Land development: merchandising and marketing

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture

Aug 10

Many real estate developers forget about branding and merchandising.

Imagine if you went to a high-end dress shop or a place to buy an expensive suit and they had fabulous clothing but no racks–you had to pick up that dress or suit up from the floor and shake off the dust? Yuck.

So, when buying a lot for anywhere from $70,000 (non-waterfront) to as high as $300,000, merchandising is important.

I did a site visit recently with a developer, Bob Wachna; we visited his superb new waterfront subdivision in McNab Braeside, about 40-minutes northwest of Ottawa.

Here’re a few pointers I gave Mr Wachna during our site visit:

-improve way finding signage,

-continue with naming interesting geographical points (eg, Wachna Point! at the end of the road cul-de-sac turning circle),

-delineate lots properly (to give buyers a feel for the size of 1-2+ acre lots versus suburban lots),

-remove tree stumps, level road banks, cut grass,

-encourage buyers to recycle (instead of burn) red pine, white pine, oak and spruce trees cut down to make way for homes for floorboards, beams and posts as well as large tables and bench seating,

-emphasize multi-generational living,

-just overall better branding…

While we were, I had a chance to talk with Chris Hogan and Sheryl Hogan about why they’d purchased a lot in Madawaska Shores, https://madawaskashores.com/.

Here’s what Chris, dragonboat racer par excellence (best time? a fantastic 2:02) and homesteader had to say about that:

[YouTube URL, https://youtu.be/r_eGeRYaIJQ]

Here’s a few more pics I took of my visit with the Hogans:

FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND BUSINESS COACHING THAT’LL HELP YOU PROVIDE FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY FOR 3-GENERATIONS, PLEASE CONTACT:

Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD
Real Estate Investment and Business coach
ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker
Ottawa Senators founder
1-613-762-8884
bruce.firestone@century21.ca
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About the Author

Bruce is an entrepreneur/real estate broker/developer/coach/urban guru/keynote speaker/Sens founder/novelist/columnist/peerless husband/dad.

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