Building:	First Green
Location:	Harbor Pointe - Mukilteo
Client:	Ted McCaugherty
# of Homes:	57
Year Completed:	2003
# of Stories:	3

Challenge

There were a number of challenges to successfully market this property. First, the design was a wood frame, elevator serviced building over structured parking in a market area that had only had success selling either townhouse product with attached garages or single family. It was very urban in design; the developers' hope was to deliver larger single level homes with a high level of finishes and command higher price per foot than had ever been achieved for this suburban location. Our initial recommendation to the developer was to not build the product as designed in this market area given the selling prices the developer needed to achieve.

Second, the property had been listed with another real estate company for six months, had only five sales and had a reputation in the Broker community of being shop-worn and over priced.

The third challenge was to attract buyers to the site. The Harbor Pointe neighborhood is a long way from any major arterial and the local municipality only allowed three directional signs guiding buyers to the site. They vigorously enforced their ordinance.

Solution

The building was built as designed in spite of our warnings to the client that there would be a very limited target market. As mentioned it was initially marketed with another real estate company. We repositioned the marketing efforts to emphasis the high end finishes, the large square footage, and the security and comfort of the controlled access garage.

Taking a property over from another real estate company in midstream created its own challenges. In essence we had to re-launch the marketing effort. We redesigned and reappointed the marketing center with better furnishings, a better site plan; new wall displays and updated collateral materials. We reviewed the models and relocated and/or redesigned those to appeal to our target market. We analyzed the pricing structure and reduced or reallocated dollars based on market acceptance, view, degree of finish upgrades and price points acceptable in the area. We brought in more mature site agents who could relate to our primary target market, the move-down buyer.

Our initial marketing campaign was directed towards the large list of interested prospects that had already been through the property but had not bought. Our sales department conducted an extensive follow up program encouraging the people who had been through the property to come back and take another look. In addition, we put together an extensive brokerage community outreach with limited time Agent Bonus incentives.

The challenge of directing traffic to the site remained difficult. We managed to obtain several off-site locations where we could install large permanent directional/feature signage. We hired living signs to stand at major intersections and wave signs on "special event" weekends. We did several large direct mailings to the neighboring single-family homes offering a special incentive if they bought from us or sent us a buyer. We also sent direct mailings to our proprietary database.

Results

We successfully built sales momentum and 17 homes were sold in the first 10 weeks. Many of the initial prospective buyers did end up buying once recontacted and encouraged to come back. As sales momentum was established, we were able to adjust pricing upward and increase revenues. With the success of this sellout, we assisted the developer in redesigning the second phase which was another building next door. Phase Two sold out much more quickly than Phase One.

Although the final sellout of this 57-suite property took 20 months, we were able to launch phase two as a completely new condominium. We sold Phase Two at higher prices and with a much more rapid absorption.