NBN Online for the week of March 16, 2009

Tax Credit Key to Selling Homes, Marketing Experts Say

Home builders may be underestimating the mileage they can derive from the recently enacted $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and should be doing whatever they can to actively promote it with their prospective buyers, according to residential marketing experts participating in an NAHB teleconference on March 16.

“Home builders and their sales and marketing teams can use the credit to clear off excess inventory,” NAHB President and CEO Jerry Howard told the more than 900 association members who called in for the presentation, which included a question and answer session on specifics of the provisions governing the use of the credit.

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On Sales Tour, John Wieland Aims to ‘Get Housing Moving’

In a unique marketing campaign, Southeast home builder John Wieland, CEO and founder of John Wieland Homes, is touring his five markets in a distinctive green-ish Winnebago emblazoned with a “Get Housing Moving!” banner and is covering the basics to educate consumers about the good things that housing can do for their neighborhoods and communities.

Wieland hit the road on March 7 and says that he will continue his travels until he has sold 101 homes, a quota he hopes to reach within 40 days. Eight days into the promotion, he had driven 1,082 miles. He is spending each night on his own mattress in a completed home for sale in a John Wieland neighborhood.

Facebook and YouTube Spreading the Word on Tax Credit

NAHB is utilizing popular social networking technology to educate first-time home buyers — typically newly-married couples or recent college grads in their 20s and 30s — about the new $8,000 tax credit.

Social networking sites, such as Facebook and YouTube, are becoming the most popular way for people around the world to connect with each other and share information.