Harbor Bay Case Study: Stalled Utah Community Sold Out in 11 Months

The situation

E Builders had a lakeside community in Saratoga Springs that had stopped moving. Roughly a dozen lots, and a handful of finished spec homes that had been standing empty for months.

Standing inventory is the expensive kind. A vacant lot costs a builder patience. A finished spec home costs money every month it sits, and it quietly tells every visitor that nobody else wanted it either.

In May 2015 E Builders announced a partnership with our team to take over sales and marketing for the community.

What was actually wrong

The lots were not overpriced. They were priced at $179,900, which was defensible for what they were.

The problem was that Harbor Bay was being sold the way every other community in Utah County was being sold: as lots, floor plans and a build timeline. Roughly six months to build, dues around $169 a month, choose your plan.

None of that is a reason to pick Harbor Bay over anywhere else. The reason was sitting right there and nobody was saying it out loud. It is on the water.

What we changed

The centerpiece was a video that does not mention a price, a floor plan or a square footage, and never puts an agent on camera. It shows what living there looks like.

That video became the thing every ad pointed at. We ran it as a video ad and a still ad in parallel on paid social from May 2016, aimed at the buyer who wants water and space and has no idea this exists twenty minutes from the office.

We also stopped selling one product. A buyer who will wait six months for a build and a buyer who wants to move in next month want different things, and a single sheet of lot prices speaks to neither. The standing spec homes went to the second buyer as their own offer, which is what finally cleared them.

The result

The community sold out in about eleven months, lots and standing spec homes together. By May 2016 we were down to the last two lots, and the final ones closed out over the following months.

The relationship outlasted the project. E Builders and our team worked together for years afterward, including on their Parade of Homes entries, where their homes took awards including a Judge’s Choice.

Why this matters if you are a builder

Most stalled communities we get called into have the same shape. The product is fine. The price is roughly right. What is missing is a reason to choose this one, stated in a way a buyer feels rather than reads.

If you have lots that are not moving or specs that have been standing too long, that is a conversation worth having before you discount. Call or text 801-999-8005.

What we actually changed

A stalled community is rarely a pricing problem alone. Harbor Bay had a real advantage nobody was being told about.

01 Led with the lake, not the lot. Harbor Bay sits on the water in Saratoga Springs. The inventory was being marketed as lots and floor plans, which is what every other community was selling too.

02 Made a lifestyle video instead of a listing video. No pricing, no floor plans, no agent to camera. It showed what a Saturday there actually looks like, and it became the thing we pointed every ad at.

03 Ran video and still ads as a pair on paid social, targeted to the buyer who wants water and space and does not know this exists twenty minutes from work.

04 Sold the lots and the standing spec homes as two different products to two different buyers. A buyer who wants to build in six months and a buyer who wants to move in next month are not the same person, and one listing sheet cannot speak to both.

05 Held price where it was earned. When the last few lots came down to it, the conversation with the builder was about which lot to discount and when, not about a blanket cut.

The last lots closed inside the first year. E Builders and our team went on to work together for years afterward, including their Parade of Homes entries.

Harbor Bay: A Stalled Lakeside Community, Sold Out in 11 Months