Woodbury Junction Review: Lessons We Can All Learn About New Home Marketing
Posted Oct 7, 2007 @ 12:52 am, Viewed by 777 Visitors, Read 807 Times.
I was reading a blog entry about Woodbury Junction on Morgan Carey's blog and in the comments I found a piece written by Sid Cohen who apparently attended the private viewing event of Woodbury Junction in early September and had a very disappointing experience. See Sid Cohen's original comment below:
1) If there will be no model homes then be sure to make note of that while speaking with prospective home buyers. I've had numerous home buyers that I've met with who insisted on viewing communities with models only because they knew they couldn't buy off of the model floorplans alone. This is very important to home buyers and not communicating this fact effectively, whether accidental or intentional, will likely cost you their business and trust.
2) If you are selling a home in an area where new homes typically have higher property taxes than resale homes then be prepared with very good estimates from the local tax authority. Not having good estimates, or worse yet, any estimates, will make a potential home buyer think you didn't do your due diligence about your own product before offering it for sale. The northeast, especially the NYC suburbs, is notorious for high property taxes (new homes taxes in Orange County, NY typically range from $8,000 - $14,000 per year for a mid-price range home) so home buyers in an area like this will rank property taxes right up there with home price as an important purchasing factor.
3) Association fees are also very important and if you are offering a community of homes with two different fee structures, it is even more necessary to highlight the difference in price and the reason why it's structured that way. Woodbury Junction finds itself in the unique position of being a "multigenerational" community where a portion of the community is active adult housing only and the rest of the community is all-ages resulting in two different HOA fee prices. I've seen Homeowner's Association (HOA) fees ranging from $50 all the way up to $500 per month in other communities so this becomes another factor in deciding if a HOA community is a good fit for the home buyer.
During my visit to Woodbury Junction I thought the presentation overall was fair given what material the salespeople had to work with. Keep in mind that it was still a private viewing event and not technically "open to the public" (even though anyone could register on the website and visit the community shortly thereafter) but there were a couple things that I felt created a difficult buying environment for home buyers which brings me to my next thoughts:
4) Who were all those people sitting around in the entry area? The entire sales center is currently set up in a strip mall while the on-site sales area is constructed. I would estimate that the space being used as the sales center was approximately 1,300 sq.ft. - 1,700 sq.ft. and it was laid out with a desk and chairs in the front, a map of the community and active adult homes display in the middle, corner display of the active adult virtual walkthroughs in the back and an upgrades/options setup in the far back of the office. As soon as you walked in you were to the right of the front desk with chairs and there were about 4-5 people sitting there but I'm not quite sure why. They didn't appear to be home buyers but I'm not sure they worked as salespeople of Woodbury Junction since I didn't see them assist anyone. They just sat there and stared at people and talked a little. I'm sure potential home buyers were also curious to know who these people were but it may be something I'll never know the purpose behind.
Lesson: If they are not there to help sell the community then they do not belong in the sales office. Stray people, whether friends, family or sales associates on break, become a distraction by visibly sitting idly. Keep only the essential sales force in view of home buyers. K. Hovnanian does an excellent job of this at The Grove at New Windsor.
5) Do not open the community up to prospective home buyers, even in the form of a "private viewing event", until you have your final models and floorplans for the community chosen. Home buyers only have one first impression and in a market where communities are plentiful, they have their choice in what makes the short list and what doesn't. One big mistake I found at Woodbury Junction's private viewing event was the lack of all-ages home elevations or floorplans. In fact, the only floorplans handed out for the all-ages side were conceptual in nature and there were no elevations available on the day I visited. This may lead to the home buyer thinking you are unprepared and with all ages home prices expected to start from the low $500s there is little margin for error or unpreparedness.
Overall I would give their initial effort to market this community a B- because there were a few, what I feel are obvious, steps that should have been taken to tie up any loose ends in the presentation. The Carteret Group, the builder behind Woodbury Junction, is also responsible for most of Brigadoon which is a gorgeous community nearing completion and because of their legacy I feel they will do well with Woodbury Junction. At the same time and given their experience, I feel they should have done better initially. You live, you learn.
Although this is certainly a scathing review of Woodbury Junction by a potential home buyer but I think there is a lot that we can all learn from this about how to manage new home/community open houses."I was at the Woodbury Junction opening in september and was prepared to make a purchase. It was the worst presentation I have ever witnessed. No actual models, no info on taxes or association fees untill I asked and they weren't sure about those. All and alll not a very professional operation."
1) If there will be no model homes then be sure to make note of that while speaking with prospective home buyers. I've had numerous home buyers that I've met with who insisted on viewing communities with models only because they knew they couldn't buy off of the model floorplans alone. This is very important to home buyers and not communicating this fact effectively, whether accidental or intentional, will likely cost you their business and trust.
2) If you are selling a home in an area where new homes typically have higher property taxes than resale homes then be prepared with very good estimates from the local tax authority. Not having good estimates, or worse yet, any estimates, will make a potential home buyer think you didn't do your due diligence about your own product before offering it for sale. The northeast, especially the NYC suburbs, is notorious for high property taxes (new homes taxes in Orange County, NY typically range from $8,000 - $14,000 per year for a mid-price range home) so home buyers in an area like this will rank property taxes right up there with home price as an important purchasing factor.
3) Association fees are also very important and if you are offering a community of homes with two different fee structures, it is even more necessary to highlight the difference in price and the reason why it's structured that way. Woodbury Junction finds itself in the unique position of being a "multigenerational" community where a portion of the community is active adult housing only and the rest of the community is all-ages resulting in two different HOA fee prices. I've seen Homeowner's Association (HOA) fees ranging from $50 all the way up to $500 per month in other communities so this becomes another factor in deciding if a HOA community is a good fit for the home buyer.
During my visit to Woodbury Junction I thought the presentation overall was fair given what material the salespeople had to work with. Keep in mind that it was still a private viewing event and not technically "open to the public" (even though anyone could register on the website and visit the community shortly thereafter) but there were a couple things that I felt created a difficult buying environment for home buyers which brings me to my next thoughts:
4) Who were all those people sitting around in the entry area? The entire sales center is currently set up in a strip mall while the on-site sales area is constructed. I would estimate that the space being used as the sales center was approximately 1,300 sq.ft. - 1,700 sq.ft. and it was laid out with a desk and chairs in the front, a map of the community and active adult homes display in the middle, corner display of the active adult virtual walkthroughs in the back and an upgrades/options setup in the far back of the office. As soon as you walked in you were to the right of the front desk with chairs and there were about 4-5 people sitting there but I'm not quite sure why. They didn't appear to be home buyers but I'm not sure they worked as salespeople of Woodbury Junction since I didn't see them assist anyone. They just sat there and stared at people and talked a little. I'm sure potential home buyers were also curious to know who these people were but it may be something I'll never know the purpose behind.
Lesson: If they are not there to help sell the community then they do not belong in the sales office. Stray people, whether friends, family or sales associates on break, become a distraction by visibly sitting idly. Keep only the essential sales force in view of home buyers. K. Hovnanian does an excellent job of this at The Grove at New Windsor.
5) Do not open the community up to prospective home buyers, even in the form of a "private viewing event", until you have your final models and floorplans for the community chosen. Home buyers only have one first impression and in a market where communities are plentiful, they have their choice in what makes the short list and what doesn't. One big mistake I found at Woodbury Junction's private viewing event was the lack of all-ages home elevations or floorplans. In fact, the only floorplans handed out for the all-ages side were conceptual in nature and there were no elevations available on the day I visited. This may lead to the home buyer thinking you are unprepared and with all ages home prices expected to start from the low $500s there is little margin for error or unpreparedness.
Overall I would give their initial effort to market this community a B- because there were a few, what I feel are obvious, steps that should have been taken to tie up any loose ends in the presentation. The Carteret Group, the builder behind Woodbury Junction, is also responsible for most of Brigadoon which is a gorgeous community nearing completion and because of their legacy I feel they will do well with Woodbury Junction. At the same time and given their experience, I feel they should have done better initially. You live, you learn.
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I am an associate broker with Keller Williams Realty that specializes in Orange County NY new homes and townhouses. I have recently earned my ABR (Accredited Buyer's Representative) designation in order to better serve my buyer clients. Read More
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