49 Home Sales In One Day

Crosswinds Communities, headquartered in the Detroit area, recently enjoyed huge success with a lottery that resulted in 49 home sales in one day in its 727-acre, award-winning master-planned community, The Sanctuary, in Ovieda, Florida.

While most lottery-style sales are used when demand far outstrips supply, Bob Kanjian, president of Building Solutions, who handles marketing and on-site sales for The Sanctuary, says, "We created a new twist on the lottery format whereby we actually created more urgency than had previously existed." The lottery was touted in newspaper ads and on the builders' Web site. Sixty participants who had completed an in-depth registration process attended the festive event and paid a $10,000 deposit.

As names were drawn every 15 minutes, the chosen registrant selected one of 65 home sites, a model, and an estimated completion date from the remaining options. With every fifth name that was drawn, home prices increased by $2,000. At the end of the day, home prices increased by $17,000.

The community opened for sale in January 2003 and will contain 774 homes at build-out. The Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando awarded The Sanctuary with two first-place awards in its 2004 Parade of Homes.