Why haven’t the “old school” new home sales offices died?  Did the people in charge not notice that the consumer from the 60’s is not the same as the consumer of today?

Back in the old days, it was easy to impress a visitor. Put some fancy renderings on the wall, create a mini version of the neighborhood on a tall coffee table and hand out a professional brochure.

But today’s consumer is savvy.  Very savvy!  They communicate with all their friends instantly on digital smart phones.  They plan their vacations online in minutes.  And their cars have communication tools built-in too!

This consumer knows how to communicate efficiently, and more importantly, expects to.  If this is true, why have so few builders taken advantage of new technology to communicate their neighborhood design and features with their visitors?  Are they afraid?  Is the new home sales office just not the place for technology?

Yes, most of them are now using the web to reach out, but what about the point of sale?  Are they missing something, or am I?

What do you think?

After returning from the Middle East a couple weeks ago, and again just a couple months before that, I had some time to reflect on my visit to Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and have some quick observations as it relates to the real estate market.

One, the market in the Middle East like ours here in the US has slowed quite a bit, but a few areas of activity do still exist.  The Doha area in Qatar is very active with new projects, with the flagship project called “The Pearl” already delivering residential units and building up their Marinas for slip delivery soon.

Two, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a number of large scale projects moving through the planning stage and due to start marketing very soon, in particular are the 4 major economic cities called King Abdullah Economic City, Knowledge Economic City, Jazan Economic City and Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mousaed Economic City       .

Three, the Abu Dhabi has a few active areas of development, one of them being Saadiyat Island and seemingly on a track to be a huge success with a number of active large scale residential and commercial developments in the planning and construction phase.

With the global economic recovery in mid stride, I look forward to following the progress on a global stage and will eagerly await the completion of many real estate projects still on the books for completion in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.  It will be interesting when I visit again in a few months to see how the recovery has affected new real estate development and construction and in particular the capital markets in the Middle East.

You read about this stuff all the time. Interactive sales tools for the sales office point of sale. Do they really work? Do they really build rapport between the buyer and seller? Do they really get prospects fully engaged with the sales staff? Do they really help buyers understand the different floor plans, floor plan options and home site location and availability?

As a builder, you invest a lot of time and money in the latest high tech gadgetry hoping that it will help your sales people connect with prospects and convert them to buyers, but how do you know if it’s really working?

Just ask a sales person or sales manager who has figured out how to integrate the technology into their sales presentation and they will tell you that it works and some!

Here is a direct quote from a Focus 360 client who is using our Interactive Sales Center (ISC) tools for a high-end apartment community in Rancho Cucamonga, CA:

“We are really loving the Focus 360 Interactive Sales Center applications.  It has been a great rapport builder for the leasing staff during the leasing process.  It has really helped us to narrow down floor plans for prospective residents and create the urgency to lease when we pull up the availability map.  It is also something prospects and residents have not seen before which gets them interested and seems to hold their attention and really get them involved.  The interactive piece is huge and having the prospect/resident be able to navigate through the maps and features has been great as well.  Overall our experience so far has been great.”

Brittany Whiteman
Leasing Manager
Homecoming at Terra Vista Apartments
Lewis Apartment Communities

It’s Monday afternoon and I am finalizing my preparations for PCBC.  You know, making sure I have enough business cards, checking the flight time and reviewing our exhibit check list.

This will be the 20th year of Focus 360 exhibiting in San Francisco and boy have things changed over the years!  I won’t get into the what and how but suffice it to say, with all that has happened to our industry in these last couple years alone, I am really looking forward to a positive show.

We will be exhibiting in booth1824 in the South Hall and as I mentioned in my previous post, we will be unveiling our newest Value Line product, the Interactive Sales Center app.  Of course, we will also be sharing our latest and greatest renderings, animations and interactive apps so if you’re in San Francisco for the show, be sure to stop by and say hi.

I am excited to tell you that next week, during the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in San Francisco, we will introduce our newest addition to our Value Line product mix: The Interactive Sales Center App!

This suite of tools will modernize your sales office while engaging, educating and converting your prospects.  Each module comes from our award winning set of sales office presentation tools that have been enhanced to save you money.  Start with just the interactive site plan for under $2k or leverage all the modules including the interactive floor plans and virtual model homes for a 3 plan community for under $20k, including the brochure art AND renderings.

If you would like to learn more, click this link to view the data sheet.  Or, you can call me for an online demonstration at 800.490.1621 extension 115.

For more information on all of our Value Line products, visit www.focus360.com/valueline

If you plan to attend PCBC, be sure to stop by our booth number 1824.

I generally don’t get caught up in the annual ritual of “Spring Cleaning” but this year it’s a bit different.  We migrated our studio from one side of our building to another in order to make room for a new tenant and in the process experienced the mother of all spring cleanings!

We’re talking over 20 years of collecting material samples, blue prints, spec sheets and desk accessories.  Then you add in furniture and equipment that is no longer functional like old computers, peripherals like a vintage DVD player, CRT’s (the tube type monitor’s) and miscellaneous cables of all types.  By the way, it’s pretty scary how much dust can accumulate behind your monitor!

If that wasn’t enough, we hosed out our rather large warehouse of all the stuff we all knew we would need “someday”.  Important things like old gym equipment, outdated brochures, parts for God knows what, even a trebuchet.

And in the end, we hauled away to the dump and the recyclers over 3 tons of stuff!!! (that’s not an exaggeration, we had to weigh it!)

So now, we are in our new studio having shed “tons” of stuff and feeling efficient and streamlined!  And don’t forget, next time you visit our office, park on the other side of the building.  It will save you from an unexpected walk!

-Cheers

Focus 360 is pleased to announce a strategic alliance with First Release Homes Inc. Together our companies will offer a new service that will revolutionize traditional new home sales and marketing by providing cutting edge 3D internet technologies Powered by Focus 360, via a unique online Virtual Purchasing Services. First Release Homes and Focus 360 recently contracted with a San Francisco Builder on a $35 million project in Sacramento (www.thewarrensacramento.com) and will be launching this cutting edge technology in the summer of 2010.

The Problem:

Homebuilders and developers nationwide are faced with many challenges and risks in today’s market.  Financing, either in the form of buyer mortgages or project construction financing, is difficult to obtain, with high levels of pre-sales required by lenders just to begin the underwriting process. The longer a project takes to sell-out, the less profitable that project becomes due to carrying costs.  In today’s tighter market for investment equity and debt financing, these cost could be hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars per month.

The Solution:

First Release Homes, Inc. Powered by Focus 360 is launching a new service for builders that accelerate sales through a new online platform and reduces builder’s sales and marketing budgets significantly, utilizing various technological tools to create buyer urgency to take action. First Release Homes has developed unique “virtual” auction tools that generate the same buzz and excitement found at a live auction.  Through this high-tech process, builders benefit by reducing both direct selling and carrying costs significantly.

The Benefit:

Homebuyers will be able to accomplish virtually everything they now do in person when purchasing a pre-constructed new home. They will be able to select a community based on their own criteria, see the community overview video, select an home, take a virtual tour of the interior, see the approx. view from the unit, select finish options and chat live with an agent to have questions answered instantly. The “buy direct from the builder and save” offering will empower buyers with the ability to virtually view, analyze, reserve and ultimately purchase their unit of choice the moment new home developments are released for sale through the Virtual Purchasing Service.

Sometimes you come across a music video that is so visually stunning and interesting that you just can’t stop yourself from watching it. This is one of those videos and I highly recommend you watch it strictly for its entertainment value.

It’s by an artist named Oren Lavie and called “Her Morning Elegance”.

You may have seen a piece of the video on TV as part of a Chevrolet commercial in the last year.  I can only imagine how much pre-production and how long it must have taken to film this.  Just brilliant!

Enjoy!

Did you know that a typical 2500 square foot model home produces approx. 35,000 lbs of CO₂ per year? So for a typical model complex of 3 model homes, you’re talking about a carbon footprint of approx. 100,000 lbs of CO₂ per year! And that’s just for one community! So what if a builder/developer builds say 5 – 15 new communities per year and decks them all out with a full set of models like so many of them do? Are all those physical models really necessary in order to sell their homes??

What if a builder could sell just as many homes (or more) with one or maybe two physical models and use computer generated Virtual Models Home Tours to demonstrate their other plans?

There are many builders and developers who build condominium and townhome communities and sell without model homes all of the time. In most cases they have to before they can finance their construction loans. Many of the banks require 25-50% of the units in a building to be pre-sold before they will lend. Keep in mind these builders have to pre-sell for 6 months to 2 years during construction depending on the size and height of the building. So if they can do it, why can’t a suburban builder? Especially with the Virtual Model Home Tours available today!

Sure, professionally decorated physical models are impressive and emotionally evoking, (a lot more costly, not to mention the carry costs and maintenance), but if a buyer can still “see” and “feel” the quality of construction and features of a builder’s homes with fewer models, isn’t that better for the environment?

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I think builders have done a fantastic job of building greener homes and becoming environmentally aware of their impact on the planet, but this idea just seems so obvious.

You would think if a builder is truly committed to “going green” and helping to reduce their overall carbon footprint they would take advantage of the technology by using more Virtual Model Home Tours and build fewer physical models. Ok, I’m a little biased, but it’s just my opinion…

The phrase “economic indicator” has become immensely popular as folks look to understand where our economy is heading and, more importantly, has the “great recession” ended.  Leading indicators like building permits, initial jobless claims and manufacturers orders are watched intently with hopes for a positive change that would signal the beginning of a recovery.

At Focus 360, we have similar indicators that I will call “virtual economic indicators”.  For example, when we are coming out of a slow economic period, we at Focus 360 tend to see an increase in projects that require virtual tools to expedite the planning and approval process.  If the economy is humming along, we see a diverse mix of virtual requirements including planning, sales and marketing tools like 3d renderings and 3d animations.  Finally, when the market is at its peak, we tend to see an increase in virtual tools for marketing and selling affordable high-density projects like podium mixed-use buildings and high-rise condominiums.

So it is in that spirit that I can report to you my non-statistical, semi-quantifiable, really just gut level Q1 results:  We are experiencing a continued increase in visual analysis, 3d architectural renderings and 3d architectural animations for the planning process.  In addition, we are seeing a dramatic increase in projects that require sales and marketing tools such as virtual model homes.

So, based on my experience, it seems as though we have reached the bottom of an economic cycle and are seeing the initial stages of a recovery.  The real question now is can it be sustained?  What are your thoughts?