Builders add incentives to entice homebuyers

The nationwide slowdown in home sales may not be hitting the Ozarks as hard as the coasts, but builders are seeing their inventories increase, according to Matt Morrow, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield.

Springfield home sales figures reflect a slowing market – though not as slow as some might think. In August, 788 houses sold, and they spent an average of 65 days on the market, according to the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors. In August 2006, numbers were only a fraction better: 802 homes sold, and they spent an average of 60 days on the market.

At least one Realtor expects the market to hold steady through the end of the year and to begin to improve in the spring.

“I don’t know if it will be as strong as it was last spring, but that is the feeling of most of the Realtors, just watching the market,” said Barbara Adkins, with Murney Associates.

Home builder and Auto World of Springfield owner Steve Faria agreed that sales may stay down for the next six months. That’s why he’s laid a unique deal on the table.

Faria is offering a $50,000 rebate and a new Cadillac Escalade with the purchase of a home in south Springfield’s Timberbrook subdivision. The 7,800-square-

foot home at 4841 S. Sydney Ave. is listed for $949,000 and has been on the market for three months. As of Oct. 9, it hadn’t sold – but Faria has received a lot of interest.

“I’ve even had people call back after they looked at it already and say ‘Hey, we’d like to look at it again,’” Faria said.

This is the first offer of its kind for Faria, but depending on how it turns out, he’s considering similar incentives with future homes.

“(Homes) aren’t moving very quick, so you have to think out of the box to get things sold,” he said. “You have to improvise to make the best of it.”

Home builder Terry Ozborn, of Ozborn Homes, also is trying something new to “stand out … from the guys down the street.” He has installed flat-screen TVs in all five of the spec homes he has built in the past year, including the Ozark homes he had in the Parade of Homes in June.

Ozborn offers the built-in TVs in homes in the $150,000 to $250,000 price range, because they are an added selling point for homebuyers in that affordability bracket, he said. Buyers looking at higher-end homes can likely better afford a flat-screen TV and aren’t attracted to that amenity.

“People pick out things to differentiate the homes that they’re looking to buy, and I want to be the ‘flat-screen house’ or the ‘big closet house’ – something that would make me unique or different,” Ozborn said.

Whether unique homebuying incentives are becoming a trend in the Ozarks or they’re a temporary fix during a rough patch has yet to be seen.

“There are markets where it’s gotten a lot more difficult to sell homes than it is here, where (builders) will give away a lot of stuff,” HBA’s Morrow said. “It’s not really a trend here, because our market is really hanging in there.”

Ozborn also disputes the idea that incentives may be a trend.

“I did it as a business decision – and I don’t regret it,” he said.