What are the Benefits of Living in YOUR Community?

How can you help increase your sales and rentals? Think about what your community has to offer. Do you have a community center? Do you have a pool? How about a nearby bus stop or local stores and restaurants? Do home sales centers in your area know what you have to offer?

What about your competitors? Think about apartments in your area. Is your rent lower than theirs? That would be a great selling point for you! Do your rental homes include washers and dryers? Another great selling point! Do you host community events? A sense of community is important to some, so make sure you advertise your strengths.

Think about creating a chart that shows what you have to offer vs. what others in your area offer. Some items to include in your chart include: paved driveways, off-street parking, playgrounds, locked mailboxes, walking trails, neighborhood watch, written leases and rules, professional management, 24-hour emergency number, street lights, wonderful neighbors, storage areas, picnic areas, and professional maintenance, just to name a few.

Compare your community to local apartments and condos, not just nearby manufactured home communities. Use the chart in your advertising; give it to local home sales centers so they can pass it on to potential buyers; give it to prospects when they visit your property; and offer to mail a copy to phone callers. Make sure you follow-up with prospects and find out how their decision-making process is going.

Choose the benefits your community offers that put you ahead of the competition. Give a blank chart to potential customers so they can fill in the blanks themselves. Let them come to their own conclusions about why your community is better than the rest.

Use the chart with your current residents as well. Make sure they know the value of living in your community. Entice them to stay by showing how much better you are than the competition. Post it on your bulletin board and put it in your community newsletter. Create a positive perception of value by reinforcing the benefits they receive as residents of your community. Make sure to include your community logo or photos of your community on the chart – give them a great visual that will convince them that you are better.

You can create a chart to compare housing costs as well. Include not only rent, but things like: insurance, taxes, equity, down payments, interest rates and loan amounts. Compare the cost of living in your community to site-built homes, manufactured homes on private property, apartments and condominiums. Remember that “affordable” is subjective, but show off the lower prices available for living in a manufactured home community as compared to other options.

Whatever you do, make sure you can say “we DO IT BETTER!”