For decades, we have grown familiar with the basic categories of home buyers:

• The first-timer
• The upsizer
• The empty-nester
• The downsizer
• The multi-generation family

In the years to come,  millions of homeowners who lost their homes during the recession through foreclosure or short sale will have restored their credit to the point where they again qualify for a home loan. This category, aptly named “the boomerang buyers,” is expected to impact home sales in a big way over the next several years.

Julie Schmit of the USA Today wrote,

Since 2007, more than 4.7 million homeowners are estimated to have lost homes to foreclosure or short sale. Seven in 10 will return to homeownership within eight years of their short sale or foreclosure, estimates John Burns Real Estate Consulting. With the start of the housing bust now six years past, this will be the first big year for returnees, accounting for 10% of home sales, up from 4% last year. They’ll stay at that level until starting to subside in 2016, about eight years after the height of the foreclosure crisis, Burns projects. His firm estimates the crop of boomerang buyers who lost homes in 2007 through 2012 will exceed 500,000 a year in 2013 through 2016.

How do you market to a group that is endured tumultuous, if not traumatic homeowner experiences in the past? Be extremely sensitive to those past experiences, listen, built trust and spend ample time addressing needs vs. wants.

Windows and doors by Integrity from Marvin are known for being tough, beautiful and Built to Perform. The Integrity Red Diamond Achiever Awards celebrate those same traits in the builders, remodelers and architects who use Integrity products, and we’re accepting nominations for the 2013 award program until June 28.

Submit your nominations today: Integritywindows.com/RedDiamondAchievers

“The Integrity Red Diamond Achiever Awards recognize builders, remodelers and architects whose work exemplifies outstanding design, innovation and sustainability,” said Becky Felling, director of marketing for Integrity Windows and Doors. “This is our ninth annual award program, and we’re taking a new approach that better reflects the variety of ways Integrity windows and doors are used.”

New this year is the People’s Choice award, in which an open online vote will determine which of the judge’s winners will earn this special honor. This year’s judges are Bob Vila, home improvement expert and TV star; Patrick O’Toole, editorial director for Professional Builder, Professional Remodeler and HousingZone.com; JoAnne Liebeler, producer and host of several home improvement TV shows; Shawn McCadden, an award-winning remodeler, consultant, speaker and columnist; and Christine Marvin, director of marketing for Marvin Windows and Doors.

Winners will receive a trip for two to Minneapolis, followed by a day-trip to the Marvin and Integrity headquarters in Warroad, Minn., for the award ceremony — with dinner and hotel included. All winners will also benefit from an extensive Integrity marketing program, including localized news releases and media outreach, printed case study sell-sheets, email marketing, online outreach to popular blogs and news sites, and social media visibility.

See last year’s winners here:Integritywindows.com/RedDiamondAchievers

How do you communicate with clients? Do you pepper them with phone calls during business hours? Do you try to catch them on the way to work or during the evening? Or have you resorted to email to streamline client communications?

Email might be the most convenient and considerate way of communicating with clients, especially if you are serving several clients at once. Think about it: You can’t interrupt a meeting or dinner with an email, and you get to have a record of all communication at your disposal just in case you confront a he-said, she-said misunderstanding.

But emailing, like calling, requires proper etiquette. Here are some habits from Forbes.com and RealtorMag.org that may send the wrong message:

Misuse of the subject line: ”Including the terms ‘Urgent,’ ‘Action Item,’ or ‘Read Me’ in the subject line ‘presumes her message is more important than any other correspondence you might have received. This perception is that she is over-confident and thinks very little of your time.’ The same can be held true for over-using the priority flag on your e-mails to others.”

EVERYTHING IN CAPS: “Typing in caps means you’re trying to stress your message but it’s also the equivalent of screaming at a person but it can come across as ‘forceful’ and ‘arrogant,’ the Forbes article notes. The same holds true for excessive use of punctuation, e.g., using multiple exclamation points.”

Following up too quickly: “You want to make sure the person received and read your e-mail, so you call or send another e-mail right away to find out. But you’ll send the message as impatient and self-righteous. If you expect that instant of a response, ‘the more efficient route is to pick up the phone’ in the first place.”

Auto responses: “An auto response to every e-mail you receive may be giving you more time but it also has the potential to send the wrong message. You reassure the receiver that you care about their e-mail but you’ll respond to it at a convenient time to you, which could be viewed as condescending, the Forbes article notes.”

Resurrecting an old e-mail chain: “The intention may be to help keep the correspondence all in one place and easier for the recipient but you may send the message that you’re ‘lazy, disorganized, or [have] poor e-mail sorting habits,’ the Forbes article notes. Begin a new e-mail chain with a correct subject line for every new issue discussed.”

April 1 isn’t just April Fool’s Day. It’s also when mortgage insurance premiums on loans from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) are set to increase by up to 0.10 percent. That means buyers on the verge of applying for a loan should do so before April 1 to obtain a case number.

And if they don’t?

In certain cases, a conventional loan may actually begin to make more sense.

FHA loans are ideal for first-time buyers who prefer a smaller down payment and lower mortgage rate. However, the advantages an FHA has over a conventional loan, which usually comes with a higher down payment and mortgage rate, can be lost when the mortgage insurance premiums are factored.

This is just another reason for buyers to feel a sense of urgency. As reported by the New York Times earlier this month, buyers all of the sudden find themselves in a tricky predicament:

In markets where housing inventory is tight, said Mr. Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, buyers will have to make a trade-off: act right away to get the best financial deal, or wait for more choices and perhaps pay a bit more.

According to data gathered by Zillow, residential prices are rising at double-digit rates in sections of California, and the Phoenix and Las Vegas areas. As of January, the median sale price was up 14 percent over the previous year, to $448,500, in the San Francisco Bay area, and 23 percent, to $169,200, in the Phoenix market. “The markets that are more Midwest and Northeast are seeing much lower growth rates,” Mr. Humphries said. “That’s partly because the buyer profile in the Sunbelt markets looks considerably different, with a lot of retirees, second-home buyers, and international buyers.”

In much of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, buyers need not be so concerned about beating price appreciation. All three still have a backlog of foreclosures yet to make their way through the courts. A “looming shadow inventory” could keep prices fairly flat this year, with Manhattan the exception, Mr. Yun said.

Bottom line: Buyers should be patient — if they can afford it.

You don’t nickname a project “The Performance House” unless you can back it up. That’s no issue for Peter Fusaro of Preferred Builders (Riverside, Conn.), though, after earning second place in the 2012 CT Zero Energy Challenge.

Fusaro partnered with Granoff Architects and Steven Winter Associates in designing a gorgeous five-bedroom, 2,670-square-foot home, which has earned an emerald rating from the National Green Building Standard, platinum rating from LEED and a HERS index score of 20. For his leadership in green building, Fusaro and Preferred Builders have earned great coverage from local media.

We’re proud windows from Integrity were used for the project, which blends jaw-dropping energy performance with beautiful aesthetics. See how Fusaro’s collaborated with some of the best green building professionals in the area for this ambitious project in the video case study above.

As a building professional, you have expertise in a field that affects, well, basically everyone. Construction is vital to communities big and small, which is why it earns so much media attention.

Surely, you’ve seen or read these stories in your community. The reporter will introduce a trend (“New homes are popping up left and right…”), chat with a soon-to-be homeowner (“We are so excited to move in…”), then interview a local builder (“We’ve really seen the market ripen…”). If anyone benefits from the story, it’s the builder. More than free advertising, the story allows the builder to position him/herself as a respected expert in the local market.

So, how do you become the media’s go-to expert for all things building?

daily5Remodel has some outstanding tips, but this anecdote tells you everything you need to know about the value of old-fashioned handshaking:

Remodeler Chandler Fox was at Clarendon Day, a street festival in his hometown of Arlington, Va., when between the bands and beers and schmoozing he spotted a booth for Arlington magazine, a popular glossy bimonthly launched not long before.

“He stopped by and asked me in the course of our conversation if there were any specific story angles we were chasing down,” remembers Jenny Sullivan, editor of the magazine. “It turns out he had the perfect project for a story we were doing on rec rooms, so I followed up with him afterward and we ended up covering his project.”

Not bad for friendly outreach on a nice fall day, especially considering thatArlington magazine is read by thousands of affluent consumers in Arlington, Falls Church and McLean, Va., three areas where Fox’s design/build company does much of its work.

You don’t need to go and hire a public relations or communications person. Just proactively volunteer yourself as a resource to those most interested in the building industry. It might not pan out for several months, but it takes very little time, no money at all and it just might make you the focus of a great feature story someday.

Today marks the first day of spring, which in the past has unofficially marked the arrival of the home-buying season. However, new data from Realtor.com suggests the buying season got off to an earlier than usual start this year.

February 2013 national housing data shows inventories crept up 1.15 percent month-over-month, median age of inventory fell 9.26 percent month-over-month and national media list price rose 1.55 percent from the month before.

From Realtor.com:

“As we enter the busiest time of the year for home buyers and sellers, our latest housing trend data shows just how competitive the market is with a significant housing recovery well underway,” said Steve Berkowitz, chief executive officer of Move, Inc. “Look ahead, we can expect the amount of inventory to increase this spring along with higher list prices as sellers become more comfortable with the market conditions.”

Indeed, conditions are ripening for sellers. The same data found median age of inventory decreased in 145 of 146 markets tracked.

What does this mean for building professionals and real estate agents?

Shake off the winter rust and prepare for a fast and furious buying season. Prospective buyers are out earlier than usual this year, competing for what limited inventory exists at ever-increasing prices.

As a building professional, you would probably never recommend that the average homeowner do their own plumbing, frame their own walls or attempt to install their own windows. The pros know best, right? So do you hire professional photographers for your own projects?

These days it seems like everyone is an amateur photographer. DSLR cameras and Photoshop can make even the most humdrum photos look better. But when it comes to pictures of your projects for your website and marketing materials, nothing substitutes for a professional’s eye.

Over at the Daily 5 Remodel, they are asking their readers this question. Most people responding seem to agree that paying a professional photographer is a good use of money. If you have a great project, it is imperative to show it off looking its best. And a bad photo of a good project could translate to potential clients as a mediocre project.

Look around for someone who has experience photographing architectural projects–someone who shoots mainly weddings might not quite understand how to make a house look its best. Ask your potential photographer lots of questions–what is their experience  Do they have references? What about copyright? Post production?

A picture is worth a thousand words. Can you afford to have your photographed projects saying anything less than, “Our work is of the highest quality?”

Tight inventory might be the most common theme in housing markets across the country, but so too is the fickleness of buyers. No matter how eager, investing in a home is no time for impulse. With all of the free research tools now at the buyer’s disposal, they are less likely than ever to fall for smoke and mirrors.

Say you’ve had a home on the market for a while that just won’t sell. Each day it sits on the market, you can almost hear the skeptical whisper of perspective buyers: “If it’s been on the market this long, there must be something wrong with it.” 

Chances are you are running into one of these issues, as compiled by Melinda Fulmer of MSN Real Estate:

Pie-in-the-sky pricing
If the home was purchased before the housing market was flipped on its ear, sellers must lose the notion they will get every last penny back. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Fulmer writes, “Why are some homes priced so far above the pack? While many nostalgic sellers have unrealistic ideas about what their home can fetch, others simply can’t afford to take less because they are underwater on their loan.”

Decor that bores
Most sellers think, “Why redecorate? I’m selling my home.” In reality, they should be thinking, “I’m redecorating my home because I’m selling.” Don’t force buyers to imagine a home’s potential — show them what it can be on move-in day.

The floor plan — or lack thereof 
Ideally, every home is designed to address the needs and demands of its owners. Of course, those ideals change year after year. Fulmer writes, “In some cases, it’s a matter of functional obsolescence, when a dated design no longer serves today’s population, such as older homes where you have to walk through one bedroom to get to a second bedroom.”

Pictures, pictures, pictures
Almost every buyer today is starting their home search from the same place — the Internet. And if they’re not browsing online, they are browsing listings on their smartphone. On these visual platforms, great photos are the best bet for peeking a buyer’s interest.

When the father-son team of Anders and Jake Lewendal of Bozeman, Mont.-based Anders Lewendal Construction were challenged by a client to source as many locally made components as possible for their new home, the duo took things a step further.

The Lewendals built the Made In American House (above), using only American-made materials.

Teresa Burney of wrote about the Lewendal team for BuilderOnline.com:

“Once they knew they could do it, the Lewendals guessed that other home builders could too. To find out what that could mean for the country, the pair talked to the Boston Consulting Group to add up what the impact would be if every U.S. builder spent 5% of their construction spending on American-made rather than foreign parts. The verdict: in one year that would create 220,000 American jobs, the study showed.”

This paved the way for the All-American Home Initiative, which encourages U.S. builders to source at least five percent of building components and materials domestically in the name of creating jobs. The site also includes a helpful list of products made in the U.S.