[list]We did our "lifestyle experience" when TV still used the "street of dreams" (SOD) concept. Never having purchased a brand new house, we were looking forward to the experience. It was a bit of a downer when we arrived to make our decision in May, 2006 to find that the SOD concept has been discontinued at about the end of 2005.
When I asked our sales rep (a terrific, honest, friendly and very experienced rep) why and whether she thought it was better or worse for buyers to have the SOD "taken away" and replaced with the "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) approach, she answered as follows...
- She thought it was actually better for the home buyer to be able to see the house they are considering in a neighborhood, with landscaping installed. She went on to say that people had a terrible time picking out a lot once they had selected the model they wanted. She said that a lot of her clients found it very difficult to picture their house on a lot marked only with stakes, on a big wide open parcel of dusty land.
- She said that, yes the street of dreams was nice but that a lot of people complained about having to come back to TV for a whole week to go thru the process of picking out every feature, color and upgrade for their new house.
- Lastly, and maybe most important, she explained that it's not as if TV doesn't know what people want in their Villages homes. She explained that over 10,000 houses have been built in TV and (at the time) they were building 300-400 a month. So their designers had a vast amount of statistical knowledge about what was being ordered in the SOD and based their design decisions under WYSIWYG on that information once SOD was discontinued. (Interestingly, she used that as an explanation of my question of why we never saw whirlpool tubs in Villages houses. She explained that they used to be offered in the SOD, but almost no one ever chose that upgrade. So now you will never see a whirlpool tub in a "spec" home.)
But how about the "common sense" reason for why SOD was discontinued? I used to finance real estate and the reason is obvious. Under the SOD concept, TV did the land and amenity development and then released a neighborhood, maybe 400-500 lots, for sale. It might take 45 days to sell those homes. After selling the lots, about 45-60 days later the buyers came back to TV to go thru the SOD. Once they made their choices their house would be completed and ready for closing in 45-60 days. So when you add up all the time, TV had to hold 400-500 homes at varying stages of construction in inventory for between 5-6 months.
Under the current "WYSIWYG" sales system, TV can control the level of inventory of unsold homes to a level less than a 5-6 month supply. The financing costs, insurance, maintenance and security for new unoccupied houses can run up pretty quickly. If TV could cut the level of home inventory available for sale from 6 months down to 4 months, as an example, the cost savings would be significant.
So, in my humble opinion, the discontinuance of the SOD was done for some combination of the reasons given by our sales rep and the cost savings that could be achieved with a WYSIWYG sales approach.
Will SOD come back? Who knows? But if it hasn't be re-adopted during the last year or so of reduced sales levels, I'd guess it's doubtful.