Soft Amenities Combat High Gas Prices

It seems these days that no matter where you turn, you can’t escape the news of high gas prices. And let’s face it, for good reason. Gas prices are high and they don’t appear to be receding anytime in the near future. Furthermore, the high price of gas is affecting so many other facets of our daily lives, from the price of food to the amount of police that patrol our streets.

With the average commute in the United States topping 39 minutes, combined with the high price of gas, some analyst are predicting the death of the suburbs. For a housing industry still recovering from the sub-prime lending crisis, this will surely be the old nail in the coffin right?

Well…not necessarily.

It boils down to simple economics and the theory of Opportunity Cost. By definition, Opportunity Cost is the cost of passing up another potential choice in making a decision.

In other words, builders and developers need to refocus and repackage the very attributes that have made suburbia so successful. Recent studies still indicate that three of the four most important factors in choosing where to live are: safe neighborhood, close to good schools and close to parks, water or other recreation.

The point is, now more than ever builders of masterplan communities need to showcase lifestyle. And lifestyle doesn’t always require more space and a huge budget to achieve - lifestyle is a soft amenity! It’s not enough just to build the clubhouse, but you need to establish a social infrastructure – book clubs, Wall Street clubs, wine tastings, cooking classes, the programming options are unlimited. The goal here is create a sense of place and up the energy level of the community. Your residents will be paying more to commute to work, but on evenings and weekends, make it a place they don’t want to leave. This will be noticeable to potential buyers and help them in their decision process.

You can also become innovative and tackle gas prices head-on by developing Rideshare, Park & Ride and Vanpool options for commuters. Use these commuting options to help sell your project to the local government. Build a state-of-the-art telecommuting facility in your clubhouse with video conferencing.

These are just a few examples of offsetting the cost of higher gas prices in your development. Remember, it’s all about Opportunity Cost. Tip the scale in your favor.

Gas Prices and the Search for Real Estate

Yet another significant blow has been wielded against the selling of new home communities.

What is it? Simple…gas prices.

With the price of a gallon of gas now over the four dollar mark, prospective homebuyers are turning more to the web and narrowing down their searches while choosing fewer new home communities for actual in-person tours.

So it may be time to pull out some traditional marketing strategies from the past and merge them with new technologies of the present. In other words, enhance your community’s web experience by providing a simple and effective incentive for people to visit the community in-person.

And why not harness the iniquitous gas prices we all face today? One of the most successful incentives you can offer the American consumer right now is free gas. Therefore, make an investment in gas gift cards and promote this on your community website, with the hook being the gift card can be picked up at the community sales center. Some cards may be purchased in dominations as small as five dollars, all they way up to $100 - the typical cost to fill-up an SUV these days.

The following is a list of merchants offering gas cards on the web:

Chevron Gift Cards
ExxonMobil Cash Card
Gulf Oil Gift Card
Wal-Mart Shopping Card
Texaco Gift Card
BP Gift Card
Circle K Gift Card
Arco PumpPass
Shell Gift Card
Sunoco Gift Card

Or perhaps gas is a little too contentious but you still would like to utilize a gift card incentive and entice prospects to visit your community. A full list of retailers who offer gift cards can be found at:
http://www.svmcards.net/home/shop/all_cards.cfm

Which market segment is feeling the gas crisis the hardest? The active-adult market whose buyers are already in many cases, living on a near fixed income.
But the sad news for all of us in this industry – It appears that rising gas prices is yet another blow to the struggling real estate market and this latest development is destined to slow the market’s recovery time.