The Art of the Tour

Tours and traffic go hand in hand with both real estate and senior communities. People need to tour a community as part of their decision making process. Often there are multiple tours and visits even involving friends and families. These decisions at this point in someone's life are big decisions and not taken lightly.

A community in NJ takes a different approach to tours. The CCRC discourages walk-ins. If you spontaneously decide you want to visit, you can't see the community without a prearranged appointment.

Tours and appointments are booked 14 days in advance of a visit. They are conducted in 2 parts--residents show the community first to visitors and then there is a meeting with a sales counselor who explains the financial aspects of the community. The community only has two tours per day. Tours are not based on the customer's schedule--it's the availability of residents.

While the community is happy to send a brochure kit with mailing costs of $2.50 or more, no telephone followup is conducted to establish a next step.

In today's approach to the selling of senior housing, this is a new strategy to me.

We recommend discovery between an experienced sales person and the customer. This may take 30-45 minutes and follows a track of give and take questions to build rapport, learn customers' interests and needs and establish a profile of the specific customer. Residents showing off the real estate aren't conducting discovery.

Presenting financial aspects is a secondary part of the presentation. A person first needs to decide they like it before they can determine the affordability. And who knows? What someone first says they can afford to pay may be entirely different--remember the term move up buyer.

While every community discourages walk-ins and prefers appointments, there is a place for these drop-in spontaneous visits. As customers become more "boomer-like" and want it all about them....the "by appointment only" and "only twice a day community" may find itself with far more vacancies than the competition.