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Denver Tour Turns Up Several Strong-Sellers

Boyce Thompson: Boyce On Building

Boyce Thompson is editorial director of the BUILDER group of magazines published by Hanley Wood. Drawing on his years of experience covering home building, architecture, and retailing, Boyce tackles diverse and far-ranging industry topics in his twice-weekly blog.

Dan Nickless stole the show at our Denver housing market briefing this fall. After the moderator revealed that the Ryland president had sold 35 homes in the first 60 days since opening Steel Ranch in Lewisville, Colo., everyone wanted to know: How did he do it?
 
Ted Cushman

Rx for the Foreclosed-Homes Glut: Bulk Sales to Big Landlords?

Ted Cushman: The Ten-Penny News

Ted Cushman covers the home building industry as a freelance writer from his base in the hills of Western Massachusetts. His blog promises insightful, accurate, and practical coverage of home building techniques, building science, and housing economics.

I have something interesting in my in-box this morning: a mailing from John Burns Real Estate Consulting taking a look at how this country should handle the huge mass of foreclosed homes that is dragging down the real estate market, and killing the homebuilding industry. Burns has an interesting take, and it reminded me to look back at what I've written in the past on this topic.
 
 
Mollie Elkman (crop)

Builders, NOW you can SUCCESSFULLY compete against re-sale!

Mollie Elkman: Modern Marketing

Mollie is Vice President of Group Two Real Estate Marketing and Advertising, one of the largest homebuilder marketing and advertising agencies in the United States. Mollie¹s blog focuses on initiating thought provoking conversations within the building industry. She focuses on new and controversial trends in the increasingly Internet savvy world we live in.

Introducing a unique competitive advantage . . .
 
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Green Thoughts

Chuck Shinn: Rx from the Profit Doctor

Charles C. Shinn, Jr., PhD, often referred to as the Profit Doctor, is the founder of the Shinn Group of Cos., The Lee Evans Group, and Builder Partnerships. His constant focus is to help builders and manufacturers to improve the performance of their companies, enhance relationships, and ultimately maximize their total profits.

In order to maximize sales, rediscover profits, and work toward the goal of 100% customer satisfaction, all of us are striving to find the ideal balance between: Product Differentiation, Target Marketing, Sales Management, Cost Control, Professional Advice and Planning Support. One way to do this is to incorporate strong corporate continuity while using various nationally recognized home features associated with Green construction.
 
 
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Bad Hustle, Good Hustle

Tim Garrison: The Builder's Engineer

Tim Garrison, the Builder's Engineer(tm), is the president of ConstructionCalc Software, Inc. He is the author of four books, including, Green Framing, An Advanced Framing How-To Guide. Tim stays current with industry trends as a practicing professional engineer.

In Mexico everyone hustles. Not in the sense of hurrying, but rather in the sense of, "Ai, amigo, special price for ju today! Everything half off! I gonna sell you this hand-carved coconut head for just 500 pesos. Niiice, eh amigo?"
 
Mark Hodges

Introducing the Darwin Award

Mark Hodges: On Strategy

Mark Hodges is Principal of Blueprint Strategic Consulting, helping homebuilders plan for growth by facilitating strategic planning, helping to define core company objectives and create action plans needed to enable success, and developing the organizational mechanisms to ensure alignment at all levels.

I have an idea for a new award for the homebuilding industry – the Darwin Award. It would be presented to any homebuilder (or company that depends on homebuilding for its existence) that is still in business today. Sure, that’s quite a few companies, but a damned sight fewer than existed a few short years ago.
 
 
Jane Meagher

Do Your Models Support or Sabotage Your Commitment to Personalization?

Jane Meagher: Think Like A Consumer, Act Like A Retailer

Jane Meagher is President of Success Strategies, the nation’s premier design studio strategy, training, and consulting company, and the creator of many national award-winning design studios. Jane shares insights from working with leading builders in over 30 states and Canada, through extensive studies of consumer shopping behavior and retail-based on-site presentation, and from over 20 years experience in new home sales and marketing.

Do your model homes strategically showcase the Included Features (hopefully you are not calling these “standards”) and Available Personal Choices (hopefully you are not calling these “upgrades”) and properly prompt and prepare your buyers for a fulfilling and enjoyable design studio/home personalization experience? Or do your models waste this valuable opportunity to set proper expectations for how “personalization” works in your company and to reinforce a major point of differentiation between you and your competition?
 
Mary Lou Denny

Why Companies "Like" Facebook as an Ad Platform

Mary Lou Denny: Educating The Trade

Mary Lou Denny, co-founder and executive vice president, heads the public relation division of Walt Denny Inc., an advertising and public relations agency in Hinsdale, Illinois. She and her husband Walt, started the agency twenty years ago based on the credo to provide creative marketing solutions, combined with a high value on personal relationships and accountability.

Over 800 million people worldwide visit Facebook each month to connect with friends and family, and share information about themselves through their social network. For many progressive businesses, the use of social networking has become standard practice for developing meaningful relationships with an active and attentive online audience.
 
 
Al Trellis

When Truisms Collide

Al Trellis: Ask Al

Al Trellis, the president of Home Builders Network in Mount Airy, MD, has over 35 years experience as a custom builder, engineer, consultant, columnist, and speaker. He’s known for his creativity and insights into improving profits and productivity.

Recently I had dinner with a nationally known speaker, whose work is completely outside the homebuilding industry. He mentioned that one of his commencement presentations focused on the theme of “The Good is the Enemy of the Best.” I responded by saying that I often talk about “The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good.”
 
Paul Cardis

The Market Dodged a Bullet, but Another is Coming

Housing Pulse with Paul Cardis

AVID Ratings is a full-service customer loyalty management firm, providing enterprise-level surveys, organizational strategies, employee training, and proprietary solutions that create delighted customers and drive increased profitability. Working with AVID means going beyond just surveys, it means solutions that significantly improve the bottom line.

June, to me, always meant the end of the school year. You took final exams and tried to prove to the teacher or professor what you had learned from your coursework. Before the summer starts in earnest, I thought that it would be a good idea to write down 10 things I think I have learned from this prolonged real estate downturn. It is kind of like my own final exam.
 
 
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Green Building Success Requires Proper Execution: Education and Customer Service are Critical

Patrick Duffy: The Housing Chronicles

Patrick Duffy has consulted for nearly 20 years for the country's leading home builders, land developers, investors, and lenders on residential, mixed-use, commercial, and industrial projects. An expert on local housing markets, Duffy offers his thoughts on what’s happening around the country.

For the building industry, given the complexity of marketing, merchandising and selling the benefits of sustainability and green technology, education during the sales process and customer service after the closing are critical components that not all builders provide.
 
 

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