A new marketing campaign from a Central Pennsylvania home builder is reaching out to engaged renters and showing them how they can start married life as first-time home owners.
We reported on couples building downpayments into their gift registries years ago, but this is the first we’ve heard of a custom home builder getting in the game.
Keystone Custom Home’s campaign is urging engaged couples to sign up for a Wells Fargo Bank gift registry called the New Home Bridal Registry to help save for a down payment on a home. Family and friends can make deposits into the account as a wedding gift, but they must keep a record of who gave what amount, in order to follow tax rules. The couple can then use the money in the account to buy a home. They’re not obligated to purchase a Keystone home either. However, they are obligated to use Wells Fargo as their mortgage lender.
The builder is promoting the campaign—“Say ‘I Do’ to Your New Home”—on Pinterest with a contest that urges followers to build a board named #SayIDoKCHContest by Nov. 14 for a chance to win a $250 Bed, Bath and Beyond gift card. Participants on Pinterest can also view images of the builder’s model homes and floorplans as well as learn more about the “‘I Do’ to Your New Home” campaign through the builder’s own board, “Happily Ever Starts Here.”
“Most people getting married are just starting out and most don’t own a home,” Janette Hawkins and Carol Morgan, executives managing the marketing campaign through mRELEVANCE, told BUILDER online. “A lot of young couples are just coming out, or are a few years out, of college. Keystone wants to help them realize the dream of home ownership rather than renting. There are so many programs available to buyers including low down payments and, of course, historically low interest rates right now. It makes sense for most couples to look at the option of owning.”
Source: “Campaign Urges Young Buyers to Say ‘I Do’ to a New Home,” BUILDER Online (Nov. 10, 2014)
