Model Merchandise

As season arrives, area builders and designers gear up for what has become a favorite pastime for many in Southwest Florida: touring home models. In communities all over, these pricey interiors will get plenty of oohs and ahs from visitors traipsing through them from now until spring. Although many visitors to these show places are actually in the market for a home, just as many come to look at the latest and greatest homes and bone up on design trends.

So popular is model viewing that many civic groups sponsor tours, social occasions complete with chamber music and refreshments, charging admission and giving proceeds to nonprofit organizations.

Since at least the late 1930s, the model has been the obvious means of showcasing a builder's product. In the 1940s and 50s, people were lured to models and new communities with the enticement of an automobile raffle or the promise of novelty items.

Donna Grose, interior designer and president of Donna Grose Inter-iors in Naples, remembers seeing her first model in West Palm Beach in the mid-'60s.

"They didn't have any furniture in them," she remembers. "That was old-time Florida, nothing like today. The model was there for the builder to show that the floor was terrazzo and to give people an idea of where the kitchen and dining room were. Back then, builders were just selling houses."

Times have changed. Today's models are decked out.

Michael Peel, president of Gulf-stream Homes, a semi-custom home builder with annual sales in excess of $25 million, understands the importance of the model. The company has model homes in six communities in Collier and Lee counties. Three years ago, Gulfstream began gearing up to sell homes in Indigo Preserve, a custom-home community in Naples' Indigo Lakes with prices starting in the low $500,000s. During the first two years of planning, working with the developer and building its model, Gulfstream sold three homes. As soon as the model was complete and a grand opening was held, the company's offerings sold out in three months; of 70 homes to be built at Indigo Preserve, Gulfstream Homes will build approximately 45.

"Not only is it a success, but it did not become a success until our model was complete," says Peel. "The model is absolutely an important part of our business plan."

Models are crucial in selling to sophisticated buyers in a competitive market, Peel explains: "There is just a whole different level of expectation from buyers today at any price point than there was even five years ago. The Internet has changed the purpose of a model as well. People create their short list via the Internet."

By the time prospective buyers walk through a model's front door, he explains, they've often spent time online refining their search. They have a pretty good idea of how much they want to spend, where they want to live and builders they like. Many have visited the builder's Web site to review floor plans and standard features for homes and communities.

So when that savvy homebuyer walks through the front door of a model, you can be sure that a great deal of effort has gone into making the experience memorable. Indeed, today's models are outfitted with memory points, features to be remembered.

"If you just build the home and use one color throughout, people will miss the home's potential," says Debbie DeMaria, president of Vogue Interiors, an interior-design firm with considerable model experience. "If there is no architectural detail added, many times they just can't visualize the builder's talent. There is no romance in an unfurnished home. We want a person to say, 'Wow! I could live here.'"

Architectural details, accessorizing and the use of space are all part of the formula in a successfully merchandised home.

"The whole approach has changed so much in the 25 years I've been in business," DeMaria says. "On the one hand, builders are now relying more on interior designers from the get go. With details such as ceiling treatments and molding, we add so much interest to a home without taking away space. On the other, these homes appear so naturally warm and inviting. If we've done our job, buyers will not realize the planning that's gone into the model from day one. If they only knew."

The average size of a new home today is 2,324 square feet, compared with 1,660 square feet in 1973, according to U.S. Census data. The challenge for a designer is to make larger rooms and soaring ceilings appear inviting.

"Basically, we just come out and show them how they can live in that house," says DeMaria. "Not only will we outfit the rooms with correctly proportioned furniture, but if it's a $5 million home, we know that the target market is people who are sophisticated in their tastes. Usually, they're well traveled, educated, probably have several homes and will recognize, appreciate and react to the pricey furnishings or antiques and the high-end fabrics that we will use."

More than ever before, models are helping to sell upgrades. When people see all that something can be, they often have a hard time settling for anything less. The idea of merchandising is quite the opposite of what went on in the models of yesteryear, when builders included everything nailed down in the purchase price. Today, those offered a huge selection often select upgrades.

Peel describes the process at a Gulfstream Home residence at Indigo Preserve: "If we were going to sell a custom home for $650,000 with our standard package, we would probably add $100,000 in options to show in the model, and probably another $100,000 in furnishings."

National builders are leading the charge to make the model a significant profit center. Toll Brothers, the nation's leading luxury-home builder, has sales centers next to models at Belle Lago, its single-family home community in Estero, at Palmira Golf and Country Club in Bonita Springs and at Naples Lakes and Country Club. So successful are these ventures, the publicly traded builder has now opened a 4,000-square-foot regional design center in Bonita Springs.

"A design center helps a builder up-sell options, but it also helps buyers who appreciate dealing with trained professionals," says Ken Thirtyacre, assistant vice president at Toll Brothers' South-west Florida division. "The incredible selection of flooring, plumbing fixtures, cabinet doors, counter tops and everything else, all right there on display, adds value for our homebuyers."

As the real estate arena has become more competitive, finishing a model has developed into a state-of-the-art endeavor. At Toll Brothers' professionally merchandised models, temporary bathroom closet and kitchen pantry doors have glass fronts to eliminate any mystery. Likewise, a home's structured wiring is on display behind a Plexiglas panel.

"In the late '70s in California, interior designers began to specialize in furnishing builders' homes to help them enhance their sales," explains Glenn Midnet, president of Design Group West in Naples. "There is no emotional excitement when you walk into an empty house with no color, no furnishings, no art and no accessories. What we're trying to do is create the personality and appeal to excite buyers' emotions."

Midnet speaks from experience. Design Group West, a full-service design firm, merchandises more than 50 models a year for different developers throughout the state. The firm has been recognized with 30 model-merchandising awards in the past five years; five at the 2004 CBIA Sand Dollar Awards.

"Models have been around for years, but prior to the '70s, builders did not take the time or money to merchandise them," Midnet explains. "Builders have finally embraced the fact that with a good budget, a home with added features helps them not only to sell real estate but to sell those added features."

Depending on the target market, a model's allure might include a custom bookcase holding photos of a happy family or a formal library containing original artwork. "We want to make a very strong first impression with memory points that will remain with the buyer, so that that they come back for a second look," Midnet explains.

The goal of model merchandising is to design a home that will appeal to a wide audience. Builders and designers report that in this market, homes are sold lock, stock and barrel. Not so in other parts of the country, where models are often sold without the furniture, which is auctioned at a deep discount.

In Southwest Florida, stylish settings are usually sold completely furnished right down to the towels and sheets. Forgoing anxiety over selection of window treatments and light fixtures, model buyers opt instead to pack their bags and move right in.

"Models have come a long way," says Toll Brothers' Thirtyacre. "Builders used to furnish them with just enough to give people an idea of space-maybe with a queen-size bed in the master, and twin beds in the children's room. Now we make our models so that you could pull your car into the garage, walk in and live there."