6 best-selling homes that hit buyers’ hot buttons

If you look closely at a builder’s top-selling home design, several things will become apparent. For one, it typically isn’t the largest or most elaborate in the portfolio. Also, in most cases, the floor plan creates long sightlines and takes advantage of natural light. Most rooms serve more than one purpose. The front elevation is attractive but not over designed. And the plan incorporates details that stay in the buyer’s memory.

It pays to keep the elements of good design top of mind whether you’re developing new plans or reworking old ones. “We push ourselves to find new ways to do simple floor plans,” says Rob Bowman, president of Charter Homes and Neighborhoods in Lancaster, Pa. “We spend a lot of time thinking through garage placement and design. And we tell our people, ‘Nobody pays for complexity behind the drywall.’ What they do pay for are details, such as that little wall that separates the living room and the dining room.”

When asked how they’re marketing the homes featured in this article, builders invariably mention Facebook and Twitter. But for a blockbuster like DSLD’s Reims plan, no special tactics are required. “We aren’t currently offering any promotions on this home because we haven’t needed to,” says Saun Sullivan, senior partner of DSLD Homes in Denham Springs, La.

1. Trading Up Made Easy

Plan: Davis
Square footage: 2,397
Date introduced: December 2010
Sales to date: 9
Builder/designer: Charter Homes, Lancaster, Pa.

Base-priced at $222,990, the four-bedroom Davis targets “buyers who want to move up as efficiently and affordably as possible,” says Charter Homes and Neighborhoods’ president Rob Bowman. It features a living room and dining room designed as one shared space but visually divided by a low wall.

The Davis also has a second-floor game room, a feature that most competitors don’t offer at this square footage, Bowman says. “That space seems to resonate with people, whether they use it as a game room, a study, or a place for the kids to watch television.”

Like all of Charter’s designs, the Davis features long sightlines and a large number of windows. “The loft and staircase on the second floor line up with the game room, so you can actually see the front and back of the home from that space,” he says.

First-floor options include an English garden room, a sunroom, and a morning room. By far, the most popular is the morning room. Bowman says, “It brings a ton of light into the kitchen and gives buyers a space that can be a separate sitting area or another dining area.”

Charter is using social media extensively. “If you look at Facebook and Twitter, you can see that we’re pushing a lot of information out, but we’re also engaging people,” he says. “Our big pitch with the Davis and our other homes is, ‘You get more style.’ Then we demonstrate in the sales office why our homes offer a better value than re-sales.”