Model Home Memo

Memo 2 While working as the Community Coordinator in a model home there have been several learning objectives that I have been able to achieve so far. First, in order to improve problem solving skills I have focused on the communication piloting to the last impression our homebuyers have immediately leading up to their closing. Once a homebuyer closes their home the relationship that has been building the past 10 or so months fades out. However, the last impression can hurt or help us since the subdivisions I work in have a close-net community. Information spreads quickly with our customers and prospective. Our homeowners are asked to give feedback at closing to rate our communication during the process. Communication plays an important role
to our homebuyers and prospects because if the word spreads about us being neglecting during the process, prospective buyers are not going to want to work with us. After working on my communication skills these past several months by being sure to respond to every email, message and making time for people who come in to the model home, our surveys have improved in the communication section. I also have been able to advance my learning objectives with research and data collection.
I have visited nearby communities and gathered their brochures which include pricing, promotional upgrades, floor plans and incentives. By gathering this information I am able to see what our competitors are offering their clients. After gathering this information I also able to inform my prospective buyers how buying a home with us benefits them compared to our neighboring communities. I appear to be knowledgeable when I am able to tell them information about my competitors which can help validate what I know about my own
community. In order to delegate new tasks and responsibilities my sales manager has let me learn more about some of his objectives, like writing a contract with a buyer or giving them descriptions of our addendums while they sign paperwork. I have also been able to give the buyers weekly updates about their home under construction. By learning these new tasks I am able to also learn more about the construction process the timeline while delivering a new home. I also learned how to make plan orders which help me understand more about the structural aspects of the home. For example, what items are required to be on a blue print and what items cannot be added after a blue print is already made, like plumbing. My company puts emphasis on the word “value” as their statement. This includes, quality, customer satisfaction and the value homebuyers receive when we allow for custom changes in the homes we deliver at a builder cost. My company holds dear to them that they are a privately owned company. Our company website illustrates that they put their customers first and deliver exceptional customer service. While this may have been true at this companies start, I may have to disagree to a degree for outcomes that are happening presently. No decision is made without contemplating what it will cost the company, and sometimes it doesn’t cost the company anything when there is a problem. They back charge some of their employees personally for mistakes and problems that may arise. From my point of view, the corporate office is intimidating because they are not very open with communication. For instance, we have two present leaders that work on a daily basis. One that operates and accepts contracts, makes decisions on who is paying for what during the building process, what we will give or not give to our consumers. The other deals with the financial aspects closer to the closings and completed construction. This person also hires, fires and is supposed to collectively assign sales managers to their selling locations with the other company leader. The problem is, the two do not get along or even speak to each other. For example, two weeks ago a homebuyer signed off on their home. Per our contract, they must close within 5 days of signing off the house. However, this person’s loan was not ready and the financial leader of the company insisted we collected a fee from this homebuyer before he will be able to close since he breached part of the contract. My sales manager did not want to charge this customer this fee because he has been great to work with the past several months and specifically, not a problem customer. This specific customer has invested and is buying 2 additional homes which have yet to be finished. We begged for our financial leader to waive this fee because our office has built a great relationship with him and he has been reasonable during the entire process, yet she refused. However, the other person in charge at corporate agreed with my sales manager in that we should not charge this buyer this fee of $800 for his lender not being ready. To avoid the backlash my sales manager would experience if our agreeing corporate leader overruled the other, he and my sales manager had to become creative. My sales manager issued a cashier’s check from his personal bank account and submitted it to corporate as if the buyer had taken out the cashier check. Then, my boss had to expense the money he used to be paid back by the corporate office. This clearly is an example of how closed and un-valued the decision making process is. The model home which I work is both formal and informal.
As far as dress code goes, employees who work in the model home dress in business casual, never in jeans. I have never been to the corporate office but when my sales manager goes every week he dresses in business casual as well. Aside from dress code, there are people in the workplace where you can behavior only formally with or informally with. There are co-workers who we only discuss business matters with and others we can go out to lunch with and speak on personal matters. Like most businesses there is politics. Some co-workers are rumored to be friends with the higher ups and we feel like we cannot talk to them how we talk to some other employees. For those employees we talk strictly
business. This memo covers the month of October (the 1st through the 27th) – typically 29 hours a week. There has been no major change to my weekly schedule.