Many of you read my post this week about having the opportunity to bid on staging a custom builder's model. In preparation, I took some time to walk through other model homes in the area. I'll call it "checking out the competition!"
As I was standing in a model talking to a sales agent, I suddenly realized I was shaking hands and talking to someone who desperately needs my services! Did the builder's agent have a home to stage? No. But she has buyers with contracts to purchase the homes she sells and those buyers can't close the deal until their current home sells! That builder is so lucky I walked in the door, I can make his or her life a whole lot easier and more profitable.
Every week I read the real estate section and marvel over the incentives that big builders are offering buyers. Big screen TV's, college tuition for their children, paying the first six months of mortgage payments. . .the incentives are endless. They should really offer a valuable service like staging!
I can help the buyer sell his or her home faster and for more money, freeing them to move into that fabulous new home. Isn't that an incentive worth offering! Home I went to plan my attack.
Ironically enough, during a google search to check my website rankings for the week, I stumbled across an interesting article published by the Chicago Sun Times highlighting the top 50 builders of 2006. Check out what #5 is up to.
5. Pulte Homes
$379.2* million, 1,200* closings
Pulte Homes has about 10 developments in the Chicago area. In the builder's south suburban division, single-family homes as well as town houses are available at Cedar Ridge in Lockport, Autumn Creek in Yorkville and Prescott Mill in Oswego. At Canterbury Woods in Plainfield, single-family homes begin at $301,990,
The north division of Pulte Homes recently announced a home staging program to help home buyers sell their existing home faster and at a higher price.
Pulte's preferred staging company is Order in the House Staging Services Inc. "One client's house was on the market for nine months before we performed a staging consultation. After our recommendations, the home was involved in a bidding war three weeks later -- and sold for more than the asking price," said Lorrie Witt, co-owner.
Incidentally, Pulte is the parent company for Del Webb Homes, a builder of developments for active-adults 55 and older. The home staging service is available for select Del Webb sites too. Del Webb is 14th in the 2006 Sun-Times survey.
Builders realize the value of Staging! Congratulations to the ladies who developed this alliance with Pulte! This opens the door to some fabulous opportunities for the rest of us. Has anyone else tapped this market?
I for one am going to spend some time developing marketing materials to present to the large home builders in my area! Hopefully I can "build" a profitable relationship with them.
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