by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
The Northeast Florida Builders Association is working hard to combat local media’s use of what it calls “doom and gloom” tactics that are keeping home buyers “sitting on the fence.”
“Consumer perception is a problem right now,” said former NEFBA President Bryan Lendry. “Jacksonville is still selling houses right now. We’re just working off excess inventory. There’s a helluva lot of inventory out there and once they move it, it’ll be fine.”
NEFBA’s “Great Time to Buy” PR campaign has been brought up at the association’s monthly board meetings and last month they decided to take it a step further by adding a link on its Web site to another NEFBA sponsored Web site. The site, jaxhomefacts.com, was not up-and-running in late October, but both Executive Director Daniel Davis and Public Relations Coordinator Jean Sealey, said the site would be up in the first week of November.
The site will list facts about the Jacksonville market and local experts in the field will interpret national news as related to the local market. Experts will include real estate consultant Charlie Clark and builders experiencing the market, according to Sealey.
“You can make numbers say anything you want to and this is one way to debunk those misleading numbers,” said Sealey. “We’re looking at numbers within trends, not just this month’s but the last five years of data.”
The association said the money is not there to do print advertising, so they’ll try the Internet.
“We know that so many people go through the Internet to find homes,” said President Jerry Linder. “We known that if linked properly, this can work. We’re shifting things and redirecting dollars for the campaign.”
Davis said the site is important because everyone within NEFBA, including associates, is effected by media reports of the changing market.
“Everyone will feel the trickle down effect,” he said. “We have to educate the consumer that it is a great time and in fact, it’s probably the best time ever. Unfortunately, people see the misleading headlines and they become concerned about the market. We are spending significant dollars on the helping the consumers feel good about the market — so they get off the fence and back into the model homes.”