Builders respond to buyers' desires

Developers are starting to build model homes to show off their new products now that the real estate market is improving.

New model houses have popped up in developments along the Grand Strand, and some of the builders said that the new designs are a direct response to what they perceive buyers are looking for - ease and affordability.

Sterling Homes recently completed a new model at Waterford Plantation in Carolina Forest - the three-bedroom, two-bath house is smaller and more energy efficient than the houses the company was building during the height of the market a few years ago.

"During the boom, everybody was just ready to go and we had so many houses under construction ... and we could take them through," said Clinch Heyward, a partner at Sterling Homes. "This house was designed for today's market and we felt like we had to build it to show them the difference."

Several years ago when business was booming, buyers wanted bigger homes and could get the financing to buy them, he said. But with the recession, the housing market's struggles and the turbulent stock market, buyers now have less money and are looking for value in their purchases, Heyward said.

The easiest way to cut cost is to build a smaller home, so Sterling Homes decided to design a smaller, lower-cost home that would maintain the quality and look big but save the buyer money, Heyward said.

"As a builder you need to provide what the market desires," he said.

While most of the homes it used to build cost more than $300,000, this new model comes in at about $279,000.

Sterling Homes last built a model home about five years ago. The market is starting to show signs of improvement, so it was a good time to have the model ready to show potential buyers.

"You build a model in anticipation of something good happening," Heyward said. "You want this model to be there at the turn of the market."

Dawol Homes, which opened a new model at The Gates near Surfside Beach, focused on preserving quality while reducing the price as much as possible. The house is also built to Energy Star standards to provide continued savings for the buyer over time, said Rob Clemons, Dawol's operations director.

"[We] decided to go in a different direction," he said. "We decided to go with something that will be more user friendly."

Originally, the plan was to build more of the four-plex townhome style condos that are already in the area, but challenges getting construction loans led Dawol to change plans and design the single-family villa style home on the same space.

"We really had to adjust our whole mind-set to get into something that was more cost effective," Clemons said. "It's just a different enough product that you almost have to build it to give someone the visual."

A three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom, 1,800 square-foot house at The Gates costs about $144,900.

"Like most builders who are trying to get the numbers low, we're taking it to the bottom line," Clemons said. "We're working on lower margins than before."

The Myrtle Beach division of Lennar Corp. has built several model homes in more than one area community in recent months. New models opened at Emmens Preserve near The Market Common to show a new product line, said Susan Martin, the director of sales and marketing for the Lennar Corp. in Myrtle Beach. The company didn't stop building models during the downturn but has built them when it wants to show a new type of home it is offering.

Martin said that as soon as the models opened sales picked up and business has been good in the first half of the year.

"It's very important to be able to have a customer to see, touch and feel what you do and feel like they're walking into their own home," she said. "It's extremely important for them to be able to see it."