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Developer Division |
Houston Business Journal reprint week of March 9-15, 2007 by Allison Wollam
Realtors moving in with developers
Martha Turner Properties creates division to work on-site at single family
communities in early stages
Coach Custom Homes CEO Tom Scott came up with the name for his new residential
community in The Woodlands based on the location on Research Forest Boulevard,
but Vannevar of Research Forest isn't exactly a name that rolls off the tongue.
So the new On-site Sales Division at Martha Turner Properties convinced Scott to
drop the name - which was a tribute to Vannevar Bush, the inventor of modern hypertext
research - in favor of the more customer-friendly Founder's Reserve. The name change
appears to be a good decision, especially considering Bush actually went by "Van"
because most people didn't know how to pronounce his name, which rhymes with "achiever".
"(Martha Turner Properties) didn't like the name at all, so we changed it," Scott says
of Founder's Reserve. "They're the professionals, and we are leaving it to them."
Martha Turner's On-Site Division, which operates out of the company's headquarters on
Briar Hollow Lane, also consulted with the developer on floor plans, pricing and a logo
for the Founder's Reserve community.
Traditionally, residential real estate companies are better known for selling individual
existing homes and, sometimes, selling a cluster of homes in a community that is already under way.
Martha Turner's new division is the next step in a trend where traditional realty companies get
involved in the front end of the sales process by partnering with developers in the early stages
of planning.
While that trend has been taking shape for several years, Martha Turner, president of Martha
Turner Properties, says her firm is the first in the area to implement a residential real estate
marketing division that works with developers on-site from the planning stages through the sale
of the last home in the community.
Lorraine Abercrombie, marketing manager for Greenwood King Properties and past president
for the Houston Association of Realtors says some real estate agencies - including Greenwood
King and Martha Turner - provide turn-key on-site services for midrises, townhomes and condos,
but the creation of a specific division by Martha Turner Properties to provide on-site marketing
services to developers of single-family home communities is unique.
Turner says she decided to set up this new arm after noticing a renewed flurry of residential
development and redevelopment taking place around Houston. Many of the new redevelopment projects
are being undertaken by smaller builders that Turner believes can benefit from outside marketing
expertise.
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