Homebuilders get creative to woo buyers, Realtors

Southern Land Co. believes its Tucker Hill residential development in McKinney is so unique that eventually it will sell itself. Burdened with the realities of today’s soft housing market, however, company officials are pulling out the stops to increase foot traffic — and sales — in the sagging market.

“The idea is to get people here,” said Jim Cheney, vice president of corporate communications with Tennessee-based Southern Land. The company has used everything from community concerts to plane rides to reel in buyers.

Tucker Hill’s $248 million planned community broke ground in early 2007 on 800 acres zoned for 2,100 homes and amenities such as pools, walking trails, a dog park and other green spaces. Houses will range from $350,000 to more than a $1 million.

So far, there are 30 houses finished in Tucker Hill, with contracts on 10. The homes are close together, with small front yards, large front porches and garages along alleys in the back. It is an example of neo-urbanism, a pedestrian-friendly design style with a diverse range of housing. The 16 planned phases will take more than a decade to finish. Joe Rider, vice president of community development sales and marketing, said 75 to 100 houses will be started in 2009.
To help increase foot traffic through the neighborhood and promote a small-town feel, Tucker Hill gave away trees during a spring market attended by several hundred. And over Labor Day, the community sponsored Arts on the Lawn, which included music acts and entertainment and was attended by 900 people.

“These events allow us to give folks the vision of what the community will be like,” Rider said.
Kathy Self, operations manager for Arlington-based First Texas Homes, which has homes in 51 communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said that regardless of marketing strategies and promotions, buyers and banks are simply too conservative for much success in the current market.

“You can throw a big party out there, it’s not going to get people in,” Self said.

Margaret Pesnell, marketing director of Hillwood Residential, said the focus has shifted away from wooing buyers and more toward impressing Realtors. Hillwood recently flew two groups of Realtors to Costa Rica to promote property there for second homes. The company also has a 15-year-old incentive program in place, “which right now is more important than ever,” Pesnell said. A Realtor who sells two new homes is rewarded with a free trip.

“As important as these Realtors are to us all the time, we need to be in front of them even more,” Pesnell said.

David Brown, director of the Dallas-Fort Worth office of the housing market research firm MetroStudy, said Tucker Hill’s “unique product and design” will set it apart from other subdivisions.

“It’s a new type of concept for the D-FW market,” he said, adding that there are just a few other communities being built in the area with similar concepts. “To capture the buyer, they’re having to raise the bar and give them a reason to come to the community, other than just another house.”