The Housing Chronicles Blog: August column for Builder & Developer magazine now online

Friday, August 13, 2010

August column for Builder & Developer magazine now online

My August column for Builder & Developer magazine is now posted online. For this month's issue -- which is oriented towards green home building and entitled "Green Building Success Equals Proper Execution" -- I wanted to discuss how the most forward-thinking builders such as Pulte and Pardee are profiting by educating buyers throughout the sales and process and partnering with outside providers to troubleshoot once the sale has closed.

An excerpt:

For the building industry, given the complexity of marketing, merchandising and selling the benefits of sustainability and green technology, education during the sales process and customer service after the closing are critical components that not all builders provide.

To this day, I still remember walking through models in the late 1990s when builders were trying to showcase options such as home theater systems, whole-house audio and structured wiring. And yet more often that not, I’d see TV sets flashing a “signal missing” message, fake computer monitors, sales agents who could only refer my questions to an outside vendor, and brochures that gave only a passing glance on these new features...

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

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