Driving Single-Family Housing Sales [Strategies for Home Builders & Developers]

3 min and 30 sec read

 

In this article you will learn how job growth and low mortgage rates can impact your business for the better.

 

As a home builder, you know the importance of staying up to date with the current trends of your market. You also know how unpredictable the housing market can be, especially during the summer months of the year. Now let’s discuss which factors are driving single-family housing sales and how you can use them to your advantage with effective strategies.

 

Two key factors which are driving single-family housing are job growth and lower mortgage rates. Let’s first touch base on how the job growth can impact your business then we can discuss the lower mortgage rates.

 

Job Growth:

 

You rely on your construction team to understand the needs of your client and to get the job done right. Home builders put in an immense amount of trust into their construction team to turn a bare-bones house into a warm and welcoming home. The last thing you want is to have a shortage of qualified construction workers, here’s how job growth comes into play.

 

Ever since the Great Recession, the overall trend for open construction jobs has been increasing. This is not to say that every year since the Great Recession has been an improvement. In fact, according to the National Association of Home Builders, the estimated number of job openings in the construction sector fell back to just under 370,000 after reaching the post-Great Recession high.

 

Although that may not be what you want to hear, don’t lose hope. In June of 2019, approximately 224,000 jobs were added to the workforce and the unemployment rate was just 3.7%. Within the construction industry specifically, there has been steady growth since 2011. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approximately 7.5 million construction jobs in 2019 alone – which is substantially higher than the number of jobs in the past.

 

Impact on Your Business:

 

So, you’re probably wondering, how does that impact me? These statistics show that more people are looking for construction-related jobs than ever before. It affects your business because the time is now to recruit more construction workers for your team rather than them going to your competitor.

 

It’s a never-ending cycle when it comes to growing your business. With more workers, comes more work, and with more work comes more single-family homes to build. Which gives you more opportunities to grow your business.

 

Just because the current construction job market seems promising today, it may not look as promising in the years to come. Here are some good tips to help maintain your construction force retention and not let your home building business fall behind.

 

How to Driving Single-Family Housing:

 

• Promote your business online and make qualified connections within the construction industry.
• Listen to the needs of your construction workers and take action to improve their everyday workdays.
• Take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve upon the safety of your workers. For example, Suffolk is a national construction company which uses machine learning to keep their workers safe.
• Build a strong brand for not only your business, but also something your workers can be proud of.
• Understand mistakes and problems can happen to anyone. Laren from these when they occur.
• Attend home builder conferences and other relevant marketing events.
• Be approachable with your management methods.

 

Low Mortgage Rates:

 

Now that we have discussed job growth, let’s talk about how low mortgage rates can increase the single-family housing marketplace. Low mortgage rates affect the housing market because it gives homeowners more flexibility when purchasing a home. In fact, new research shows America’s home buying power has increased by 15% since last year this time.

 

What does this mean to your business? It means homebuyers can now pay $45,000 more for a home than previously while keeping monthly payments the same. This is a major factor in driving residential home sales because consumers can now afford a lot more than they were bargaining for in the past.

 

Experts in the housing market predict these mortgage rates will remain steady for the remainder of the year. Averaging at 3.8% between Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association, your homes can be purchased by more people who can afford your product.

 

Impact on Your Business:

 

More and more of your consumers can agree that they are inclined to buy one of your home products if they can afford it. After all, the more affordable your products seem to the housing market, the more people will want them. This gives your business the upper hand on the market and makes your homes more desirable and approachable.

 

Ok, so now you know where the current market stands. How can you take this information and use it to your advantage? By incorporating effective marketing and advertising. Here are some tips for you to consider to put your homes out there in front of these potential homebuyers.

 

More Strategies on Driving Single-Family Housing:

 

• Build a compelling website.
• Use professional photography to display your homes.
• Run a pay-per-click campaign and search engine optimization to enhance your online visibility.
• Create captivating signage around your community or residential neighborhood.
• Hire a company to make virtual tours of your products.
• Run ads on social media, targeting those who fit your market’s demographic criteria.
• Incorporate AI to help run analytics and to communicate effectively with your consumers. For example, you can install chat bots to answer client’s questions when you are out of the office.
• Launch an email drip campaign to let your surrounding area know about your recent sales, events, special offers, etc. and primarily to stay top of mind with your potential buyers.

 

While using one of these techniques is smart, using multiple strategies will surely be more beneficial to you and your company. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of where your business currently stands with the construction job market and how your products are more affordable to your consumers.

 

For more information on the above marketing strategies, check out the following:

 

• Paid Advertising: Why Home Builders Need to Invest
• Video Brochures for Home Builders (Functionality and 4 Benefits)
• Single-Family Homebuyer [How Home Builders Can Market to Them]
• Features Home Builders Need [for More Single-Family Homebuyers]
• Comparing Home Builder Marketing to a Building a House

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About Terry Zelen

Creative Director | Consultant | Author | President of Zelen Communications

Terry Zelen is a seasoned Creative Director with more than 35 years of experience in Home Builder advertising and marketing.

He is the founder of The Punch List, which is an online blog to help inform home builders and developers on strategic marketing insights to fuel their firm.