To stimulate traffic after a slight summer downturn in the Houston market, Sienna Plantation, a 10,000-acre, master-planned community in Missouri City, Texas, with 17 builders, created a promotion emphasizing the development's abundant trees (a commodity in the area) and promising buyers "three houses for the price of one."

Touted in newspaper and radio ads, on billboards and on www.siennaplantation.com, the offer waived Sienna Golf Club's $3,000 initiation fee for anyone buying a Sienna home from Aug. 15 to Oct. 15. Plus, buyers received for free a $1,000 birdhouse custom-made by area artist Fletcher Mackey. Each birdhouse is made of the same materials used in Sienna homes, including fiber-cement siding and radiant barrier sheathing.

The "Texas Trio" (a home in Sienna, a home away from home at the club, and a home for birds) "got people out to investigate and was another good tool to create awareness," says Susie Mahoney, Sienna's marketing director.

Mahoney says the program helped Sienna Plantation increase sales by 10% over the same period last year despite the slowdown hitting many Houston-area builders.