What is the best verbiage to use when marketing a sale on new construction in Greater Atlanta? I recently received an email marketing a builder that was titled “Your Buyers have 2 more weeks to get a Great Deal”. What do you think this email was actually trying to say? Was it that after this two week period is up the deals on this builders homes will really suck? Was it that in 2 weeks the bank was going to foreclose on all this builders inventory? I don’t think that it was either of these two, but the builder needed to clarify his intentions. I feel fairly certain that the builder was trying to create a sence of urgency and increase traffic to the communities he is building in, but don’t do it to the extent that prospective buyers and the agents representing those buyers get the wrong impression.
What About Pricing
One problem that I see with new homes in the Atlanta market is that some of the builders are asking inflated prices for them and then discounting the list price by huge amounts. What is going to happen when this real estate slow down rebounds? Will the builders want to go back to the inflated pricing? Natural tendency would be to say yes. But guess what, the appraisers will be using the discounted pricing for establishing the value of future sales. Kind of a catch-22 don’t you think? Certainly no one expects the builders to work for free. They are entitled to a return on their investment and should run their business accordingly, just be realistic. When I see prices discounted by $50,000 to $100,000 on individual homes, something tells me that the builder is acknowledging that the home was overpriced to begin with. Why not price the homes competitively and negotiate the transaction in a normal manner.
Several years ago when the real estate market in Greater Atlanta was booming, builders viewed real estate agents as a necessary evil and tolerated our existence. With Buyer Agency being so well advertised and promoted as the best course of action by consumer advocates, builders now realize that collectively the REALTOR community is working with the majority of the buyers.
For more information about buyer agency and an Atlanta Buyers Agent contact Mack.