Gibsons Development - Soames Place

[Skook]

December 21, 2013 Update:

The Sunshine Coast’s weekly newspaper, Coast Reporter, includes a few pages devoted to Real Estate ads in each week’s addition. The CR titles this insertion - “Real Estate Weekly” (.pdf download). It averages 4 - 8 pages depending on the time of year.

In yesterday’s edition, December 20th, Soames Place had a new ad. I was all set to offer my congratulations since the ad announced “Over 20% Sold”, but on sober second thought my excitement was tempered. You see, I went back and looked at the spreadsheet and nothing has changed since my initial November 13th post.

The spreadsheet indicates that on November 4, Soames listed 22 of its total 28 condo units on MLS and up until two days ago not one of those 22 listed units has sold. Now, if you do the calculation, those 6 units not listed represent 21.4% of the total - right, so this is must be where that “Sold” percentage comes from in the ad.

So, I headed to the Soames Place website after this realization and sure enough those six unlisted units are now indicated as “SOLD” on the floorplans. Now, there is no MLS data to indicate they have sold outright, so if they have sold then it must be via a “Contract to Purchase.” So, sometime between November 29th and December 20th, those six units were technically “Sold.” Why do I say it had to occur after November 29th?

Well, it is always interesting to watch how new developments progress and much can be learned from their advertisements. So, here are the Soames Place adverts to date. The four come from the Coast Reporter 'RE Weekly' feature and a December 4th Soames Place Facebook posting shows a picture of the CR November 29th ad. See, these sales had to have occurred after the 29th. There were no adverts placed locally for the project after the 29th until the one in the Coast Reporter yesterday.

Hmmm, notice with yesterday’s ad the starting price has now increased. And, that “Limited time incentive” mentioned at the bottom of November 22nd advert to get 10% "of" the unit of your choice is likely over - can't imagine that appealed to very many.

Right, so according to yesterday’s newspaper ad Soames Place is happy to announce “Over 20% Sold.” Now, here is something that really has me stumped. As I mentioned in the initial post above, the Realtors marketing this project have turned to social media, Twitter and Facebook to be exact, to promote and garner interest. You would think that if anywhere they would want to “shout out” this sales information it would be via these immensely popular sites; but, not a word, not a peep, not a tweet. I’ve just checked both sites again - nada. This is a mystery.

However, this silence regarding the sales might be for the best because I think “technically speaking” the “Over 20% Sold” is, perhaps, optimistic and it has to do with the two units Soames Place is required to set aside for social housing - something it had to do to get its rezoning and this, too, is mentioned in my first post. So, if we remove those two units that have been set aside but given the market competition likely haven't been sold (see picture of all listings in area in 1st post), then this reduces the “Over 20% Sold” to “ Over 14% Sold.” And, three of those remaining four units now indicated as sold are the only units larger than 1000sf and all are up there on the fourth level. All three gone and so fast, too, which has to be a relief for the developer.

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I mentioned in my initial post I am honestly fascinated with the decision to market this development via social networking. This is partly due to exploring Facebook back in 2007 for my own internet business. I decided it wasn’t worth the time and effort and never regretted that decision given how Facebook has subsequently handled the private information of its members. Since 2007, I have followed tech news closely and everything I have read regarding social media has me avoiding it like the plague.

However, my avoidance doesn’t mean I want to be ignorant of the way it functions especially given the fact it has become so pervasive as a marketing and advertising tool for business; besides, I just like to know how stuff works. So, I have been doing some research on the use of Facebook by business and by real estate in particular as a means to reach customers and clients and I have gained some interesting insights and hope to share them with you in an upcoming post.

I would have to say that based on what I understand unless the local Realtors involved here are willing to dig deep into their own pockets this use of Facebook and Twitter for this project will go nowhere. I have taken a few screenshots to show you what I mean. On the right, you can see how Twitter has been used - actually “not” used. Only two tweets - November 19th and 24th - and see no mention of the “Over 20% Sold” - why not when this is exactly the sort of info you want to send out?

Facebook is the one to really keep your eye on. Those screenshots were taken yesterday and so far there are 91 like which means zip if those likes are from the developer and his family, friends of the Realtors, and those involved with FIRE industries on the Sunshine Coast. There are probably a few past Realtor clients thrown in for good measure but they don’t seem to be much help expanding the fan base. The graph shows that interest picks up around posts but it is very short lived. The last FB post was on December 4th when a picture of the December 4th Coast Reporter ad (see above) was posted. Since then, no mention on this important social media tool of the “Over 20% Sold” - again, why not? Wouldn't this be the sort of info to get everyone "talking about you"?

One interesting stat is in that FB ‘Page Insights’ box where the ‘Most Popular City’ for responses went from being Vancouver for the initial posts around November 1st, to Gibsons for the next small flurry of posts starting November 18th and now there is no ‘Most Popular City’ at all. The reach of or interest in this site seems to be contracting. But, it is December and without a doubt there will be a flurry of posting come January. Or, maybe that new CR ad will be posted in the days ahead.

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As an aside:

Social media has also gained in popularity with criminals, hackers and spammers. There was a great read the other day in the Vancouver Sun concerning how city author Steven Galloway ('The Cellist of Sarajevo' - excellent, excellent novel) had some fun over two days with a phishing scam on his FB page. The VanSun displayed this back and forth communication in its entirety and it is absolutely hilarious. If you missed it, here is the link and be prepared to ROFLOL.