To give today’s buyers what they want in a home, you must first understand what they want in a location. Coldwell Banker’s new “Best Places to Live” campaign is pioneering a new lifestyle-based style of home searching, highlighting the idea that the way we view homeownership, and what we look for in a home, is changing.
“We are going back to the more traditional ways of judging the value of a home, and not solely looking at it through the financial lens,” says David Siroty, Coldwell Banker’s vice president of Communications. “Instead, the emotional and lifestyle value is critical.”
The campaign features a new way to evaluate communities; unlike a traditional real estate survey that looks at prices and home styles, Best Places to Live helps interested buyers decide what location is ideal before they even begin thinking about square footage and bathroom count.
Working exclusively with Onboard Informatics, the company’s new campaign is sectioned into five categories (lifestyle aspects) that buyers can use to search: Social Seekers; Suburbanites; Adventurers; Leisure Lovers; and Culture Cravers.
Buyers can decide what is important to them—be it the music and art scene, a close proximity to the mountains or the ocean, or an ideal commute—and base their home search around those aspects. By matching them first with their ideal location, and then their ideal home, Coldwell Banker is working to enrich the overall quality of life that each individual will find in their new home.
The project is backed with extensive research; Coldwell Banker and Onboard Informatics analyzed up to 20 different attributes for each category, ranking thousands of communities for each individual search.
With Onboard Informatics’ tools, Coldwell Banker’s search engine is designed to shed light on the cities, towns and communities that are rated best in each category—both nationally and by state—so the client has the best chance of finding a location that is compatible with their ideal lifestyle.
“Our most progressive clients are creating innovative ways to increase traffic to their sites while forging valuable relationships with consumers throughout the research-intensive buying process,” says Jonathan Bednarsh, president and COO of Onboard Informatics. “Coldwell Banker has been an extraordinary partner to work with because of their focus on keeping consumers’ evolving needs and habits front and center.”
This is not Coldwell Banker’s first time working with Onboard Informatics; the two companies have had a partnership for nearly 10 years, working together to create unique initiatives geared toward changing the real estate conversation. Siroty notes that the tech and data company is always incredibly instrumental in creating the scope of their projects. “We went to them asking if we could do it, and they not only said yes, but showed us how to do it. We have a trust in them that allows the program to succeed.
“The Best Places to Live series is just another way that Coldwell Banker works directly with consumers to provide them necessary tools so that they can prepare for the buying process,” says Siroty, who believes that the destination site is part of a continuing evolution of the business.
“We continue to lead the real estate industry in ‘changing the discussion’ away from looking at homeownership solely through the financial lens,” concludes Siroty.
For more information, visit www.onboardInformatics.com or bestplaces.coldwellbanker.com.
