A weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We’re here to help you – not to sell you!
Andrew
Here we go. So we've just been talking about accents. I had to add, you know, I had to be at a funeral last weekend. That's not a good start to a podcast.
Beth
Like there's no real breaking ground.
Andrew
But so my family on my dad's side, South Carolina and Tennessee. So I told my wife, You're lucky that, like you met me down here in Florida where we're kind of somewhat accent neutral, I would say, compared to say if you're in Louisiana, there might be a little bit of Creole or French influence. Right. But South Carolina, like so Alabama right there, that's like the typical Southern accent.
Andrew
And it's real.
Beth
Nice. It's a slow.
Andrew
Slow. Right. But South Carolina, I cannot figure them out. And they're my relatives. I'm like, I don't know. And some of them, like it's real heavy. And I don't know what you just said, Uncle John. I have no idea. I'm thinking that to myself. I'm not saying this out loud. I'm like, I don't know what he just said.
Andrew
And then my Oh, let's see. My grandmother would be early nineties, one of her friends from when she was like eight years old showed up to the funeral. Crazy like so in this little tiny town, she's like, Well, I knew Betty Jean and I used to live right around the corner and like, corner, like, it's so much fun.
Andrew
You know, we're we're great. We're like a melting pot of accents around here, aren't we? United States for a lot of What a fun thing. Well, should we get started? I'm just going. Anyone have any other input? Input on accents?
Beth
Like you already made fun of the way I talk. So, I mean.
Andrew
Let's see, Beth says bagel.
Beth
But I think it's a bagel.
Andrew
There's a little bit. There's like a lift in there.
Beth
Some bagel.
Andrew
Bagel. There's like a B bagel, like titans or something.
Beth
How do you what do you what do you call the item that a child colors with that's made out of wax crayon?
Julie
What are you.
Andrew
Real in crayon? What do you say?
Beth
It's crayon. Crayon, like Crayola crayons.
Julie
Crayon syllables.
Andrew
Is that.
Julie
Crayon?
Andrew
It's crazy. I am from South Carolina. What's happening here
Beth
NASA crayon.
Andrew
Apple crayon. Right. I need something out there. This is so funny. What up? What else do I say? That's not correct. And this world.
Beth
Worse than my bagel
Andrew
Crayon green. Oh, my goodness. We need to get started. We're getting. We're getting distracted here. You know what? Let's get started. Welcome to episode 309. I am the ad Dr. Andrew Peeke. And with me today is Beth Russell and Julie Julie Jernigan.
Julie
Hello.
Andrew
She's so nice. I said her name twice. There we go. So how are you all? How's life?
Beth
It's great. How are you?
Andrew
I'm good. Good. We're hyped up. I have my favorite this episode brought to you by Monster as actually not. But these purple ones. This is my jam this month. As far as caffeinated beverages go. And that's my story. I'm going to talk about caffeine. So we went to the funeral. We had to drive. There's no quick way to get to Sumter if the two people listening that know where Sumter, South Carolina is, it's east of Columbia, kind of on the way towards Myrtle Beach.
Andrew
But so you can fly into Charlotte or you fly in the Columbia. There's no coke to get there. It would have been longer time flying by as far as like actual travel time than just driving straight there. So he drove there was a late night for some reason. We went to Panera and I read for like car food and we didn't want McDonald's.
Andrew
I don't really like McDonald's to eat. I don't want Chick fil A on something I knew like would just be like safe in the car. We're good to go. Had a few more hours left and I didn't know this but I mean try to find the name of it. Panera Energy Drink They have an error has they call it charged lemonades and would I've seen those in person.
Andrew
This is the first time I've seen them. I put it on my story and the caffeine intake, the amount of caffeine in it is insane. Oh, my goodness. And it's this little tiny sign and it made me think and someone actually died from this. So this is like, sorry, everybody. This is like a tragedy.
Beth
Yeah, like it was like a real issue.
Andrew
This is a real issue. But the point of it is like signage messaging, communication. It's cool. It's a charged lemonade, has some caffeine in it, and it compares it to coffee, which no one is like, Oh, you're kind of like overdose on caffeine from coffee. That'd be ridiculous. Even if you go to Starbucks and you're like, I want eight shots and Eventi sure thing.
Andrew
Like they're not the question. Know that we really strange to do but I'm sure someone's done it or they get to drink same drink. I'm like back to back to back. But like the flavor of this, like you would just want to drink it actually taste pretty good. I have a little bit of sample, but the signage was like, This is just like coffee.
Andrew
You look at it and you're like, There's 400 milligrams of caffeine, which is absurd for like a cup. And then you drink it. You're like, I want more how it more? So that's the issue. But it made me think like, well, how is this decision made? There's how many people that touch this product. They designed the product they had, you know, maybe they had feedback from potential consumers as far as they did, like those focus groups, like what should we call it?
Andrew
Do you like this name versus that name? Hundreds of thousand dollars into researching it and it still kind of got it wrong. Yeah. So I don't know. It's it's interesting like, well, what was the miss? I was sitting there driving like, what happened there? Like how many people touch this? And they still got it wrong and they're going to have a huge issue on their end.
Andrew
Yeah, I'm sure we can relate to that as far as like, how do we decide on this? Like why, what is happening here? You have to go back to like, the drawing board. But more than likely I think there was multiple misses along the way. And then it just led to this not so great decision making by everybody.
Andrew
So probably it's not one person, but communication so important, thinking through.
Beth
Thinking through it like they have to think through all possibilities. And it's not that you have to overanalyze, right? Like don't send yourself down a rabbit hole, but like, think through something before you actually make it into your new strategy or new this case, a new product.
Andrew
New product or how to pronounce a crayon Crayola have to learn how to do that now. So it's a new skill.
Beth
I'm going to keep saying bagel bagels.
Andrew
Did you hear it? Oh, my goodness. Julie, what do you got? What you got this week?
Julie
Oh, well, this one's more of a question for you guys because somebody brought it up in a meeting and it made me laugh. So we were talking about a new community, but it's in a brand new market, so not their normal market. They build in one market, different areas in one market, moving to another market. And we were talking through the first community and she was like we were talking through search ads and digital ads.
Julie
And when they were putting a sign up and when it was going on the website and she was like, I don't know, she said, I feel like I'm just missing something or overthinking. She was like, It's really just like any other coming soon. Community that we've ever done. And that made me stop and be like, Well, is it?
Julie
I mean, when you're I just think it's where the conversation, like when you're opening a new community in a brand new market, what's the extra things you have to think about? And for me, it's like I think there's more research that has to be done because you've kind of already have that internal research already done. If you've already opened communities in your area before, like whether you you've like sat down and written that out or not, you, you know, kind of what to expect.
Julie
I also feel like there's some things we need to start earlier because it's a new market kind of on that research part. Like we don't know how long it's going to take to build a list. And then I think also it's a little bit more of that branding messaging. I know like we don't love the branding thing, but there's also there's also you have to think about that two ways because we also got some branding stuff they want to started that didn't even have like the first location price point, like front and center, like it kind of has to start with that.
Julie
But you also have to think about the messaging. So that just got me to thinking there is some different things about opening in a new market you have to think of, but in the end it is just a new community plus some exciting you.
Beth
Can say, Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We had when I was at my previous builder, we went into a new market and we treated it as though it was any other new community that we were releasing. What we were not prepared for was how that market, that area did not want us there, and that made it. It's something that we wish we would have known ahead of time and would have done the research for ahead of time, because then we would have been able to have some time to like do some PR and like really do some grass grassroots efforts and get to know the community more, show them that we're not the bad guys, that we
Beth
really want to build them a beautiful home. And we're not trying to do all of these things right. We would have had the opportunity to do that if the work was done ahead of time. And what we ended up finding out was that they just flat out did not want us there. And we had the hardest time selling that community.
Beth
It was it was not a big community. It was a smaller community. It shouldn't have taken the amount of time that it did, but it took a longer time just because of the reception of us being there. And so I think you make a great point that it is something different and you should take. Going back to the conversations we've had about market research and and really taking the time and effort to do some research, just like Panera probably did for their drink, even though they had.
Andrew
Like the same question, which is so funny, like it's almost the same type of thing. Clarifying questions for you. Beth, Did they not want you there or are they not in my backyard? We don't want new development.
Beth
They did not want new maybe flavor.
Andrew
Both. Okay. And then but then they took like, okay, well, brand name is the face of new development taking what I know change is so evil and bad. Who says it changes the only certainty? You know, I think Kevin says it from someone else, but he changes whatever changes that happened, change CENTCOM. What's that song by SEAL. Good song.
Andrew
Yeah. So to me, yeah, And I agree with both of you. Like it's more on the product research or research of the area, just like Panera. They're getting into the energy drink category, which like, well, let's compare and contrast that. That's fun. The FDA, I don't know this. I did the research because I need to know these things.
Andrew
They limit 300 milligrams of caffeine per serving of this. What is a serving? We could just have like the nozzle, whatever. You just fill up your cup and it's the serving is created by the consumer. You have a cup that holds 4 to 8 ounces, be put ice in. It would have a bit less ice. So there is no serving.
Andrew
So they're starting. That was like the issue. They didn't really do this. How they got away with it, I have no idea which is interesting. But yeah, to me it's like product research really in on the product. What is in the area which you would assume land acquisition does. But I would think also the truth on the other end is like, Hey, we got a great deal on this piece of land.
Andrew
It hits our numbers really well, but then there's maybe some nuances that they're just like, Oh shoot, Like we only got a proof of this. Like, Oh, we really need to transition to a townhome now because the numbers aren't matching up and now you're building townhomes and this is just an example, townhomes in a more rural area where the expectations of acreage or lease space from neighbors to me is significantly higher than when you're like closer to like city center and we're downtown where they're like, Oh, you're fine.
Andrew
Go away. They're like, what, 250,000 for that? And you get like a ten by ten foot backyard. Joking me. And then I see you taking down the trees or a farm, whatever. Maybe I'll send You're the evil people, But you still sold out of that community, I'd imagine.
Beth
Beth It just took a lot and it took a lot longer. It took a lot more money. Marketing efforts to overcome the objections from the top. So, yeah, it was an interesting endeavor, but a good learning experience. And I think like, I never really thought of it, honestly. Julie Until now in terms of the lessons that it could teach you regarding market research and, and public perception of your community coming in and how getting ahead of that can be extremely impactful when it comes to the success of a new community.
Julie
And I've had multiple builders just here recently who are kind of working to get a spot at the table when it comes to land development. They know that they're not going to be like the final decision maker on that. But if you just get to be in there as part of the communication, you can prepare for the challenges that you may be the one responsible for dealing with down the road, and it gives you more time for that market research to be talked about and all these other things.
Julie
So if you can kind of earn enough trust to get you a spot in those conversations, I think that can help a lot too.
Beth
Yeah, I was doing seems like really learned how to do your competitive analysis and and understanding your market because that's how you start earning that trust within your organization that people are realizing that you know the data of what's happening within each market and why certain things are going the way they are or why a product isn't selling our price point might be too high or even why something might be successful.
Beth
Even on the positive side, like your CMA is how you can get your foot in the door.
Andrew
Yeah, I've always liked the idea of putting some like put your feelers out there. Like I don't want give the full details on it because they'll give way too much info with that sense of cryptic. Like people are like waiting. Like, what is.
Julie
It you're trying to.
Andrew
Say? This is like $1,000,000 idea, but there are ways. And if you hear this and you want to know, ask and do I see all access? I mean, this is like a tease setup. You can get feedback from the community even before your building, even before a dollar spent on land, you can get tremendous feedback. How do you feel about this, how you feel about that relatively low cost?
Andrew
And I think that's a really good way for the marketers to be like, Hey, here's something I could do. Here's the expense behind it. Let's get 300 people to give us their feedback. What's the price range you're looking for? What features are you looking for? What do you not want? How do you feel about a developer developing in this area?
Andrew
Be like really generic and then like, Look, you're so unfiltered or something and then you slowly get in the door and hopefully have more input on an acquisition, which is great, and then it's more successful because they're like, Hey, here, 300 people that live there, here's the zip codes, here's maybe a first name or something. You know what they're looking for?
Andrew
Kind of like the middle of the pre-sale process, like, what are you willing to invest where you're looking to invest? Just do that before anything happens.
Beth
Yeah.
Andrew
I think everyone knows what I'm saying. So. Yeah. So what do you got, Beth? Wait. Toilet paper holders. What can they teach us? I'm looking for notes over here that's happening. I need to know about toilet paper holders.
Beth
Yeah, so it actually ties really well into the Panera story. I'm not going to lie. It's a planned.
Andrew
Thing. I went to Panera.
Beth
I know. All right, So her good thing parents clear that up. I one of the things I love about this house is that I was extremely insistent that every single one of our toilet paper holders in this house must be a lover and not one of the spring ones. Those drive me bonkers.
Andrew
Yes.
Beth
And it's.
Andrew
Like ten bucks more for one that.
Julie
I support.
Andrew
Than a metal arm.
Beth
Yes, They're amazing. And they're like every single time after she told me, I'm not mad anymore, I'm just like, Look, look, look. It's just so easy. And I think my husband is less upset about the fact that I'm I'm not leaving like, little bits of toilet paper on the roll because I don't mind actually changing it.
Andrew
So you're the guilty one? I'm the only one. Yeah. Shoot.
Beth
So but the story or the lesson here is that sometimes it's the littlest detail that means the world to someone, Right? And the littlest detail that can make them happy or feel great about a situation. So and sometimes it's a little detail in our marketing that can have a huge difference both positive and negative, like in player's case.
Beth
Yeah. So one of the things that we've been talking about with our builders a lot recently, especially going into November and December, is that there's not going to be a huge pool of people new coming in looking to purchase a home. Right. And a lot of what we need to be focusing on is our details in our in our messaging and our marketing and our budgeting.
Beth
And then the details of how we are communicating with people already in our CRM who have already expressed interest and the ones that are focused on those details, particularly those personalized ones, are the ones that are going to be the most successful within November and December leading into the next year. So just remember you can learn something from toilet paper holders.
Andrew
Yeah, the details make the difference. This is a side by side tangent. Like aren't there things like I think about like when we're living in our home or like let's say those toilet paper holders were like the standard ones included. Like I think all these little things that really don't cost that much money on the product side for a builder can really add up to like people being satisfied with the home that are just like the tiny little things.
Andrew
Like to me, my pet peeve with our house is the distance from the fridge to the island. Like it's rather close. So we have like a little what's counter depth I think is the the name for the refrigerator that's already smaller. I'm like, if we had like a non counter depth refrigerator, it would hit the island. So then we're forced to get the counter depth there.
Andrew
Kind of pain to shop for compared to the regular ones. But I'm like.
Beth
And they're more expensive and more.
Andrew
Expensive. Why didn't they just in my brain, I'm like, why didn't they just like, make I would've been fine with a shorter island, like take off a foot. And now there's like, so much more room to get by because you're like, you opening the fridge up and then it's maybe like half a foot from the island. So you're standing there like, Get everything out for dinner.
Andrew
I put it on the counter, the island behind me making food. This is such a pain so they know it can get by in that spot, which is the main kind of okay way into the kitchen. But I'm like, This could have been such an easy change and actually would have saved money because the island would have been shorter, the builder would have made more money.
Andrew
I would have been happier with the home. That's interesting. Or another one. I'm just ranting for real quick. When you built with our builder. Yeah, the option of having a paver driveway down here in Florida, that's the thing to do. We don't freeze. So there's no issues with that or a concrete porch driveway. And the great thing with them, I don't if all builders do this, but if you want to upgrade to the pay for driveway, they include the cost of the concrete driveway poured to offset the cost of more pavers.
Andrew
It was like $400 more 400 to go pavers on the front, the walkway to to the front door and the back patio. If you do that, like after the fact, it would have, I don't know, ten grand to like have a redone. It looks so much nicer. I'm like, why didn't they just force everyone by? That's not an option.
Andrew
Like, I know it's a.
Beth
Four minute.
Andrew
Profit. You have 75 homes, it's 700 more. But then the community would look so much better and the price for one of the homes, it honestly makes more sense to force that option. Like all these little things like we're talking about, I guess we're really talking about product, which in effect really influences marketing.
Beth
So that is why I was insistent that I be a part of we had what we called I don't want to give the world a name for it. It was like a funky name, but it was basically like, How are we going to value build our product, especially as materials became more expensive, right? So we had a collective of people from different departments coming together marketing, sales, construction, pre-construction, all of them coming together to decide on how we what things we can change and all these things.
Beth
But it's really interesting because a lot of times in, in builders, especially at the production side, the only people making those decisions are the ones who are building the houses or pricing them out. And I think it's really powerful to have the marketing and the sales perspective present in those rooms because they can be the first one to say no.
Beth
Like that is a feature that people love. The reason why they buy this house. You don't the doggy door over the whatever, whatever the dog house in the room under the stairs. No, no, no. That's pretty mine under the stairs. But they call it the dog house or whatever. But it's actually I can't think of the name right now, but it's in the roofline.
Beth
Everyone's going to be laughing at me listening to this podcast, but my brain just stopped working. Okay, well, basically, like they were going to, like, take them out. And we were like, no, that is people love those. Love those.
Andrew
And so dormer a.
Beth
Dormer, dormer dormer, dollhouse dormer. Yes.
Andrew
Thank you. So you mean. Yeah, it looks like a little dog house.
Beth
I mean. Yeah. And so, like, it's it can be it adds it's it adds money, obviously to the exterior of the home and the cost of the home. And it's like, okay, do we really need to need it? We can shave $800 off the price of the home, the cost of billable blah. But like that one feature made it stand out.
Beth
That particular floor plan made it stand out amongst a bunch of others and people loved it. And so you take that away, you're going to start selling less of them. You're not actually making that profit back.
Julie
Well, in Andrew's example, if you made that island a little smaller, you can promote that as a new and improved floorplan. So as a marketer, when you make those changes, people love new things and they love to get, you know, an email about brand new this is improved, so use that to your advantage When you do make more plan adjustments.
Andrew
Our floor plans elevate your living. I don't know. I just made it up, but something where you could have this whole like elegant name go to Chad and ask it to, you know, make a name for you and then change your name slightly.
Beth
And say that if you use the buyer's feedback, like and this Andrew Pete guy kept complaining, we listened and now.
Andrew
These words, but he was like, you.
Julie
Know.
Andrew
It's from South Carolina, so God bless his basil lessons. Oh, man. I think I think that might be for storytime. So let's move on to the news. This one's fine. This is from Zillow. I'm like, What's happening here? So nearly 70%, 77 0% of prospective buyers would buy a haunted house if it checked all their boxes. Is this how desperate people are?
Andrew
Like Jesus, That's that was my feeling on it. Like, if you find something that might be haunted, it might have a basement roommate that you don't know about that comes out at two or three in the morning. But, you know, we can afford the home, so we call like we're good with it.
Julie
No. Would you all, would you all. I'm definitely in the 30%. No way.
Andrew
Way. You're in Louisiana. There's like people that do like voodoo and stuff like that, right? I feel like that's.
Beth
Like, the same.
Julie
With that stuff. I do not mess with it. I'm like, Oh, there's people I'd do that, like, threaten my kids if there's a Ouija board at a sleepover. Do not like I'm very weird about that stuff, but I'm in the 30% that I would pass on the haunted house. No matter how good it was.
Beth
I think when you were younger and the craft was like that movie came out, Do you remember in the nineties when the craft came out? Did you ever do like I remember I, me, my friends were like, obsessed with the craft, which is horrible.
Andrew
What's that? I think of the movie Paranormal Activity like, and that's what people are buying like it's Paranormal Activity, that movie, which was a dumb, dumb movie. I don't, I don't know. I think I would I would pass on a home where there was like, tragedy, like it was known or like, but haunted is kind of like, what's that mean?
Andrew
But if like, hey, like, just so you know. Disclaimer Four years ago, a family of six was murdered here. Okay, we're good. Like, we're gonna pass. No, like, we're we're definitely good, But maybe that's haunted. Maybe that's what they're classifying as something bad happening.
Beth
And I'm not real desperate times.
Julie
I think they should market new homes. Like, definitely not haunted because no one else has lived in this home. And that would be like, sold. You know, that's thrift a lot. Like, I love going to thrift stores and buying stuff. And like, you read these stories about like, you know, people bringing items and then bad like I'm very weird about that stuff.
Andrew
Yeah. You still thrift that's I think that might be why you like a little bit it's kind of dangerous like I'm a go thrift but you know this item who knows it.
Beth
Might get me my.
Andrew
You need like sage it and all that stuff. It's clean, it's cleansed. We're going to throw some holy water on it.
Julie
Like some kind of creepy dolls. No creepy mirrors and, you know, creepy dolls.
Andrew
It's got none of that or no, like, weird basement things going on. Fortunately, I'm in Florida. There's no basements or you're under the water. Yeah, I don't know. This is interesting. I'm put under the interesting category.
Beth
I like their attempt at seasonal content, you know, with the data. Yeah.
Andrew
It's good. It's like, do they want this to go viral? Like, I think there's things companies do like remember a while back, Amazon, they're really pushing this drone delivery and it was before drones were really accessible. Mine's like right behind my chair like you could Amazon to get one and 4 hours like it's right there. This was like, Oh, you have a drone.
Andrew
Oh my goodness. Was crazy. And so they're saying, Hey, we're not going to deliver packages with Amazon Prime via drone. And to me I'm like, this is just a CEO play like they're getting earned media PR and then they're getting 100,000 links pointed to their sites from great websites and that's going to help them rank a bit more.
Andrew
So I'm like Zillow, is that what you're doing? If you're listening, let us know. But you're right, it is timely with October.
Julie
So I want I want a builder to write a blog post about how we can guarantee that your house is not haunted. Okay. Yeah, because it's brand new. There's no one else. I have your.
Beth
Yeah, but I like that messaging better than no toenails. And our carpet.
Andrew
Is that quick. When leaders. I think you're the toenail guy with the use carpet going like do you really want that. Do you think about that. Yeah that's new is you could sell new so much easier. Let's see let's go to the next one. This one didn't work for me, but we'll pull it up here. So this one is from Wall Street Journal.
Andrew
There's never been a worse time to buy instead of rent. I mean, I know what holes I want to poke in this article, so I'll go last. But what did you guys like about it or not? Like about it?
Beth
Well, I couldn't read the whole thing, so because it was restricted. So.
Andrew
But I did include the Twitter. Yeah, the tweet.
Beth
Yeah, that's what I was. I was kind of going through that. And just like the rising cost to buy versus the rising cost to rent. And I think the biggest hold a poke on this, of course, is that people still need to move. Right? Right. And the rent, the cost of rent is still continuing to rise. And so what is the long term cost to you over your lifetime and the lifetime of owning versus not owning?
Beth
You know, the reason why we have purchased three homes at three different duty stations is because now when my husband retires out of the army, we have net worth, we have something. We have accumulated wealth through the home, the homes that we have owned and then rent it out. And so when we sell them, we'll hopefully knock on wood being a good place.
Beth
But we have friends of ours that have moved from state to state, state to state and have never purchase a home before, and they will not have the same wealth when they leave the army and they won't like what are they going to do? They're going to buy for the first time in their forties or fifties, depending on whatever they decide to retire.
Beth
And I mean no judgment like everyone is different. But like the VA loan is such an amazing tool and the cost to rent is actually people are like, Well, when you own you have all these maintenance, you have to do all these things about renting, like you still have to do maintenance, you still have to do repairs. When you move in a move out and security deposit, you have to, you know, sometimes have to pay for places to get painted.
Beth
I mean, we're not discussing, so we don't have to do that. But like, there's there's additional costs that still occur when you're renting and you're paying someone else as well at that.
Andrew
Right. 100% interest. Yeah.
Julie
And you have no control over when your rents get right. I mean it can be a year later. But what I'm saying is, you know what, your mortgage is going to be your paid what you paid for the house at one time before, you know, real estate normally goes up, rent is going to go up. Probably most years.
Julie
So I just think it needs to be back to the research. You need to know what if if you sell a lot of first time buyer homes, you need to know what rents are in your area and you need to be able to have that conversation like Beth was having of the advantages of why.
Beth
Yeah, and there's a bigger picture to this in both directions, right? Like some people just don't have the ability to purchase a home because they can't qualify, because right now the average income needed to qualify for a home average home is like 114 her $15,000 a year. And there's just families that don't have that even at adult income level.
Beth
So like, that is still true and there's still people that can't afford to purchase. And so they are having to rent. But I mean, both are on the rise. That's the reality.
Andrew
Yeah. Both. So the chart we're looking at is from bar chart. It is a Twitter account which really just I understand they just take popular subjects and they throw it into a chart and then it is a great place to, to view them. So to me, the first hold up, okay, this is like this is just the average mortgage and then the average rent.
Andrew
It's not I'm in some of the Florida or ZIP codes that we would find acceptable to live in to make it simpler. 33777337763357. To write rent for those areas for a four bedroom, two bath, 2 to 2500 feet like a family ish home. Right. Maybe it could be a little smaller but like 3500 to 4000 is what you will pay for a detached home for that.
Andrew
That home would sell for around 500, 4 to 500, depending on like what street and like all that sort of thing. So like, this is correct, but I'm like, okay, we still go down to like the individual. I think it is not the most accurate set of data because it's 2700 for what? Like what size home, what mortgage amount is the 18 it's comparing 20 $700 Is the average mortgage now versus 1845 Is the average rent, was that for a two to is that including a bunch of one one studios or one one studios in like outside of downtown or not even close to downtown, which those might be 1200 or 1800.
Andrew
And just comparing all mortgages and X amount of time, which maybe there's everything's gone up, there's less first time homes or like entry level homes. So like that's going to skew up everything already. So I don't think it's I don't think the data is really actually fair or comparable. But everything you guys said is 100% true. Like your mortgage is locked and insurance could change property taxes on change.
Andrew
Those things will continue to rise up. But your actual mortgage is locked in for what it is. And I always thought, you know, rent is 100% interest, like you're losing all that, but then you gain flexibility to move with after your leases up. Or if you could get out of it. Yeah, but how do you but we start to counteract, like if people are seeing articles like this, we still have to sell them otherwise because we still need to sell, but people will.
Beth
Move. There's an interesting lesson here based on everything that you just said.
Andrew
Let's see.
Beth
The circle. Let's see what this looks like. But this is someone taking data and delivering it in a digestible way and creating a story around the data. Right. And every day as marketers, we need to be able to do that. We're sitting here and we're poking holes in all the data and asking relevant questions and telling the different stories that this data could also be potentially showing us.
Beth
So I think like there's a lot of skill that just unfolded in this conversation, that skill that marketers need to be practicing right now.
Andrew
Genius. That's why you're here.
Beth
It just saying just don't deliver charts.
Andrew
And it's one metric, right? But we kind of like kind of get a little whatever. We kind of get some attitude. We're like, this is one metric. It's kind of one metric. There needs to be like square footage, bedroom count, something to like make it a bit more precise versus just average mortgage versus average rent. Yeah, but I.
Julie
Heard not that many. 3000 square foot rentals are not as many as there are 900 square foot rentals.
Andrew
On a percent. Yeah I agree. They need to put like Yeah I don't know Bobby, I don't. There's any mass way to that be applicable to like the whole United States. What third metric to throw in there. I don't know if you want to think about but I'm gonna start following bar chart a lot of finance stuff. Like it's not.
Andrew
Yeah, it's definitely nerdy, but it looks like a lot of fun to go in there.
Beth
And get some inspiration from the charts that you see in the data that's being showcased. How many times you guys get asked, like what data points should I, what metric should I be focusing on? Like.
Andrew
That's such a hard question, isn't it?
Beth
Because it's it's not just like I think our fear and you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, especially you, Andrew, being the ad doctor. Like if you focus on one metric only having a pasty, a self certified Ph.D., but it's.
Andrew
All dollars.
Beth
Even if you only focus on one or two metric points and tell the story around that consistently, then you're missing parts of the story and you're not painting that whole picture.
Julie
Yeah, and everything you need to know doesn't necessarily need to be reported to other people in the company. And leadership like you need to take all that data and then give them something more digestible. If you tried to just dump all the information out, we're telling you to keep track of on other people who don't have any context.
Julie
You're just in for lots of questions and probably conclusions that you didn't want them to reach since they don't have the full story.
Andrew
Yeah, I agree. So I'll lean on my funny Instagram handle and kind of nickname the ad doctor. So I think we've all had bloodwork done. Raw old people here on the podcast aren't me. And so you have like, thank yourself. You're welcome. Everyone's welcome. I feel old sometimes, like I had echocardiogram like two weeks ago, like that's some old people stuff.
Andrew
Who's had one of those antibody a bit Beth has, Yeah, there we go. That's got all the stuff. So if you do your blood work right, you have like p you have like I here's your red blood cell count, here's your inadequate, here's all these things that are related to blood, here's all these related to cholesterol, here's all the very liver, kidney, like two different systems of your body.
Andrew
So we're not doctors on here, but we are marketers. So there's let's say you get your panel on. There's 40 different metrics there, monitoring. They're all connected together and you're like, Oh, Weiser, Hematocrit high. That's like the density of your blood kind of way. You're dehydrated because look down here at this metric, that means you're dehydrated. It's gonna make this one higher.
Andrew
So we need to understand all these things and then explain it to our internal clients, which would anyone you're working with Or like your patients, you can't be like, Hey, look, your matter gets high. You need to. That's not good. You need to go give blood or something. It's like, No, you're saying drink of water. What's wrong with you?
Andrew
So we need to explain it in a way that everyone understands what we're talking about, but we don't need to go into the science all behind it. But we definitely need to understand it. And if we understand it that we can control it, we can manipulate it or have influence on it, and then we can have better outcomes for our patients, whether they're not doctors.
Andrew
So better outcomes for our builder. But if we don't understand it and how are you going to influence those, we might push the wrong levers or do things that will then send it in the wrong direction.
Beth
And the whole point is that you can't understand it by only focusing on two data points. You have to understand how they all work together.
Andrew
Kind of all of them. And over time you'll get a better picture of the whole systems. You're like, Oh, it's all connected. It's all connected. And then you'll have this like, I think epiphany moment. Like, Oh, this is actually not that challenging anymore. Yeah, I guess that's, that's a point. And two or three or four or five years in your career, like what used to be difficult is now like kindergarten level 1 to 1.
Andrew
It's going up and up and up. If you if you love it, if you're passionate about it, then those things will be like, super easy to do. Oh, man. Well, there we go. That's it for the news.
Beth
That when an unexpected root. But I like.
Andrew
It. Yeah, it worked out. It worked out well. Current favorites. Beth, what's your favorite?
Beth
Halloween is big in our house. We actually shared this on I don't know if was a marketing thing call or what of like different family themed Halloween. We are that family that go hard for Halloween. And so like over the years our favorite has been hocus pocus as far where Berkeley and I were. Each of us were a Sanderson sister and my husband was Billy.
Beth
So stay tuned for our family. Call tomorrow, y'all. You might get a peek at that Billy mask. Do it and do it. Just freak everyone out. So, yeah, we've done a ton of stained costumes over the years. We absolutely love it. I'm going to be really heartbroken when my kids are too embarrassed to do it with us anymore.
Beth
But I know that day will come. Having come yet.
Andrew
Like them, they might take a payment.
Beth
Yeah. Bribe them with something. It's fine. Hashtag good parenting. Yeah. So this year, we're. I don't know how we came about this. I forget who came up with the idea, but we're doing hook.
Andrew
Like Peter Pan.
Beth
Yeah.
Andrew
Like Robin Williams way back in the day.
Beth
Yeah, My husband is Hook, so that'll be fun. I'm Wendy Berkley is Tink think about.
Andrew
As in.
Beth
Say, fitting. I think she probably came up with this honestly.
Andrew
Probably the.
Beth
Sound or what.
Andrew
Sounds right.
Beth
It sounds accurate. And then Cullen is Peter Pan and he has a sword, so he is high up.
Andrew
There we go. He's got. He's got the sword. Oh, man, I don't we've never done that. I don't think we've done, like, random things, but like, that's I don't really like the effort of finding a costume, thinking about a costume. There's something I'm like, I don't.
Beth
This is too much.
Andrew
I'm a holiday person, but I'm a holiday person because of the food. So and there's really like, what food is there with Halloween? I like candy.
Beth
But I.
Andrew
Don't I would.
Beth
Eat, but.
Andrew
It's more my.
Beth
Brownies. And you would like it more like bran.
Andrew
Yeah, but. But I mean, it's like Thanksgiving, though, so Thanksgiving is great because you got all the desserts, all the food. Yeah. Julie, you have any current favorites? I'm trying to think of one right now. I know I got one.
Julie
I watched the comedy special by Nate Lagasse. Is that his name? Oh, it was really good. It's clean. And so you can listen to it, like in the car or something. It's on Amazon. The only downside is I had Nate's hilarious. I had heard like half the jokes already on scrolling Instagram, so that kind of ruined part of it.
Julie
But that's worth listening to. And I'm not like a comedy special kind of person. Like, it's just not normally my thing, but it was cute.
Andrew
Yeah.
Julie
I'll think about watching Parks and Rec right now, which I know is old school, but that first.
Andrew
Time or like, is this like a repeat show? You do it all the time.
Julie
I've never watched it all the way through. I mean, we've seen like, that's like a few, but we've never watched it all. And so that's usually what we do. My husband and I, we pick like a sitcom or something and just watch it all the way through like one night. And so that's what we're on right now. So that's fun.
Andrew
Now, why don't I take a long time? We enjoy Parks and Rec. We go to the office, Seinfeld, Parks and Rec, sometimes New girl, we get thrown in there and then like a pop up like we are. This is not a favorite. Definitely not a favorite, but we're watching it. £1,000 Sisters on TLC. Oh, are.
Beth
You and Kevin with your reality TV?
Andrew
I usually don't like reality TV, but this is just so I mean, there's a lot of this is I'll talk about it then I'll tell you my favorite, like the extremes are interesting to me, even though this is like to me, it's really sad. I know there's like, they're kind of funny little things, but I'm like, ooh, like this is truly addiction.
Andrew
Shine I'm not trying to be so serious on this podcast. I got a smile on my face, but like, this is addiction. There's like mental health things to deal with of why do you choose to eat all this stuff? So that's interesting to watch. But say, Shane Gillis, I really enjoyed him recently. As far as comedians go, how did you find Nate Bogosian?
Andrew
Julie Oh, I think for me, I mean, Instagram. Okay, So I found Shane Same thing, Instagram. So that's really interesting as far as like new people to their funnels is Instagram, TikTok.
Beth
Spinning.
Andrew
Reels. So Shane Gillis I think comedy should be on the edge of maybe offending a lot of people, maybe not. And he kind of likes that one.
Julie
He's super clean.
Andrew
He's yeah, he's fun. I like him. But he's gay, right? He's clean. Like the Yvonne. He's from Louisiana. I'm not sure if you know the Avon.
Beth
He. No, I know. Feels like there's probably real world or road.
Julie
Rules that's how. Yeah.
Andrew
So somehow he's like, around for a long time. That's crazy to me like he should've thought. And I think he's hilarious. He's definitely out there like he's he has problems to deal with, but he's, he's funny, he's unique. He's. He's interesting. But so Shangri-Las he's my he's my go to right now as far as comedians go. Let's see.
Andrew
Well that that's it for this week We have anything else to add like we're in charge here bosses way we're we're here to play.
Beth
What's it?
Andrew
Hi, There we go. Well, that is it for this week. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to become a member for free. Do you converse all access community app for home builders and developers? Watch behind the scenes video from the podcast. Frequent exclusive postings and analysis from the USC team. Access to private hangouts and more. Until next time.
Beth
Have a good one. Happy Halloween.
