Marketer looks to ease condo-buying process
A year or so ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Cliff Bowman. Cliff owns a couple companies. One, Builders International Real Estate Marketing Corp., is “a Vancouver-based company specializing in pre-marketing condo, office and mixed-use developments across the United States and Canada.” Basically, a developer would hire the company to do all its marketing for one or more new condo developments.
Another is the Global Condo Center, which is basically an on-line marketplace to find out more about different condo projects around the country (er, meaning Canada), North America (that includes us!), or the Globe.
This summer I caught up with Cliff at the semi-annual Inman News Conference, in San Francisco (the next one will be held in New York City in January).
He was all “hush-hush” about one of his new ventures.
But, he’s now announced it to the general public.
From Inman News:
Cliff Bowman, the Vancouver, B.C.-based marketing expert who has turned pre-selling condominium buildings into an industry art form, has taken his online condo idea to retail stores. His Urban and Resort Condo Centers offer consumers a menu of popular destinations and in-city projects while providing developers and builders a downtown sales presence for a fraction of the cost of finding and leasing their own building …
… Located in downtown storefront locations, each condo center is designed as an “open house” retail environment. A variety of developers provide scale models, floor plans, virtual tours and interactive visuals – typically the same sales tools provided at a resort’s onsite sales office.
Condo centers are currently operating in Vancouver and Calgary. More than 800 are planned and are coming soon to Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Baltimore and Boston.
The retail Global Condo Centers will be set up to help developers (and their sales teams) at any point in time – pre-launch, or during the regular sales cycle, or as a satellite office in a completely different city (or country), or as a “close-out” sales center.
Presumably, a lot of the people interested in this sort of thing will be looking for second or vacation homes or fractional share properties, but might be a way for buyers to see a lot of “regular” developments (perhaps through a single sales team / office?)
I think this is an awesome idea. As the article mentions, plans are for a center to open in Boston, sometime in the near future (I’m guessing Fort Point Channel area, but that’s just a guess … unless he told me that and I forgot it …).
Congratulations, Cliff. Sounds like an idea whose time has come.
And remember, Cliff, your secrets are always safe with me!
(His company has also set up a community on Second Life, where you can navigate each of the projects in 3D …)
Source: New way to target ‘lock-and-leave’ lifestyle – By Tom Kelly, Inman News, by way of Mortgage101.com