Every month I update our Venture Capital partners with a “pulse” of what we hear happening in the real estate development community. I thought it would be fun to post these findings on the Blog for discussion. Nothing scientific  – just honest feedback from a smart group of insiders.

• Increasing anxiety about prolonged economic turmoil (domestic and global)
• With staff reductions, new spending hard to justify
• Increased pursuit of any and all types of “efficiencies”
• Financing hurdles for those that do want to buy
• Growing operational limitations imposed by lenders and owner/investors
• Near abandonment of print advertising, collateral and media
• Chapter 7 vs. chapter 11
• Interested prospects want completed communities (no renderings)
• Recognizing need for exceptional service and experience for every single on-site prospect
• Retail buyers are looking for foreclosures, short sales or a “steal”
• Leadership is learning to sell because all sales people have quit or been fired
• Watching for signs of positive consumer confidence
• Progressively more dependent on web-based databases and lead generating tools
• Interested prospects have low levels of interest in home sites
• Research is leading to a fractional explosion over the next 5 years
• Flush developers and lenders (and there are many) have the opportunity/opportunities of a lifetime
• Best location, best product and best price still wins!

Special thanks to these folks for their contribution this month: Linton West, Jason Weaver, Harry Redfearn, Terry Tolbert, Ranie Good, Chris Hill, Jami Mullikin, Terry Weaver, Gary Harmon, Judith She’, David Pisano, Mike Notartomaso, Burt Baine, Johnny Ussery