Strategic Residential Marketing

Once again the news media has been filled with stories of the inappropriate word choices that people make, reiterating the need for political correctness and sensitivity.  The Daily Show featured an amusing satirical debate last week on which was worse, the “R” word or the “N” word, and suggested that in today’s stressful environment  people may more often choose words poorly.  In my opinion, the media has got it all wrong.  The only word that really matters is the “H” word.

I got out of bed early this morning as usual and, after completing my shower and other necessary morning rituals, went to wake my wife.  She wanted a few minutes extra in bed so I went into my office and began to read my email.  When I returned after 30 minutes to provide my wife’s second wake-up, I sang her the Nestles’ good morning song which prompted her question of “why was I in such a good mood?”  Without a moment’s hesitation I responded that “it was such a pleasure to see her each morning that it always put me in a good mood.”  Fortunately I was alert and my brain was functioning at that hour as it seems that this was the correct answer.  

After a moment’s thought I realized that I am almost always in a good mood because I am happy (the “H” word) and, even though I am not regarded as the greatest motivational speaker, I wanted to share my analysis of why this is true in the hope that one or more of my readers will find some benefit. 

I am feeling the effects of the economy and the current housing market like anyone else and I am seeing the stress which appears to permeate all of our society.  My business is slower than I would wish and while I am not hurting financially, I am feeling slightly “pinched” as I have responsibilities that I had not anticipated within my personal economic plan. But while several of the factors in my life are certainly not optimal, they do not come even close to negating all of the very positive elements. 

I have been married to the same wonderful person for 40 years.  My wife and I and our families are in good health, even, for the most part, our three “senior women” for whom we are responsible, although two require full-time live-in caregivers.  While there is the unanticipated financial responsibility of the caregivers, we are fortunate in that we have my mother (age 96), my wife’s aunt (age 92) and my mother-in-law (age 90) still with us to share in their love. 

We have two wonderful sons, one fabulous daughter-in-law (hopefully another in the near future) and two amazing grandsons who provide us joy every day.  My wife and I have successful careers that continually stimulate us, challenge us mentally, provide us opportunities to serve within our industries and community, and we are fortunate to have earned the respect of our colleagues and business associates.  And we have good friends to share in our lives.

So I was very happy that I had, in fact, awakened that morning, happy with who I am and what I have accomplished, happy to be married to my wife and happy with my life.  My life is not perfect but on balance it is far, far better than just good.  And I believe that is also true for the great majority of the people in this country and is the only message that needs to get out today, tomorrow and every day, especially to every member of the homebuilding industry.  Our lives are good and we should be happy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today was the primary election in Florida.  This year was unusually tawdry even for Florida politics, pitting what in my opinion is arguably the most unqualified and dishonest group of politicians in both parties against each other in the dirtiest ever senatorial and gubernatorial primary races, a remarkable accomplishment for a state which excels at political incompetence and mud-slinging.  As I was leaving breakfast that morning I noticed a large assemblage of crows in the parking lot of the restaurant and mentioned to my wife how appropriate that was – a murder of crows gathering on the morning of the death of political honesty.

Driving home I thought about the oddities of the English language in that there are so many different collective nouns that all mean “group” but which are specific to the particular thing described, some of the most colorful and appropriate in addition to “murder of crows” being:  army of ants, wake of buzzards, congregation of crocodiles, tower of giraffes, horde of hamsters, crash of hippopotami, charm of hummingbirds, leap of leopards, plague of locusts and ambush of tigers. 

I came to the conclusion that we need such a specific descriptive noun to apply to homebuilders. So I offer for your consideration the following:  “a boondoggle of builders”.  Try it yourself at the next meeting of your homebuilders association and let me know if you see a fit.  Read the rest of this entry »

“When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going” is a saying attributed to Joan W. Donaldson as well as a popular song originally recorded by Billy Ocean and used as the theme song for the film, The Jewel of the Nile.  I believe that this is now truer than ever for everyone in the homebuilding industry.

Most of the housing markets across the country have reached bottom and are now ready to begin a slow but steady recovery. Household formations are still lagging due to the lack of meaningful employment growth but population growth is continuing at strong levels and will return our industry to health and over 1,500,000 annual housing starts nationally by the end of the decade. 

Things are certainly still tough out there in many places and it may still be as long as three to four years before we see the meaningful signs of a housing recovery in our own markets that will start to “naturally” return our levels of new home sales and our incomes to the levels that we enjoyed just a few years ago. 

Last week a salesperson at a development that I was shopping complained that traffic had slowed considerably since the tax credit ended and she was not selling any homes.  A prospective homebuilder client with whom I have been in contact for several years told me this week that the market was slow and he had decided to “just wait it out”.  And a developer client informed me yesterday that he was not “giving away” his homesites and would just hold on the best that he could until the market returns.

Inaction is simply not a solution; it is a self-fulfilling prophesy for failure. Read the rest of this entry »