We’re following up from our post on March 11

The hope was there would be a surge, and there was. Home sales were up 6.8%, thanks to the looming tax credit expiration. It didn’t hurt that we also had unseasonably warm weather and slumping home prices.

Bottom line: people are buying homes. That’s a good thing – the housing market is finally stabilizing! Or is it?

The real test will be what happens later this year, when the closings associated with the tax credit start to wane. (People who have written agreements by April 30 can still close as late as June 30.)

Time to take off the training wheels and see how our post-apocalyptic real estate industry can ride on its own.

Will it be wobbly? Yes. Will it be interesting? You bet. We’ll be keeping you posted, right here. And if you need a real estate consultant or marketer during these interesting times, you know where to find us.

We’re free to listen and bounce ideas around any time. Tell us your story. You’re not alone. We can help. This year, the spoils go to the victor. We want that victor to be YOU.

Garrison Insider

LakeBluffCondos.com had been featuring the same pictures – both interior and exterior – for two years. The site’s color scheme had been changed in an attempt to give the project a fresher feel, but it wasn’t enough to improve the low registration count.

Finally, action was taken, the website was given a complete overhaul with a new layout, and most importantly, new photos. Registrations soared.

Constant updates have constant upside. In real estate, the story is always changing. Prices and trends change. The weather changes, the atmosphere changes, the competition changes.

A living, breathing site reflects these changes and tells a more relevant story about a given product. At the very least, start with the product – package it as today’s product, not something from two years ago.

Start with seasonal updates. Don’t show snow on the ground in summer. Let viewers regard the project, and the team marketing it, as vibrant and current.

Exploit your updates by spreading the word via Twitter, email and your blog. Call it out loud and clear on your home page. Write a press release. Give everyone an exciting new reason to take another look.

Budget is no excuse. Take new pictures with your phone if you have to. Today, the importance of immediacy trumps the importance of gloss. It’s a Facebook world.

Give your website the facelift it needs. It’s one of the simplest ways to give your sales board the lift it needs.

– Garrison Insider

Many of the sound bites involve the accurate (but not-so-original) notion that the economy is bad…and it will be slow to recover.

I have respect for the experts quoted – their perspectives are valuable to all of us. But somehow the tenor of Rodkin’s compilation reminded me of how much my team and I bristle at the constant repackaging of negative information.

Exchanging factoids about just how “bad,” things are has become a guilty pleasure for many in real estate, and possibly an unproductive one.

Here’s one (I can’t resist):

There were fewer permits to build new homes in the eight-county metropolitan area this year than permits issued for Will County alone in 2005.

Wow. Another way to meditate on how “bad” things are – by way of comparing everything to Will County in ‘05. I could give you hundreds more like that – but I don’t see the point.

There’s nothing better than awareness. Knowledge is power. But when we obsessively gaze at things through the most disturbing lenses possible, we’re doing it to build a case for inaction, or to paint ourselves as victims. We’re venting when we should be invented. Here’s another:

In 2009…

…foreclosures, short sales, and bank-owned sales made up 40 percent of sales of single-family homes and 24 percent of condos…

Yikes! What do you DO with that information? (Aside from saying “yikes.”)

Here’s what you do: keep it productive. Let it guide your business decisions. Let it direct the relationships you forge with lenders. Let it lead you to new opportunities.

Don’t fall into the trap of using statistics to build a case for you to feel powerless. That’s the enemy of progress in real estate.

I saw a brilliant billboard on the Kennedy Expressway this week. It said: “Recession 101: Bill Gates started Microsoft during a recession.”

Amen to that. Try to see the tremendous opportunity between the lines. If you don’t, someone else sitting next to you at the forecast panel will.

There are opportunities, there are answers, there is hope. That’s the attitude that made ‘09 a fantastic year for Garrison Partners and our clients. It can work for you, too.

For concrete techniques to improve your outcome in 2010, read the new Garrison Insider entry slated for this Monday: “Top Five Ways To Make Your Lender Your Partner.”

GB

The NAHB has released data

2009 was a big year for small:

“The era of easy money is over. You really have to think before you go out and decide you need that five-bedroom, five-bath home,” said Rose Quint, the NAHB’s assistant vice president for survey research. “Couple that with the energy [cost] concerns of consumers today and I think we will continue this trend.”

It reminds me of another “small movement,” dating back to 1959: the Volkswagen Beetle. Smart marketing touted the financial, practical and image-related benefits of owning small. But there was nothing small about that marketing approach – it translated to big sales.

As marketers in real estate, it’s our job to turn this current real estate trend toward small into something big.

Like Volkswagen, we need to package “small,” and make it appealing. Real estate marketers have been doing this for years by using words like “cozy,” in advertisements. We have to go beyond that.

Today small means power. Small means ownership. Small means freedom. Small means lower carbon footprint. Small is nimble, sane, sensible. Small, in terms of living space, can have tremendous caché if we market it properly.

For some developers, building smaller homes means the hope of turning a profit on new construction – even in this economy, when standing inventory makes such a thing seem impossible. That’s a perfect example of turning the trend toward small into something big.

As marketers and real estate consultants, it’s not enough to merely embrace the trend. We have to harness its power and translate it into better products, smarter marketing and more sales. That’s exactly the kind of challenge we love at Garrison Partners.

Size may not matter as much right now. But sales still do.

GB

I’ll be in Las Vegas next week to coach a session entitled: How to Get Started in Developing Apartments and Condos, Pt. 4: Managing & Marketing, at the International Builders’ Show.

To read the details, click here.

Date: Thursday, January 21
Time: 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Location: North 259

The bottom line is that “getting started,” involves knowledge of marketing and management. (My forte.) That is, without these skill sets at the outset of your journey, you won’t get anywhere. So I’ll be discussing some of the basics.

WHY someone would want to get started in real estate development right now is another story. Whoever is teaching that course has their hands full.

In any case, what happens in Vegas will NOT stay in Vegas, it will be reported right here so check back. I’ll let you know what I learned at the show and share highlights on the blog.

Garry

…in order to overcome the market-rate anxiety of participating in the social experiment,” says Garry Benson, president of Chicago-based residential marketing firm Garrison Partners, which has worked on two other mixed-income projects near Cabrini-Green. “If you start off having to offer below-market value, when the market drops, you can’t drop your prices below your costs.

Last time I was in Crain’s, readers posted some rather spirited comments in reply. Here’s an example:

Garry Benson, are you insane?

I love questions like that. Which is why I responded with a blog post on December 7th. You can scroll down one entry, it’s my mini-manifesto on why things might, MIGHT, be turning around.

To read full Crain’s article on Cabrini Green bailout (if you’re in Chicago real estate, you probably should) click here.

Garry