Take the Model Home Challenge

I haven't spent a lot of time walking model homes lately - honestly and sadly there really hasn't been any "buzz" out there that has guided me to any models. The exception to that rule I will admit is Holiday Builders which has captured my curiosity and their billboard made me get out there and see what's new.

The Dallas Ft. Worth area is a great area to buy a new home in, and there are lots of new communities that offer great values. When Holiday Builders had two grand openings in two weeks, I decided it was time to get out there and see what was going on.

This past weekend I traveled out to Ft. Worth to the opening of The Villages of Woodland Springs. Yes, billboards and radio do drive traffic - both of those let me know about the openings for Holiday Builders and encouraged me to drive out to the community. After setting my GPS and looking up the information on the opening on the Holiday website, I headed out.

Woodland Springs had at least 9 builders that had models in their community, and let me add that I was out visiting on a Saturday when Holiday Builders had done an extensive media campaign. Of the 6 builder's models that I visited, only 4 of them had sales people on site. The two that stood out were Holiday and LionsGate and honestly a lot of what set them apart was the knowledge and attitude of the sales team. If I was the competition I would have taken advantage of the money that the other builders spent on advertising and made sure that I was fully staffed and let people know I was there.

True story - I was looking at a spec home that was built by LionsGate and someone drove up and asked me if I was a Realtor®. I assured her that I wasn't, and she said that she had seen ads and was looking for someone to help her find a one story home to buy. I let her know how to identify models (flags) and hopefully she found the home of her dreams.

Back to the model home challenge... if you were a buyer could you tell / remember by the model who's home you were in and why you wanted to live in that community? Model homes should sell, and should be memory points for the builder and the community. I take a camera with me everywhere I go so if I don't remember something, hopefully I got a photo of it. When I looked back at the photos that I took in the Villages of Woodland Springs, sadly there was very little that referenced back to builders or the community, and from looking at the photos I have a hard time telling who is who.

How do your homes set you apart? Are your model home dollars truly capturing the buyers imagination and making them buy a home from you? I love success stories - let me know what has worked for you and I'd love to share it here.