Trust and tech can seal the deal
Whether by asking questions and genuinely listening to buyers’ answers or by providing technological tools that enhance the new-home browsing experience, Bay Area builders are adding intuition to the process of choosing new construction.
While many companies will offer buyers their marketing and planning tools, it can never hurt to throw a seemingly left-field inquiry into your next conversation with a builder. Try, for example, “So, can I view the (not-yet-built) house with a virtual reality (VR) headset?” If your builder is Blue Mountain Homes, the answer just might be, “Well, of course!”
Joe Klusnick, director of marketing for Vacaville-based Blue Mountain Communities, said in a conversation earlier this year, “We know that everyone is shopping for homes online before visiting a community, so we want to give them even more when they’re online and after they arrive at the community.” Blue Mountain’s communities include Union Parc in Hayward, Adante in Hayward and Orchard Park in Hollister, among others.
“We have the ability to provide so much more information to buyers, even including virtual tours with VR headsets,” Klusnick said.
Blue Mountain’s VR tours provide an immersive experience that is much more informative and sensory than diagrams and floor plans. Other virtual tours include 3D Matterport floor plan tours that allow buyers to visualize details of a home plan or explore options before construction.
Blue Mountain’s Union Parc community sales manager, Jill Stephens, added that offering more information than required has become not only a standard but an expected practice of builders.
“I take my time with people from the moment they get in touch or walk through the door,” Stephens said. “Once they give me their general information, and get signed in, we get into their specific needs in great detail.” No question is ever too minor or major to ask. The more she knows about a buyer’s needs and preferences, the better she can help them decide if one of her community’s homes may work for them.
Builders such as TRI Pointe Homes provide interactive floor plans for several new-home plans, available to anyone visiting a community’s website. TRI Pointe is currently selling Bay Area new homes in the cities of Fremont, Pleasant Hill, Dublin and Morgan Hill. The interactive floor plans allow web visitors to click on tabs for home options, elevations and orientation to learn how adaptable each home plan can be or to prepare themselves with questions for the sales office.
It is well known that people who are looking at new homes in the Bay Area are educated, savvy individuals, couples and families. “They’re brilliant and many of them work in tech and the financial sector or they are educators,” said Stephens of Union Parc. She never assumes, however, that a prospective buyer understands all the details of the newhome buying process.
“Just because they are smart and successful doesn’t mean they’re not worried,” she said. “In many cases this is a new situation for them.” Stephens does everything possible to calm any fears. Her most valuable tool in reaching a comfortable state with a buyer is to deliver no shortage of information, education and detail, but in a calm, organized manner.
“Some buyers come in with agents and some do not,” said Stephens. And while buying new is easier than buying resale, because parties do not have to contend with as many contingencies and inspection issues, she still encourages buyers to do their homework and involve people who have their best interests at heart. “Over the past few years, buying new has become a more fluid process, especially if they chose the builder’s preferred lender.”
Coming in future articles: Learn how to determine if working with a real estate agent and your own lender are best for you or if the benefits of working with a builder’s preferred lender might be your best option.