Market Your Housing Development with a Sense of Place

When you're marketing your housing development, you're not just selling homes. The key to getting buyers interested is selling them on a place and a community. A physical home is just one aspect of purchasing a house, and for most buyers, it's not even the most important. Sure, any buyer wants a roof over their head, but in most cases, it's not actually the house you're selling—it's the experience of home.

More than anything, buyers are looking for a place to call "home." A place to raise their kids, a place to grow old, and a place to start a life. If you're building a housing development, that sense of place is your strongest marketing tool. Use content that speaks to your housing development's story and sense of community to bolster new homeowner's confidence in your development. The best way to get eyes on your site and pull homeowners through the buyer's journey?

Blogging

If we've said it once, we've said it a hundred times. You need a blog. That's all there is to it. Without a blog you're in the same boat as every other Joe Shmoe out there with "new homes for sale" signs stuck on every street corner. A blog not only helps you define your community vision, but it helps you reach qualified buyers more quickly. Think about it:

If you were going to buy a new home, would you drive around looking for "for sale" signs, or would you Google available properties near you?

Unless you're really stuck in the 20th century, you're probably going to pick the second option. It's quick, it's easy, and you can do it while you're sitting in your pj's eating breakfast. Since that's what the majority of your housing development's qualified buyers are going to do, it's important to make sure you come up on that list of search results while they're looking for a new home. How do you do that? Blogging. 

So, start your blog, and consider posting about the following topics to create an alluring sense of place sure to draw in buyers:

Talk about local events and activities

We've already established that your target market is going to Google your area for new homes. They're also going to want to know what's happening in your town. They'll want to know what community activities and events go on regularly, and they'll be looking to see if they can get a feel of the town before they actually scope out homes or make a move.

If you're regularly posting about those activities, whether they're festivals, farmer's markets, outdoor concerts, or any other sort of community gathering, you'll start popping up in those search results. The more you post about local happenings, the better you'll rank for local searches, which means you'll start to become a go-to source of information for those people who want to know what's going on in the area. That means you're also the first place they turn to when they do decide to move.

What does a weekend in your town look like?

Like we mentioned before: when you're selling a home, you're really selling potential homeowners on a place and a feeling. They want to know what their life is going to look like if they move to your development. So, post about what life is like in your area. A weekend itinerary is a really popular blog style that consumers love:

Imagine you were visiting your development's area for just the weekend. What would you do? Where would you eat? In a blog like this, you can highlight both activities and restaurants, giving people a more holistic look at what it's like to live in your town. Is there a block party going on? Are local breweries hosting live music on Friday night?

Writing a post like this is another great way to drive relevant traffic to your website, while simultaneously creating that sense of place that draws new homeowners in. If you think about it, if you were visiting a new area for a weekend, wouldn't your search query read like "what do do in "town name" for the weekend"? By answering that question in your blog, you'll get more eyes on your site, in addition to helping some newcomers learn more about your town and your housing development.

Consider making regular "best of" posts:

What are the best restaurants, breweries, bars, ski hills, hiking trails, etc. in your community? Whether someone is new to the area or thinking about moving, these types of blog posts are the most searched, and the most helpful. They work to position you as an authority on the subject, and as more and more people come to you for their weekend suggestions, you'll probably also be the one they look to when they finally decide it's time to purchase a home.

Don't be afraid to talk about what it's like to live in your community!

All anyone wants to know before they move somewhere new is what life will be like. If your area or community has local quirks, share them. If there's something really great about the people in your community, share that too. The more knowledgeable a person feels about your community, the more confident they'll feel when purchasing a home.

In the end, marketing a housing development really means marketing a community. While a home buyer certainly wants a nice house, it's intangibles like a welcoming environment and a warm community that really seals the deal. Show your potential residents what your community —not just your floorplan—has to offer, and you're sure to be at the top of your target buyers' list.

More questions about marketing your housing development? We're here to help! We've worked with a number of developers, and know what it takes to fill homes and sell lots. You don't have to take our word for it though: check out the case study below about the results we produced for a previous development client.