How hard is it to get prospective new homebuyers to drive out to the hinterlands to walk through, let alone purchase a new home? Just to get them to hit the highway, homebuilders across the nation are going to great lengths.

According to a recent report by BUILDERonline.com, Kimball Hill Homes is giving away a $50 gas card just to entice people to take a stroll through their model homes, Maryland-based Ryan Builders gives non-contingent buyers a choice of covering closing costs or receiving a $5,000 gas card, and Parkside Custom Homes will give you $100 in gas per week for 100 consecutive weeks just for buying one of its two spec-built homes at Eagle Mountain Lake in Dallas.

Other builders around the country are asking people to register to win gas cards for their visit to new home communities. Iincentives like this lure people to a building site they may otherwise not visit, according these builders' executive marketing teams. Some builders even extend rewards to real estate agents for accompanying their clients to a subdivision, where salespeople use them as a "thank you" gift just for visiting.

BUILDER also reports homebuilding giant Beazer Homes held an internal sales contest by offering the year-long use of a branded Smart Car to the division with the highest sales percent to goal. The winner? Their Charleston division, selling 75 homes and exceeding their sales goal by 50 percent. The car is covered with logos announcing Beazer's newly-launched eco-friendly initiative, eSmart.

Published: July 22, 2008

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.