Watch this.

Sitting on the top right of this page for the last year or so, our little mini bio has been a sort of first glance sign to new visitors that this is something different. Its a way for us to tell people that yeah we sell houses and develop property but not like anything you have seen before. We are here because we believe in a better way to do things and that basically what got us to where we are today as a society will not get us to where we need to go tomorrow. We see our projects as a sort of test model for the way things are going to be in the future. Green, small, well designed, smart… Its the anti-suburb, a new vision for life.

So with that in mind we always want to look at everything we do in a new way, things like advertising just don’t feel like a fit for a company such as ours. This blog has been our answer to that feeling, it’s relevant, and more importantly honest and transparent. Recently we have been having another thought that I wanted to throw your way to see what you think. And you have to promise to be honest with your reply. Got it? Promise? Ok.

We are in the early stages of planning an event at the Good project in March. We are thinking its going to be called “What Makes Good.” It’s going to be an inside look at all the components that went into the Good project, with several tours on different topics given by our consultants. People will be able to hear about our marketing program from the folks at EMRL and all about the LEED ND certification and what all we had to do to be certified, also our friends from GreenBuilt will be there talking about what a green construction site looks like and how it works.

Anyway, we have been thinking of ways to let people know about the event and were wondering if you all might want to help out. This is just a thought at this point but I wanted to throw it out there right away and see what you all think. So that is my question. Want to help spread the word? We would provide downloadable flyers and links for your blog maybe even emails to send out. It’s sort of a guerilla marketing campaign at the most grass roots level. Thoughts…..?

Levi Benkert

Take a step outside the world you know with me for a second and try to dream of a place where things are better. What kind of better comes to mind? Here is what my better place looks like.

I see progress but not the kind that we have seen before, instead this progress raises the poor and the rich at the same time. It’s a place where everything for sale is like the shoes that Tom sells where every pair you buy also means that someone who is in need is given a pair. A place where opportunity to help others becomes as abundant as opportunity for greed is today. A place deciding to rise from the pit of extortion and take on the challenge of the worlds poor becoming a people who are not any longer just absorbed with our self interest but also that of others.

What I see is a people who decide that no longer can we move through life building our own separate lives full of third world produced trinkets and our oh-so-important personal freedoms because there is a better way.
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Does anyone else see right through the Chevron adds all over town? I mean really you one of the largest oil companies in the world want us to believe that you have all of a sudden seen the light and want to encourage us to buy less of your product? Hmm. Not buying it guys.

“Your Blog will never replace a billboard and a few guys dancing on the corner with a sign.” It was not the first time we heard the statement, but hearing it from a 30 year veteran with countless thousands of homes under his belt I must admit it was a bit of a blow. Our marketing has always been anything but normal and on more than one occasion we have been asked to lunch only to be lectured on the “way things are”. There is something about a system that has worked for 30 or 40 years that makes the people in it feel opposed and often insulted by the mention of change. LJ Urban is that change and we are standing up for a new way because this change is long overdue. Gone are the days of billboards and focus groups and in their place is a real time conversation between people who collectively stand for something better. The result is delivery of a product that is end to end what it should be.

We have had a series of dinners over the last two months where we invited fellow Eco-Urbanists to come together and talk about what its going to take to get Sacramento to be one of the shining few cities that takes up the call to build a more sustainable and livable core. We used the Good project as a backdrop and discussion point. From those dinners we got all kinds of ideas, many of which are being implemented already. Simple things like the walls getting a slightly different finish and the color changing on the tile to bigger things like the fact that higher mortgage payments are making it harder for people to get in the door. They proposed that we lower prices in the first phase which will move in the buyers waiting on the sidelines and keep things moving while the mortgage market smooths out its issues. I think we all get a bit myopic and dig our heads in the sand when we have a big project going and its easy to forget that outside opinions are priceless.

My point is this no matter what you sell you have to stop thinking of yourself as a marketer or a sales person and start thinking of your job as a conversationist, or even better, a listener. Things change and people are not always where you think they are. No amount of market statistics or studies can compensate for conversations with real people about what is going on today.

The new prices are in the downloadable PDF and here:

Lot 21 – XS  –   298,000

Lot 22 – S    -   409,000

Lot 23 – XS  –   SOLD

Lot 24 – S    -   SOLD

Lot 25  – XS -   319,000

We are still in “pre-opening gear” since the first phase is still not complete, so we have not had very many open houses. I am sorry to those who wanted to get into the units but have not yet had a chance.

We are doing an open house this Saturday August 2nd from 2-6. Come by if you have not had a chance to see inside. We are going to be touring the nearly finished “Small” units as well. And yes we will be listening….

Levi

If you are someone who works somewhere that you don’t believe in there are less and less excuses left for you to be where you are.  I have always been someone who believes that you vote with your dollar but I also believe that you vote with your efforts and if you are somewhere that you can’t go home and tell your kids you are helping make the world a better place that its time you moved on.

Take the people who put this ad together.

I mean really “Pleasure”?? Is there any truth to that? Do you really believe that the people who are smoking the addictive cigarettes you sold them have better lives because of what you made for them? Or are they going to end up dying of lung cancer…?

I do not want you to think I am talking down on everyone who makes a living off of anything they don’t agree with. Not very long ago LJ Urban used to be another company. We were Asante Homes, a suburban land developer. We never built the homes that we now realize are so wrong for the world, but did a whole lot of contributing to making them happen. It took a lot of will power and at times it seemed like everything was upside down as we transitioned to a company that only built what we believe in. But we did it and it was worth every bit of effort we put into doing things right.

What stories do you have of remaking yourself? What were you? And what did you have to give up? Was it worth it?

I think we all could use to hear some more stories of other people who are doing what is right.

Levi

I have been enjoying these old VW ads lately. I think they really hit on something with that car when they first built it. It was like they were decades ahead of their time with the concept. Build something that is both cheap reliable and iconic. They were true to the original design instead of wandering off of it and what they ended up with was a revolution not just a car.

I think we could use to learn some lessons from VW on this one. (2008 VW might want to learn some lessons from 1950 VW by the way)

Micah and I have been talking about how to deconstruct what they built with that car and apply it to our Eco-Urban houses. We came up with a couple things, but I know there is more there we are still missing.

In a lot of ways, it’s exactly what we are trying to do. Build small economical houses that are durable and iconic in design. Houses that are distinctively Eco-Urban. We want to start a movement around a new lifestyle; one that we can all believe in and one that will make the world a better place to live.

Just for fun I think we might go out and shoot a few LJ Urban ads with my video camera that borrow from the Beetle ads. Anyone know how to handle a camera and want to come help out?

Here is another one I liked…

Levi

The Good

(First in a three part series)

This past week the drywall went up on our first home in “The Good Project” in West Sacramento. I was out there yesterday and it’s really starting to feel like something special. I always have a hard time getting the feel for a space without drywall on the walls and now that it’s up I can really see that our vision for small, well designed spaces was worth seeing through.

It seems like an eternity ago that we were standing on the newly purchased site dreaming about what to build. It’s a wonderful feeling to walk on the roads and stand out on the front porch and see the big oak trees we saved right in the middle of the neighborhood. I feel like its all worth it now, like we have actual proof that you really can dream big and do good at the same time.

There is something strange about finishing all this and not having Jason around to enjoy it. Jason had all these great ideas about grass roots marketing and ways to build community in a new neighborhood. It’s certainly going to be a challenge to do this without him. But we are going to try and do our best.

One of the ideas that Jason and I talked about before he passed away was to sell houses with no agent or middle man. The idea was to take out the commission from the sales price and do the selling ourselves. I think we are actually going to sell that way. Jason would have been so excited that we are able to make it happen. There is something very satisfying about taking out the middle man and selling directly to to the buyers. It just feels very… well, Eco-Urban…

Instead of having a office open with a sales person sitting there twiddling their thumbs all day wasting energy, we get to have fun events like the Scribble Fest or the Blogger Dinner we hosted last year. A bonus for us is that we get so spend more time with the Eco-Urbanists that are making a difference in Sacramento and get more ideas from everyone about our next projects. Meanwhile, we will be talking with those interested in moving in to the first Eco-Urban homes in the world. (I am sure that other homes would qualify, but Jason came up with the term Eco-Urban so I feel like we get to say that ours are the first…)

I will give tours of the homes myself to people who are interested in buying. People will be able to get something like an all-access pass tour of the project, and hear the passion right from us on what we set out to create in our Eco-Urban community. We figure that this alone will be able to save over 12,000 per house, and yeah, that goes directly to lower the price…

I always hate to hear that companies like Sprint pay an average of $400 per new customer in advertising. It’s just one of those things that I don’t want to be supporting when I buy something. So I get real excited when we are able to lower our prices and get to know the community better in the process. I, for one, think it will be a pretty good way to help a neighborhood get off to a good start. Everyone will have a first hand understanding of the years of love we have poured into building the best neighborhood in the country.

I am putting this out there partly to answer the questions we keep getting from people about how to go about buying one of our houses and also as a question: What do you think about this plan? Do you think we are going to lose buyers by not having a sales agent on site full time? Does this sound like a good way to educate people about our Eco-Urban homes? I really do want feedback.

We have built this company from the ground up on ideas we get from people reading this blog, just like you are right now. So don’t be shy, you just might become a part of shaping the urban core of Sacramento with one of your ideas!

Levi

I have always been skeptical about advertising and its affect on our thinking. But this I must say is a new low.

As if the fact that this building being covered in a billboard is not bad enough they have to go and add radio-waves that get translated into sounds when they hit your skull.

Think of it… riding along on your bike and, wham….. You want to watch this show…. You really want to watch this show…..

I do not think I am the only one saying “Leave me alone”.