Desperation mounting at Canyon Villas

We posted on Canyon Villas in Aliso Viejo not too long ago, but little did we know the builder was planning to come out with this gem of an ad in the Register on Sunday (click on the image above to enlarge).

To sum it up, they are offering: HOA dues, property taxes, FasTrack tolls and gas, all for one year. Anything else they missed? How about utilities? Maid service? Food delivery once a week? 'Cause it's obvious that mutilating the price (or, in reality, pricing the units to market) is still a no-no.

How would you feel if you paid full price for one of these units?

"Hurry! Only 26 homes remaining." After how many years again? Heck, the "big auction" was a year and a half ago. If you click on that Web site, you will see this statement: "Don't miss this opportunity to own your own condominium home!" Chuckle, chuckle.

Do not fear: There's still plenty of time.

Ad: "It's not as hard as you think"

Here's an ad from today's OC Register for Encantada in Ladera Ranch (click on the image above to enlarge). This time it's Pardee Homes' chance to tell us how great a time it is to buy a luxury home in South Orange County...before it's too late and the remaining 3 are sold.

The tactics are simple enough, so let's go through the points one by one.

1. "It's a buyer's market." Just because it's a buyers market (and prices are lower than they used to be) does not mean it's a good time to buy. That depends on each family's individual situation.

2. "Location, location, location...close to everything you love." This is flat-out wrong. Ladera Ranch is a nice community, but it is far from many things (non-toll freeways, employment centers) people require. It also depends on one's opinion of what makes for a great location. In Orange County, there is a premium on ocean-close areas. Ladera Ranch is obviously not one of those, but of course beach-front isn't the only thing that makes a community great.

3. "You want to grow. And you want to do it now." These statements appeal to emotions and impatience rather than practicality...the "I want it, and I want it now" attitude. It is helping you as a prospective buyer justify jumping into the market now, despite what the facts and statistics are telling us about how the market seems to have further to fall.

4. "Go green." Again, more justification for not waiting and choosing this builder, because you can tell yourself that you're saving money with the "cost-saving features," doing the environment a favor, and, most importantly protecting your family.

5. "We can help...it's not as hard as you think." Notice how the ad is addressing potential concerns of buyers, so they theoretically will have a hard time coming up with legitimate reasons to say "no." You probably have encountered this type of sales approach before. The builder is communicating a warm and friendly attitude - that they are there to do what it takes to get you into a house and comfortable.

However, we think it's safe to assume the types of people who will be buying $1.5 million homes have been doing very well for themselves already and probably don't need to be babied. This type of approach seems to be better-suited for homes more likely to be purchased by first-time buyers who are intimidated by the process.

Happy home buying everyone!

We're still not being "mislead"

We were hoping this heinous ad we found in a recent newspaper, which tried to persuade readers not to be "mislead (still can't believe I missed this typo) by all the information out there on the housing market" was just some awful, one-time anomaly. Nope. Look what we received in the mail the other day...

This ad got me thinking...What would I say to counteract this type of deceptive behavior aimed at exposing potential buyers' emotionality, naivety and ignorance? Here's the same ad, but with a few tweaks to make it better reflect what's really going on. Enjoy.

This builder is really reaching

Here is an ad from today's new house section in the OC Register. If it appears too small on your screen, click the image for the full version.
File this one under insulting. The approach taken by this ad is so obvious, it's virtually transparent. They're not going after anyone who's really informed about the housing market, because they would laugh this off based on a mountain of concrete facts. Anyone who sees this ad and says "the pictures of signs in the newspaper told me to buy a house now, so I listened" should have their head examined.

This ad is instead targeting a sidelines buyer, perhaps one who really, really wants to get into the market for a variety of emotional reasons including peer and/or cultural pressures, but is holding back until they see some magic light that tells them it's finally time to jump in.

In reality, there doesn't have to be anything like a "magic light" - just an ongoing analysis of the numbers to determine when buying makes financial sense based on someone's individual situation. Notice how, in this case, emotion plays little into the decision of when is a good time to buy. These people who think first before reacting are not the target audience of this ad campaign.

Instead, the purpose of this type of ad is to try and hook in the remaining gullible fools who may have heard a bit about house prices not performing like they used to (as if 20% appreciation is some normal standard), but are willing to put emotions before their brains.

There's also some irony here. If we really should "not be mislead (they couldn't even spell this word right, as a commentor pointed out) by all the information out there on the housing market" as the advertisement claims, why then should we listen to the ad itself when it's telling us that there's "never been a better time" to buy one of your homes?

Here's some more of the ad:

We can see prices have been slashed by nearly a quarter in Corona Hills, and 19% in Montclair. In Irvine, they've come down by $50k. Even if you did believe the builder into thinking that this is the perfect time to buy, what happens if they drop the prices even lower? Wouldn't that be a more perfect time to buy? I thought it was always a great time to buy or even sell a house! Wait, where have I heard that before...