.

Let's take a look at a real-world example: vendors log into CPS' FieldCollaborate Portal to view or print their construction schedules, punch items, and safety assessments.  In addition, they're able to view the latest builder documents and drawings.

Home buyers, on the other hand, log into the FieldCollaborate Portal and find their home's schedule as well as stage-of-construction photos.

If we consider just this set of participants, can you think of the reduced number of phone calls, faxes, emails and misunderstandings? Portals make the entire enterprise more efficient and productive!  Home buyers feel empowered and their satisfaction levels improve, as well.

Home builders use Portals to share information internally, as well.  What's more disruptive than having multiple sources for information?  A well-managed Portal provides the same information to everyone (governed by access credentials, of course) -- and it's all available anywhere, anytime via the cloud!

Might be Frightful Out but..Spring Selling Season is Just Around the Corner!

We have to admit: the weather outside -- whether you're on the East or West Coast -- doesn't exactly encourage getting out and doing home shopping this weekend.

Take this Dreary Weekend to Kick-off Spring!

But, that same weekend could be a great one for taking stock and kicking-off your Spring new home sales/marketing efforts.  Here are several ideas to start generating visits to your sales office and engaging home shoppers once they're there:

(1) Start Reaching Out to Realtors, Now -- We've talked about the value of co-op agents before (take a look at an earlier Solutions blog entry --  Builders, Co-Op Agents: Reaching the Asian Community.)

BuilderOnLine reports  Spring is the busiest season for Realtors and suggests offering incentives to make sure they spread the word about your community.  How about putting together a "Get Ready for Spring" Open House -- offering a "spa event" raffle for attendees?  Or, a "Wine & Cheese" evening with a case of your favorite?  Keep the buzz going: don't stop with one event!  If you start now (in dreary February), you'll be ahead of 90% of your competition!

Don't forget Realtors often focus on specific demographics -- relocations, ethnic or religious groups, 55+ buyers, etc.  Try reaching out to the demographic-centric agents, often.  They always will have a group of interested buyers available to visit your community -- provide them with a reason to stop by.

Get Interactive with Virtual Curb Appeal!

(2) A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words --- Mollie Elkman, a Philadelphia-based marketing expert, reminds us that pictures offer "virtual curb appeal."  Why not take one step further and Go Interactive with a touch screen system?

You'll start engaging prospects from the minute they step into your sales office and can continue the conversation with interactive floor plans, the ability to select and place furniture inside your homes and e-brochures.

Take your home shoppers "behind the walls" and visually talk about your location, amenities, and features.  Show them you're "in their location" and highlight what is available in the location or the great amenities provided by the HOA.

CPS offers software to help you zero in on the co-op agent community (that's CPS CRM) as well as SalesTouch, our interactive touchscreen system for both the large and small (think tablets) screen. We're here to help -- even when it's snowing and raining!