It’s a busy time for us and we couldn’t be happier. Not just because we have a lot of work — which is always something to be thankful for. We’re happy because we’ll soon launch two extraordinary communities.

The first one, Treetops, will open by preview appointment only in a matter of weeks. Treetop is an exciting community, very dear to my heart. Once it’s finished, it will count 1,800 homes close to Alliston, built by Orchard Ridge Homes and Brookfield Homes, who’s also a client of ours. They’re both excellent builders and I couldn’t be happier to see them involved.

On any given day, golf will be one of many things to do at Treetops, thanks to its green areas and proximity to the Nottawasaga Resort.

Treetops will be an excellent community for active families.

One of the reasons why I’m so excited about Treetops is that its homes will lay on a natural wonderland, surrounded by over 45 acres of park and forest and sitting just next door to the Nottawasaga Resort. We’ve helped to design a community with fitness stations found along the trails, and a great community park that’ll offer beach volleyball, a sports field, a splash pad, and much, much more.

Treetops will be a fantastic community, especially for active families that like to spend time outdoors. I for one would’ve loved to raise my kids there. Check out its website, its blog, and its Facebook page (where we’re incentivizing registrations with a sweepstake called Register and Win).

Mystique’s homes will be certain to impress those who appreciate fine details and beautiful architecture.

We’re also launching Double Oak’s Mystique community. Located in Georgetown, Mystique will wow registrants too, although for different reasons than Treetops. If you follow Double Oak’s work, you know it’s focused on crafting luxurious homes with incredible attention to detail (suffice it to say that founder Kieran Keaveney is an architecture school graduate and a connoisseur of diverse Architectural schools).

Mystique will feature French Country-inspired two-storey and bungalow estate homes, which were designed by Hicks Partners of Oakville and include kitchens by Scavolini. Prices will start from the mid $700’s to $1.3 million.

How busy are you these days? Are you working on any exciting stuff?

BAM went bowling last night.

What does this have to do with real estate marketing?

Everything, as it turns out. Because last night we went bowling with Empire Communities, a longstanding client of ours. This was actually their idea, but it resonates with me because I’m a big believer in having close ties with our clients.

On a superficial level, having close ties with a client makes work so much easier. You just can’t help caring even more than usual when you’ve had fun together and when you’ve talked about topics unrelated to work. It’s just human nature.

On a deeper level, close ties are automatically established when you and your client stand on the same side of the fence. It sounds basic, yet many agencies only look out for themselves. Likewise, many clients don’t help their agencies excel at the work they’re paid to do.

I for one would rather butt my ahead against a client’s if I knew their direction was against their best interest. I could just take the money and do as I was told. But that’d be the easy way out. And no one who cares should take the easy way out.

What are your thoughts about client relationships?

I’m in Chicago for the weekend, and as always whenever I come here, I’m reminded of the Great Chicago Fire, which as you may know killed around 300 people in 1871 and destroyed some 3 square miles of the city, including over 17,000 buildings.

The Home Insurance Building was the first building to use structural steel in its frame and is generally noted as the first tall building to be supported, both inside and outside, by a fireproof metal frame. (Image and text via Wikipedia).

Tragic as the fire was, it helped make Chicago the great town it is today, thanks to the rebuilding frenzy that began shortly thereafter. So enthusiastic was the rebuilding, in fact, that more than 300 buildings were being erected only 6 weeks after the fire.

And with leading architects of the day laying out the foundations, it’s little wonder that the first skyscraper in the world was built in Chicago in 1885, only 14 years after the fire, and that Chicago was being nicknamed “Paris on the Prairie” by 1909.

Luckily, neither of Toronto’s two great fires caused as much damage. Yet we have our fair share of great buildings like the CN Tower, the TD Tower, the Royal York Hotel, and the gold-coated Royal Bank Plaza Towers (how’s that for cool?).

What’s more, the high-rise market has also been getting great buildings like the Seventy5, designed by a London-based design firm where Jade Jagger is creative director, or the One St. Thomas, designed by legendary New York architect Robert A.M. Stern.

I think Toronto will keep erecting great buildings. Some of them will make history. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another fire.

The occasion? 2012’s BILD Awards.

Having already blogged about BAM’s list of nominations, (and having also campaigned for you to vote for Pathways as the winner of the new People’s Choice Award), all I can I say at this point is that we’re really excited about our nominations, and hope we’ll take a bunch of prizes home!

Oh, and I should probably warn you — we’re bringing noise makers.

Will we see you at the Awards tonight?

Adding to my excitement, BILD just introduced a new category to the awards. Called the People’s Choice Award, it aims to get both consumers and BILD members to vote on what they think is the best project in the GTA.

Among the communities nominated for this new award is Pathways in Caledon East, which already has five other nominations, including the coveted Best Project of the Year and Best Social Media Campaign (a nomination I’m particularly proud of).

Every release at Pathways has been a success.

Homebuyers were hungry for information from the beginning.

Hosting frequent activities played a key role in fostering a sense of community.

The Pathways Facebook page proved an important part of the campaign, thanks to a stream of relevant content and sweepstakes.

Having worked so hard on Pathways along with the builder, Brookfield Homes, my team and I are thrilled to see it all recognized. We love having yet another delighted client and yet another community brimming with happy homeowners.

Of course, we’d love it even more if Pathways won the new People’s Choice Award.

So check out its social media campaign, composed of a blog and a Facebook page. If you live in Caledon East, drop by to see the homes for yourself. You’ll find it’s a fantastic community, one where people love living.

Convinced yet? Click here to vote for Pathways!

A properly planned Facebook strategy can help drive the success of your business.

Do you read Profit magazine? If you do, a recent article called “How to Land a Canuck” may have caught your eye. It certainly caught mine.

Dealing mostly with how you should go about creating an effective online strategy for your business, the article started by introducing some eye-opening statistics:

• Canadians average almost 42 hours a month online. This is more than the people of any other country.

• Last year alone, Canadians spent $16.5 billion online.

• 60% of Canada’s 15 million Facebook users log in every day.

• 35% of Canadian consumers use social networks to research products or services. What’s more, over a quarter are more loyal to firms with a social media presence.

This article was written by none other than Toronto entrepreneur Joanna Track, creator of Sweetspot.ca (which was recently acquired by Rogers) and Dealuxe.ca, which aims to bring deluxe online shopping. So it seems like Ms. Track knows a thing or two about online marketing.

Admittedly, the article doesn’t touch on the new homes market. Yet it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see how these stats support the case that we too should be online in general and in social media in particular.

After all, most homebuyers begin their search online. And it would be shortsighted to ignore the fact that they are most likely already on Facebook. This is why we do our best to create amazing, SEO-optimized websites as well as social media channels (typically Facebook, although we often use blogs and Twitter).

What’s your social media experience like? Does it confirm the article’s stats?

I love these events. They give me a chance to chat with old acquaintances and industry people. I also get to learn from my fellow guest speakers.

Yesterday, for example, Andrew Brethour of the PMA Brethour Realty Group provided interesting insights into why so many people from all over the world move to Canada.

He also did a pretty good job of reminding us all of the many reasons why we’re so lucky to live in this country and specifically in Toronto. Andy is quite the inspiring speaker and it was a pleasure to listen to him.

I had a blast with my presentation. I believe in keeping it short and sweet and fun. What’s your approach like?

Later, Susan Wong of Markham Centre Realty. Inc. provided us with a most detailed analysis of immigration from mainland China, and the reasons why so many Chinese buy real estate here.

Susan also said there’s still a lot of room for condo prices to rise in Toronto — she even produced a chart showing that despite our increased prices we’re not among the ten most expensive cities in the world. I found it interesting that Vancouver, London and Singapore join Toronto as the preferred overseas investment locations for Chinese millionaires.

Lastly, Jenny Park of The Epoch Times provided listeners with a great summary on how to market to Chinese buyers. Jenny said 74% of all Chinese Canadians consume media in Chinese.

As for my own presentation, I am attaching it as a PowerPoint file (click this link: BAM Ethnic Marketing). Or you can read the following summary of key points:

• In 2004, Toronto was ranked second in the list of world cities with the largest percentage of foreign-born population
• Most newcomers arrive from China, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka
• An increasing amount of immigrants are settling in the 905 area rather than Toronto. Indeed, the city with the highest proportion of foreign born among all Canadian municipalities is… Markham
• We at BAM strongly believe that you can only sell if you know your markets and your target thoroughly. Sounds obvious, but time and again I’ve come across campaigns that neglect this. Check out my presentation for examples of communities we marketed to a very specific demographic after carrying out a great deal of research. They include:

1. Castlegate, in East Brampton (targeted to Indians),
2. Woodside Village, in Scarborough (targeted to Sri Lankans),
3. Vellore Park, in Woodbridge (targeted to Italians), and
4. Greenbrook Village in Shelburne, targeted to “white flight” (I explain in my presentation how I was wrong about the target market here!).

What’s your experience targeting diverse communities in the GTA?

Above all, I was proud that BAM’s nominated for two social media campaigns. That’s two out of three finalists — the kind of odds I love.

In social media, even music and homes can go together

Triumph’s social media campaign was a perfect fit for its younger, fun-loving demographic.

The two social media campaigns for which we’re nominated are Brookfield Homes’ Pathways in Caledon East and Highmark Homes’ Triumph.

The former comprises a blog and Facebook page, both of which see a lot of activity coming from current and prospective homeowners.

As for the latter, its backbone was a music contest (yep, you read that right), which we hosted on Triumph’s Facebook page. The campaign includes a Twitter account and a series of posts in the corporate blog.

As these two campaigns show, the key to social media is to have a friendly voice, to provide followers with useful information, to avoid coming across as corporate or commercial, and to genuinely care for their needs, making sure their concerns are addressed as soon as possible.

It’s all about the client

In many ways, Pathways is the opposite of Triumph in that it attracts couples that are married, have kids, and seek a peaceful, family-friendly community.

Of course, the greatest satisfaction comes not from nominations or awards.

It comes from knowing that we are providing the highest level of service and quality in strategy, creative, management and production.

It comes from knowing we are doing our very best to truly delight and amaze each and every client we are privileged to serve.

Still, it’s great to see BAM’s hard work recognized, especially in the area of social media, which I have long told clients will only become more important.

Our nominations are:

PROJECT OF THE YEAR – LOW-RISE

Brookfield Homes, Pathways – BAM Builder Advertising and Marketing (see this link)

BEST DIRECT MAIL

Brookfield Homes, Pathways – BAM Builder Advertising and Marketing (see this link) 

BEST NEWSPAPER AD

Brookfield Homes, Pathways – BAM Builder Advertising and Marketing 

BEST LOW-RISE SALES OFFICE

Brookfield Homes, Pathways – BAM Builder Advertising and Marketing  (see this link)

BEST SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

Brookfield Homes, Pathways – BAM Builder Advertising and Marketing (see this link)

Highmark Homes, Triumph – BAM Builder Advertising and Marketing (see this link)

BEST WEBSITE

Highmark Homes – BAM Builder Advertising & Marketing (see this link)

BEST MODEL HOME

Eden Oak Homes, Estates of Credit Ridge, “The Newcastle” – BAM Builder Advertising and Marketing (with Neodeco Designs)

Have we reached the maximum height?

Much has been made, in this blog and elsewhere, about the fact that the Toronto condo market is now one of the world’s hottest.

Or at least it was, all throughout 2011.

But it looks like things might just be different in 2012. According to Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), new condo sales dropped in January by a significant 40%.

Low-rise sales, on the other hand, held steady, amounting to 63% of the market share.

Of course, January tends to be a bad month for condo sales anyway, and indeed in January of last year condo sales dropped as well, only to rise after.

Yet the fact remains that this was the lowest single-month total for high rise since the recession, according to Shaun Hildebrand, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp, as quoted by the National Post.

The 905 area, on the other hand, is still going strong. For example, both high-rise and low-rise sales in York increased by a combined total of 12.5%.

Luckily for us at BAM, 905 is our area of expertise, meaning we can sell anything here, whether it’s low-rise or high-rise.

That said, no one would like to see a disruption in the GTA condo industry.

What’s your take? Will we see only a moderate decrease in sales, as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. predicts? Will it be worse? Or will sales continue to increase, like they did last year?

The home of your wife’s dreams?

Experience has taught me women tend to call the shots in the home buying process. If you’re in the industry, I’m sure that’s your experience as well.

This is why many of us implicitly market homes for women, highlighting the features that we think appeal to them.

But what exactly is it that female homebuyers want? Experience can certainly give you an idea. But valuable as it may be, experience is a subjective thing, especially when it’s not backed up by studies.

Thankfully, according to Builder Magazine, two U.S. builders made it a point to narrow down the factors that make female homebuyers tick, going so far as to take women-centric design studies.

They seem to have succeeded — one of them, Patcon Construction, continued to sell homes in new Hampshire and Maine even as its competitors couldn’t, while the other, Hugh A. Fisher of Deer Brook Development Corp., quadrupled his business in the middle of the U.S. housing recession.

Ironically perhaps, their findings not just confirm many a builder’s experience, but also a few gender stereotypes. For example, when men look at a floorplan they think about how they will relax in the house, while women focus on how the family will live in the house and how they will work in it.

Women also tend to focus on organizing, having convenient access to laundry rooms, and making sure their husbands have a place where they can drop their wallet and keys (which apparently they don’t want us dropping on the kitchen counter).

Read the article here, or check out this survey, which helps women find the type of floorplan that best suits their personality.

Have you ever marketed homes explicitly for women? What’s your take on all this?