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FIRST TIME BUYER READER’S AWARDS 2019 – The Editor’s Special Award for Services to the Industry

Lisa Westerman, Director at LWC has recently been awarded The Editor’s Special Award for Services to the Industry at the prestigious First Time Buyer Reader’s Award Ceremony at the London’s Marriott Hotel on the 26th April 2019. The award recognises the outstanding contribution made to the housing industry and first time buyer market.

From housebuilders and housing associations to legal companies, these prestigious awards are now in their 10th year, and their existence ensures that the best in the business are recognised and rewarded for their hard work.

Lisa said: “I was delighted to receive this award from the Editor’s of First Time Buyer, Lynda Clark. It was so wonderful to be recognised for a job that I love and particularly as there were so many worthy, high profile and committed colleagues within the industry who could have equally scooped the award. The Awards are a fantastic annual celebration of some of the many lengths that are gone to in order to help aspirational buyers on to the housing ladder.”

As an industry expert Lisa works closely with housing providers helping them to mobilise and delivertheir sales programmes,supporting them with new business appraisals to grow their pipeline and streamlining their processes to make home ownership more accessible and attractive to First Time Buyers. Lisa trains and mentors housing providers to deliver first class sales and marketing services, helping to raise the profile of SO amongst target audiences.

LWC have had the pleasure of working with Lynda and a range of clients during the last year, all of which have a key focus on supporting buyers to own their own home.

To find out more about LWC and ways in which we can help support your development and sales programme, visit www.lwcl.co.uk or email lisa.westerman@lwcl.co.uk

Lisa Westerman Consultancy Limited: Brand re-fresh

To celebrate Lisa Westerman Consultancy’s 1st year anniversary it seemed fitting to refresh our brand identity. The aim of the exercise was to create a clean and vibrant brand that reflects the evolution of a new phase of LWC, a progression of our services and our approach as a one stop shop for all residential sales and marketing needs. The new brand will provide a timeless platform for all future expansion, collaborations and marketing collateral.

After a thorough audit of our client-facing touch points we decided on a set of key deliverables that would support our marketing and project activity, as well as creating a more enjoyable experience for our clients at an early stage.

The result is a minimalist identity that focuses on the abbreviated LWC, paired with a minimalist colour palette. The colour palette incorporating citrus yellow tones captures the current mood at LWC: confident, creative, full of energy, hope and excitement for future projects and partnerships. Design and Printed material by the incredible Landmark Branding Limited. The yellow/citrus tone also reflects our brand personality: open, friendly, approachable which are all adjectives used by clients to describe working with LWC.

LWC provide full end to end services for the residential property sales marketing including the following:

Branding & Marketing Sales / CGI Visualisation / Market Research / Sales and Marketing Strategies / Media planning /Show Homes / Procedures / Compliance / Design / Customer Journey / Social Media / Website / Training / On-Site Sales

Partnering with leading sales and design agencies enables LWC to deliver high quality, fully integrated, creative branding, campaigns and marketing collateral as well as fully trained sales staff for your new build programmes. For all enquiries, email lisa.westerman

How important is creating a show home to sell new homes?

 

 

 

 

Working with new entrants to the world of property sales I regularly hear….
ʺWe don’t need a show home, there’s no budget available.…ʺ or ʺWe can create our own show home…I’m quite good at interior design…ʺ There is of course a perception that show homes are very expensive (they can be!) and that it must be easy to create a show home but the real value of creating a beautiful space to welcome prospective buyers is often under-valued.
Remember that buyers shop with their eyes and hearts. A prospective buyer walking around a well-designed show home creates an essential connection with the home and can prompt them to take the next step in the process of owning a new home.

Take the time to walk a mile in the buyer’s shoes: what’s it really like to interact with your sales team? Make sure that you understand the buyers’ experience – from their first online impression to the sales pitch and closing. Where will you conduct your sales appointments without a show home? Inviting your buyers and customers into your new show home and giving them a guided tour excites them, makes them feel special, part of something, a new community, an opportunity to meet neighbours. It’s a special time.

Partnering with the right interior designers: developing a show is a valuable part of your marketing mix and will ultimately increase sales revenue if done correctly. Your show home must be suitable for your target audience and requires a clear brief for your designer. If you don’t know the local market where you are developing, do your research. You need to have a good all-round knowledge and insight as to what your buyer’s aspirations are and what will make them fall in love with your homes.
Having worked with several amazing interior designers over the years it is vital that you partner with a handful of trusted designers. Working with designers that understand the profile of buyers in the neighbourhoods where you work is a bonus, being able to create an impressive show home or sales office on a budget is important as housing associations are often operating within limited marketing budgets. Understanding what is on trend and what will appeal to your target market is important in creating the wow factor. One design doesn’t fit all markets and demographics. Fiona Woodward-Kelly, an interior designer says “key to the design of a show home is to enhance the spaces in the home giving potential buyers a sense of well-being as well as be an aid to help them visualise how they could use the rooms. Empty rooms tend to look small until a bed or sofa is placed in it and then the scale of the space is more easy to see. I also try to maximise the light in each room with carefully selected decoration and colour choice.”

 

 

The main benefits of creating a show home:

Sales tool – a show home gives you the best sales aid you can have. A beautifully dressed show home that has appropriate furnishings and accessories to appeal to your market and suitable for the size and price tag of your home is important.

You will attract local carpet treaders, potential time wasters – but do offer them a warm welcome. Why? Because they will talk about your show home and development with their friends and neighbours. Recommendation by word of mouth is one of your best routes to market, an important element of the marketing mix.

Boosts sales – there is no doubt that on a show home launch weekend there is always a real buzz as current buyers and prospective buyers visit your show home for the first time.

For prospective buyers, the show home can show buyers the value of owning a brand new home. By educating those on the direct impact it can have on their everyday lives will make a positive impact on reservation levels.

My client Gecko Homes has just launched their new show home at Park View, Gorton last weekend, beautifully designed by Fiona at Woodward-Kelly. With viewings fully booked for both opening days and forward bookings secured this has been an important event in the sales calendar. In addition, there has been a constant flow of casual visitors keen to take a look at the new homes. The first opening weekend has secured an increase of 25% in sales reservations and plenty more prospective buyers.
Customer experience – you must understand that the buyers’ perception is everything. Buyers are influenced by two factors: How you as a business are currently perceived in the market and how your competitors are perceived. Your show home will help reinforce positive messages about your company and its brand.
Furthermore, being able to meet with buyers in a nice comfortable setting supports the customer journey. It generates a buzz and excitement for newly reserved buyers whilst creating buy in as their excitement builds for move in day.
The show home launch weekend brings together specialist Mortgage Advisors such as Metro Finance and sales staff all under one roof. The customer leaves the visit being fully qualified and committed to their purchase.
Work place – the show home provides a useable sales office and pleasant working environment for sales staff. A pleasant change from the office and an environment that they can be proud of.
Brand development – your show home is like a shop window into your organisation. It reinforces the brand of both the Housing Association and the actual development scheme as buyers can see the build quality and the design of the properties in a beautifully presented way. It helps develop the brand with the use of photos of the show home that can be used in all marketing material such as website, social media, adverts etc.
PR opportunity – the opportunities to promote your organisation are multi-faceted. A show home provides an excellent opportunity to show case your development team and raise the profile of their work, quality of construction, and promote shared ownership as a route to home ownership. There’s an enormous amount of opportunity for positive news stories. For example, photo opportunities of first buyers moving in, engagement with the local community (schools, community groups, neighbours), VIP events showcasing the first homes complete and buyers moving into their new home.
The Gecko Homes experience
My client Southway Housing Trust fully understand the importance of creating a beautiful show home at their development in Gorton. As a new provider of homes for sale they have created a fantastic platform for them to continue to achieve sales success at their development, further develop their brand and create a new community that they can be proud of.
Wendy Perkins, Head of Development says “seeing the show home for the first time was really exciting, it brought all the hard work to life and demonstrated all the potential of this fantastic development. It made the bricks and mortar into homes, a place that customers can visualise themselves living in. The power of that alone is something that will definitely drive sales, making it a living, breathing prospect that customers can fully imagine themselves being part of. The design, quality and professionalism demonstrated by the home only helps strengthen our reputation within the sector.”
Finally, if you are still in doubt, think about your buyers. You need to speak the buyers’ language for them to engage with you. Spark their emotions! Buyers want a home, not a house. They want to live in a neighbourhood, not a project. They want to be part of their community, not the development. A show home can help your buyers emotionally connect with your organisation, your homes and the local community.

LWC can support your development and sales programmes by developing comprehensive, fully integrated marketing and sales strategies. This includes the delivery of show homes and sales offices for your new housing developments by working with trusted and experienced suppliers.

To find out more about Lisa Westerman Consultancy Ltd (LWC) and ways in which we can help support your development programme, visit www.lwcl.co.uk or email lisa.westerman@lwcl.co.uk

The importance of market research for sales success

As a result of the well documented housing crisis there’s plenty of new housing providers entering the affordable home ownership market with ambitious plans to deliver, often for the first time, homes for sale through a variety of tenures including Shared Ownership and Help to Buy. This is fantastic news for first time buyers and for those households looking for good quality, affordable new homes.

However, it is important that Housing Associations, Local Authorities and Developers consider potential new development opportunities carefully. Failure to carry out detailed market research to assess the suitability of future sites can trigger a magnitude of potential risks if the development fails in the future. The market research process helps to analyse things like market size, competition and market needs.

Understanding the risks

Apart from the obvious risks of failing to achieve sales targets, the impact is potentially huge if housing providers fail to carry out a thorough analysis of their market, and consequences may include:

• Increasing costs of stock holding and reducing values
• Scheme appraisals not achieving the necessary returns
• Marketing budget over spend and loss of sales income if sales drag on or abort
• Damage to reputation

Customer needs

So, what are the basics to consider when carrying out market research: Market research can be considered as a method of getting an idea of the needs of the customers. If you don’t fully understand their needs, then you are at risk of marketing homes for sale that your customers don’t need or want. So, when you are considering a potential development opportunity for sale, it is vital that several factors are investigated which will help mitigate potential sales risks.

Covering the basics

When considering a new development opportunity, you must consider the following as standard:

1. Go and look at where the site is. A quick look at google maps will often suffice to make a quick judgement on a potential site opportunity but does not replace the value of going to see where the site is – there can be a whole host of factors that may impact negatively on sales that you will not always be able to identify from a map.
2. If you don’t have knowledge of an area it is always good to check websites such as www.rightmove.co.uk, the local authority’s website for details of any planning applications www.ons.gov.uk or www.streetcheck.co.uk for demographic data for the neighbourhood.
3. A review of land registry data to gain an understanding of what prices comparable homes have sold for in the local area (not just the price that they were marketed for sale at).
4. It is important to review what the local competition is doing. Find out who is competing locally, how long have they been actively selling, what range and size of property types are they offering? Are the local housebuilders targeting a family market, first time buyers, singletons, elderly households or a mix? Local developers will have carried out their own research to identify gaps in the local housing market so learn from them too.
5. Does their show home create a wow factor? Is it ultra-contemporary or more traditional? Is the developer appealing to younger client group or a more traditional market? Are there Black and Minority ethnic design requirements to consider such as two reception rooms for the Asian market? Also, what purchaser incentives are they offering (if any)? If they are offering a full range of incentives this may suggest that sales are slow.
6. Trends in the market – how is the local housing market performing? What are the local estate agent’s opinions of the market, which property types are in highest demand? Your local Help to Buy agent may also be able to help. Find them at https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/equity-loan/find-helptobuy-agent/

The process of market research is integral to be able to compete with other players in the housing market and ultimately maximise sales opportunities, deliver developments for sale within sales and marketing budgets and meet the needs of your customers.

These points only provide a snap shot of things to consider and a combination of detailed analysis, local knowledge and experience and not forgetting trusting your gut (feeling) are important to help inform decision making around new housing development opportunities.

LWC can prepare detailed market intelligence and due diligence reports to support your development programme. LWC can provide a vital support role to your organisation by bringing order and clarity to a complicated process of compiling market research reports; not just by gathering market intelligence data but by carefully considering and making clear judgements and recommendations in respect of the right property mix, tenure, pricing and demand for your site.

To find out more about Lisa Westerman Consultancy Ltd (LWC) and ways in which we can help

support your development programme, visit
Lisa Westerman

t 07393375068

e Lisa.westerman@lwcl.co.uk

w www.lwcl.co.uk

@LWC_Housing

Professional sales and marketing services for the housing Industry

Introducing Lisa Westerman Consultancy Ltd (LWC)

Lisa Westerman introduces her new Company, Lisa Westerman Consultancy Ltd (LWC).

With 24-years of property sales experience and now ready for the next stage in her career, Lisa has established her own business, Lisa Westerman Consultancy Ltd (LWC). Lisa has been providing consultancy services for many housing providers over the last ten years, helping them to find their feet in respect of delivering homes for sale across a variety of tenures, namely Shared Ownership, market sale and PRS. Lisa has loved this part of her work and has therefore committed to doing this full time.

Lisa’s ambitions are to maintain excellence in the sector and support the delivery of the best customer services for Shared Ownership customers in the North. Having seen huge gaps in the market for specialist knowledge and skills in relation to the marketing and sale of new homes, Lisa has now committed to helping other Housing Providers enter the affordable housing market and deliver successful Shared Ownership and affordable housing programmes of their own.

As the government is committed to building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and more housing providers are entering the affordable home ownership market with ambitious plans for Shared Ownership delivery, this is a good time for Lisa to support the Government’s agenda and help guide housing providers to successfully deliver their sales programmes.

Lisa is passionate about Shared Ownership and knows that it offers a fantastic route to home ownership as only a small deposit is needed, based on the percentage share you buy and not the full market price. In other markets, average deposits are around £30,000 so clearly Shared Ownership has an important role to play to increase supply of affordable new housing. 365,000 buyers took ownership of their first home in 2017, which was an increase of 7.4 per cent on 2016 and the highest number since 2006. The combination of house prices, limited availability and lack of deposit needed are making home ownership almost impossible for first time buyers, however schemes such as Shared Ownership are helping first time buyers get onto the property ladder.

LWC offers a multidisciplinary consultancy service which includes guidance and support from planning stage right through to when the last customer moves into their home at your Development. Whilst not an exhaustive list of services, LWC can support with market research, appraisal assumptions, specifications and design, market research, sales policies and procedures, branding, sales and marketing strategies, help you market hard to sell developments, develop service improvement plans, social media, budgets, sales risk management, customer journey, website and CRM systems, training, audit compliance, stakeholder relationship management, strategies for achieving off-plan sales, how to build a successful sales team and performance management. You can find out more by visiting the new website www.lwcl.co.uk

Lisa Westerman

t 07393375068

e Lisa.westerman

w www.lwcl.co.uk

@LWC_Housing

Professional sales and marketing services for the housing Industry

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Lisa Westerman Consultancy (LWC) Limited is a UK registered Company, registration No. 11067555, Tel 07393 375068

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Lisa’s predictions for 2018
A new year is a great time to start searching for your dream home. Lisa Westerman, Director of LWC, talks about what she’s expecting for the housing market in 2018.

“The start of a year is always a good time for the “new”. Demand for housing remains resilient, with an active start to 2018. Indeed, the number of monthly visits to Rightmove in January was at its highest ever level, at over 141 million.

On househunters

“Anyone looking for a new home in the New Year should do their research to make sure they understand what affordable housing initiatives are available near where they want to buy – and importantly look at what fits their own circumstances. There’s plenty of Government schemes out there including Help to Buy and Shared Ownership, but key is to make sure you get financial advice which links in with your search so that you can make the best decisions to increase your chance of acceptance.”

On house prices
“In relation to house prices, Rightmove is predicting that house prices across England and Wales will rise by one per cent in 2018, but that there will be a further decline in London. Analysts said they expected the price of properties typically bought by first-time-buyers (two beds or fewer) to increase by three per cent next year, but also for second-stepper homes (non-detached homes with three or four bedrooms) to increase by two per cent over the next 12 months.
“However, I think that it will be a different picture in Manchester as both Manchester and Liverpool are both enjoying huge booms in property prices. In November, Savills predicted that the North West is set to experience the fastest price growth in the UK over the next five years: a surge of 18.1 per cent, followed by increases of 17.6 per cent in the North East and Yorkshire and Humberside region.
“in the North West, we have seen price growth in our markets with a two bedroom home now costing on average £136,100 and a three-bedroom home costing on average £166,180. Shared Ownership is helping to make home ownership more accessible for single income households in particular as a 35 per cent share of a new home starts from £46,635 (with rent payable on the remaining share)
“While Spring is always renowned for being a busy time of year for house hunters, there are good deals to be had from house builders earlier in the year as they tend to focus on securing sales to enable completion before year-end. There’s a steady flow of new Shared Ownership homes available across the region being sold by Housing Associations. In the North West you can visit www.helptobuynw.co.uk and www.helptobuyneyh.co.uk to view available properties in the area of your choice and to see what’s coming soon.

On the Government
“Shared Ownership is recognized as an important player in the delivery of new homes for Britain, but the Government needs to do more to raise the profile, perhaps with a national campaign similar to Help to Buy. Buyers need to be educated about options as there is still a lack of awareness regarding what is Shared Ownership and who it is for. We need more homes generally and particularly affordable homes as demand for affordable housing generally exceeds supply in most of our development areas. Strategic groups such as the National Housing Group are working tirelessly to raise the profile of Shared Ownership with Government and lenders.
“More generally, Britain needs to get building. The consensus is that, to keep prices in check, we need to build 300,000 houses a year, double what it erected in 2015-16”

On interior trends for 2018
“We’re expecting a few interiors trends for 2018. The trend for light greys mixed with white is looking set to continue, but with warm, natural dark wood furniture and floors and terracotta and tan shades of leather.
“For the more adventurous, very dark blues, blacks and dark greys are on trend, along with bold multicolours thrown together – inspired by South American tribal fabrics and jewellery.”