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-   -   Marketing to new homebuyers idea (http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4308)

Larry Foster August 26, 2007 08:16 AM

Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
I have seen the idea about marketing to new home buyers often.
This shows up here as a way to get a business to advertise with you.
Given the current state of the U.S. housing market, how many new home buyers are there?
The sub-prime market has totally collapsed. There is a large segment that can't buy a home now that could recently.
Home sales are around a 4 year low.
It may go lower.
This may or may not last.
My area is not typical. I'm rural in a fairly rural county. Few jobs and very few potential qualified buyers. They all left to find work elsewhere.
That leaves the businesses in my small town having to exist on what's already here.
I'm sure there are areas, especially in or near a lot of metro areas that there is still a lot of buyers.
But there's a lot that ain't.
How about some different ideas to sell businesses on working with us?
Thanks.
Larry Foster

bobmcalister August 26, 2007 04:57 PM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
thanks larry

but I dont exactly understand your question...want to rephrase it ?

bob

Sandi Bowman August 26, 2007 05:41 PM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
Larry, I read and re-read your post and it appears that you're assuming we have information we may not have. I, frankly, don't know what you want us to reply to. Help us so we can help you?

Sandi Bowman

Larry Foster August 26, 2007 10:21 PM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
Let me try again. Sorry for the confusion.
I have seen posts here that our hook to local businesses is that we will promote their business to new home buyers. Send postcards or get the business info into those hands.
Here's one by Unregistered
I have seen this idea a lot here.
Given that the number of new home buyers is decreasing rapidly due to the economy, is that still a good offer?
My point for my specific area is that wouldn't be worth a lot due to demographics. Few homebuyers.
What I was looking for was whether that offer of promoting their specific business to new home buyers was still a good incentive for a business to pay you to be on yoor website or whatever you are offering.
If not, do you have other ideas that would fit the current climate better?
Hope I was clearer.
And thanks as always.
Larry

Todd August 26, 2007 11:00 PM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
Home sales were actually up last month according to CNN Money. The new home inventory is still bigger than demand, but there are still a whole lot of homes being sold. There are less mortgages available to those with bad credit, but prices are a little lower in a lot of places, interest rates are great, and builders are offering unheard of incentives on inventory homes. This is a very smart time to buy (incredible deals here in the Phoenix area even though several thousand homes sell every month).

I don't know about your specific area however. If there are not a lot of home sales there then obviously marketing to buyers wouldn't do a lot of good.

Personally I'm trying to market to renters with decent credit to show what kind of incredible deals they can get right now should they decide to buy. It seems to be a lot like the stock market, everyone wants to buy when prices are climbing like crazy, then when there's a correction they get nervous and don't want to buy when prices are lower.

Maybe offering to market for mortgage brokers would fit the climate right now. Help people with ballooning mortgages to get a decent loan would be win/win/win. I think the marketing to new home buyers idea is still very hot in many markets though, I wouldn't write it off completely.

Sandi Bowman August 27, 2007 01:04 AM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
This might work better for the rent-to-own crowd at this time, Larry. Many folks who could've purchased a home prior to this current situation may not have had the down payment saved up completely or not been on the job quite long enough etc. These folks are often open to the rent-to-own, time-limited contract prior to standard purchase. The buyers gain a portion of the rental payment to add to their down payment etc. and the property holder gains their sweat equity and improvements to the property etc if they can't finance when the contract is completed otherwise. It's a win-win-win assuming they're good credit risks to start with.

Just a thought for what it's worth. In that case it'd be just a variation on the new homebuyer theme that would work in this current market so I would thinik that, given that things are okay otherwise (homes for sale and potential buyers) it'd be a good idea for most related businesses to advertise.

I'll have to give some thought to other options if the home market is kaput in a given area.

Sandi Bowman

Phil August 27, 2007 01:51 AM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
Larry,

Keep in Mind, even though we may live in a particular Location and Economy...

We have the opportunity of Focusing in on any Geographical Location we choose....

Matching up businesses with Consumers... Especially by researching Hot markets...

There are many Free resources listing Millions of Specialized businesses with full contact details...

We can Blog about them, talk to them on the telephone, email them using Creative communications and Do postcard PR ideas & all kinds of other marketing tactics... :)

And Take their Money using PayPal... ;)

A few good Real Estate resources for Finding Hot market places...
http://www.homes.com/hot_real_estate_markets
http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/
Interesting...
http://hindsight.trulia.com/

http://www.propertymaps.com/
http://www.zillow.com/

A real PPC Gem! I've posted about many times...

Make sure your speakers are On...

Light Bulb Moments With Perry Marshall
Sharon Odom Fling
http://www.geolocal.com/public/643.cfm

Phil

Larry Foster August 27, 2007 08:23 AM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
Thanks Todd, Sandi and Phil.
Some good ideas.
But, I'm afraid I still haven't made my question clear.
In the post that I referred to above, there was a suggestion on creating a local community website. To get advertisers to pay you to be featured on this site, you offer them the opportunity to be the only carpet cleaner, restaurant, flower shop, grocer or whatever.
There have been other opportunities discussed in the past where marketing to homebuyers was how one would promote these local businesses.
If you were in an area that housing sales were very slow, what would you offer a local business to incentivize them to be on your community website?
I agree that some areas are still booming while others are in the tank. If you were in an area where home buyers were about as scarce as hen's teeth, how would you approach the florist, restaurant or grocer?
Todd, thanks for the idea about mortgage brokers. I just started with one as a new client.
We recently did a small (325) postcard mailing to owners with ARMs that were about to be reset. One phone call and that one seemed to vanish. Never to answer her phone again.
Small sample and can't tell if the copy was bad (I hope not) or since consumer confidence is low people are apathetic. One interesting thing to me was that at least 10 cards were returned as undeliverable indicating to me that these people left these homes that were purchased less than 2 years ago.
I have opinions about how qualified their list is.
I am in western Pa. and, in general, we're going backwards fast in many ways.
Thanks, again.
Larry

Pete Egeler August 27, 2007 10:57 AM

Forgive me for saying so, Larry...
 
but I think you're in a rut!

Why are you banging your head against a brick wall with "new home owners"?

"If you were in an area that housing sales were very slow, what would you offer a local business to incentivize them to be on your community website?"

I think that you need to step back, look around, and shed this "new home buyers" junk. The key word here IMHO, is "COMMUNITY". Increasing traffic and sales is the name of the game, and I'm betting that the businesses could care less about the status of the home owner!

Like I metioned, perhaps you just need to step back, look at the idea from another angle, and put a twist on it.

Pete

xenia August 27, 2007 11:17 AM

Re: Marketing to new homebuyers idea
 
Geez that was very straight forward.. and hit the bulls eye :)


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