With the year coming to a close and the holiday season vastly approaching, many homebuilders across the country have yet to shut their books on the year. They are still maintaining a sharp focus on their remaining inventory. They understand that there is a direct need to sustain a steady sales pace to bolster this year’s net sales total while also ensuring a strong first quarter of closings to start 2025. In the second article of our two-part series, we will discuss best practices for creating value around year-end inventory homes.
As the pressure mounts with each passing day, builders risk pulling the price lever prematurely and consequently compromising profitability in order to drive year-end unit count. Adopting a “desperate times require desperate measures” disposition is certainly understandable when trying to capture the attention of a last-minute, deal-seeking buyer. However, there is also the approach of creating a compelling identity around a particular inventory home that would not only cast an appeal to that same buyer but do so in a manner that leads them to value more about the home than merely their own perception of savings derived from a significant price reduction. This is accomplished through the creation of a unique selling proposition.
An effective, unique selling proposition builds exclusivity around year-end inventory by incorporating distinctive features and highlights that ultimately convey a “right place, right time” feeling to a prospective buyer. And if this unique selling proposition influences that prospective buyer in a way that truly enables them to feel they are in the right place at the right time as it pertains to their new home search, then it’s conceivable that the value they place on that inventory home is too much to walk away from. While this concept may sound like homebuilding’s version of snake oil, the process of creating this unique selling proposition is very fundamental. At the heart of this process is identifying the most relevant and distinctive features and highlights by evaluating the home through a lens comprised of the following elements:
While all 15 of these elements may not be applicable to a particular home, it is important to understand that an effective and influential unique selling proposition merely needs to incorporate a few of these elements in order to drive maximum impact and appeal in the marketplace.
Once this unique selling proposition has been crafted, it serves a purpose: Being the main messaging for a robust marketing campaign designed to drive high-quality traffic consisting of people who are likely to find the home enticing, otherwise known as the Target Consumer Group. As this group of traffic arrives at the home, the unique selling proposition should be articulated to the prospect by a sales professional to confirm that it does indeed resonate with them, creating the feeling of “right place, right time.” When our training and these practices are executed skillfully, there is a high likelihood of converting that prospect to a buyer.
In summary, rather than succumb to a generalized strategy of taking more significant price reductions than is necessary in order to move the remaining year-end inventory before the calendar turns to a new year, it is certainly worth the time and effort to thoroughly analyze each inventory home in order to identify and compile all features and highlights that form the home’s unique identity. At a time of the year when urgency has never been more important, it’s the scarcity of the offering of such an opportunity and the fear of loss it creates that drives the inventory home’s value and appeal, which ultimately leads the right buyer to arrive at the right place at the right time, culminating in one more year-end inventory sale.
To view other parts of this article series, check out: