Yesterday I had the opportunity to present a webinar with Lasso Data Systems on the Presale Without Fail eBook. If you’d like to view the full webinar, you can do so in Lasso’s webinar archive. Due to our limited time I wasn’t able to answer all of the questions that were asked, however they forwarded me your additional questions to make sure they were answered:

Q: We build upper end estate type homes typically priced $300K-$700k. Have you sold homes in this price range this way?

A: Our single family homes at Heartland sell from $260k – $900k with an average around $350-$400k so this absolutely works well at this price range. With buyers who have money – urgency is even more important because they have the resources to move forward when they feel the pressure!

Q: I read your eBook. Thank you for sharing this information. My question is have you ever had success explaining this process to another company and they went on and produced a great event? And follow up to that, do you think it is area specific? In other words, camping out at a new community might work well in California back in the day, but has never worked here.

A: I have not shared this information prior to the release of the eBook with other home builders in detail, so there hasn’t been much time to hear stories of success (but please do share yours with me!). To be clear, I have never had home buyers camp out overnight either. Because of the process everyone feels like there is an organized and controlled release of information… it builds urgency, but doesn’t ask your prospects to do anything “unreasonable” (like camp out the night before). We have done this process over 10 times now, and typically sell anywhere from 15% – 25% of the home sites on the first day. The key is to understand and trust the psychology of the system… and do it once just as it is before you try and change anything.

Q: How much do you normally budget for the entire process of the presale program?

A: Great question – it typical costs us around $5,000 in excess of what is already required to open up a new community (Ex: you need signage with or without this process). If we are concerned about desirability we may bump it up to $7,5000.

Q: How early should you hold the grand release before opening the model home?

A: They key is the Preview Event, not the release… but as a rule we will not hold the preview more than 90 days before we expect the community to be paved. Doing it any earlier will cause cancels as people tire of waiting.

Q: If you have a dog community and you decide to change a product line…ie..slab to bsmt or vice versa, do you think a re-grand opening/this type of presale will work?

Exactly! You may not need or have an extra 90 days to roll it out – but the key is to have an event attended by everyone who has interest (the minimum should be around 8 – 10 potential purchasers… couples count as only a single purchase unless they are buying two houses). If it’s an important change, and you have a database that your sales person has kept in reliable communication with using a good CRM system like Lasso – then you should get people who want to attend.

Q: What if someone has to sell their home first?

A: About 60%-70% of our buyers have homes to sell. This scenario is perfect for them because if streets are not yet even paved it gives them time to get organized and listed before construction on their home begins.

Q: What is your typical cancellation rate, after the Grand Release?

Typically less than 10% if construction of their home can begin within 90 days of the preview party date. The longer the delay, the higher your cancellation rate will grow.

Q: For the community where you sold 8 homes (where you had only sold 8 homes the entire previous year), was the marketing strategy the only thing you changed, or did you tweak price/product/etc.?

A: Nothing else was changed – same pricing, same product. It was a perfect “control group” to test this new process on. Logic would say the results should have been the same… but again emotion drives us (and the results of this program).

Q: What role does social media play in a community launch?

A: It’s important, but it really just help keep your costs lower in the awareness phase – and increases the buzz when you announce your fantastic results. Don’t rely on just social media though – use it as part of your overall marketing mix.

Q: This won’t really work for me in my market will it? People don’t line up for houses here, my buyers only care about the lowest price, etc… (ok, I made THIS question up. I do hear a variant of this all the time though)

A: No, your market isn’t so different that this won’t work. It works because of human nature – not because people in Pittsburgh are an easy sell! Prospects in your market may have different preferences about product details (stucco, exterior colors, shag carpet, etc) but those who travel across the country or even the world will tell you that human beings are remarkably similar in terms of our behavoir, and what influences and drives us.

Do you have any questions that weren’t answered by this post? Like the eBook on Facebook and join the community of others who are trying this program for their company. Share your experiences and ask any question you have and I’ll do my best to answer as time allows.