I’m not sure this is a great time to be channeling FDR, but the question does beg some thought. Has the recent spate of good news about housing really calmed buyer’s fears? I’m not so sure. While it seems like the steady onslaught of bad news about housing has stemmed a bit, there’s certainly enough trailing news right behind it about nagging unemployment and concerns that this is just a short-lived upturn. Since no one really knows, it’s probably a 50/50 chance you’ll be right if you just pick one side or the other. But I certainly don’t get the sense that euphoria reigns over the land.

So if fear is still the monster in the closet holding people back from buying when we in the industry know it’s a great time to buy, how do we get buyers to trust us again to calm those fears and lead them to the right purchase decision. After all, much of that fear is directed at us in the form of lack of trust. We’re the same industry that told them, “don’t worry, the market is rising, housing is a great investment and you can’t lose money, stretch a bit – buy more house than you need – your equity gains will cover all ills.” Sure, no one held a gun to our buyers heads and a lot of people made poor decisions that led to this mess. But still, they trusted us to help them make the right decision during the rising market. So it’s going to take a while to regain that trust in this falling market – even if it is at bottom and ticking up.

And let’s not forget why that lack of credibility and fear exists. Once the market turned, buyers got afraid. Afraid that buying too soon during the downturn would leave money on the table. Afraid that if they bought too soon, the rates might fall even further. Afraid that the builder incentive that was promised as “the final answer” really wasn’t. And guess what? It wasn’t. At every turn, they were rewarded for stalling their buying decision. Rates fell. Prices came down. And then down some more. And builder incentives increased. Then the government stepped in and gave away free money to boot. And buyers continued to look like geniuses for holding off on the purchase decision. And we lost even more credibility with them along the way.

Re-building trust is a long road. Ask Elliott Spitzer and the governor of South Carolina. But it’s worth the journey. Because it is a great time to buy a new home. Really. But will buyers believe us now? The answer is, maybe…but probably not right away. We’re going to have to use the credibility ascribed by our buyers to the media and keep in front of them 3rd party articles telling them why it’s a good time to buy. Our word may simply not be enough. We have to get back to helping buyers understand that it’s in their best interest not to simply seek the lowest price, but to understand that value is a sometimes complex proposition in which price is but one component. We have to help them return to thinking of their home as a place to raise families and create memories, and not just as an appreciating asset. We have to show them testimonials from buyers who made the buying decision, and who are happy they did and who were thrilled with the home buying experience they had with their builder.

It makes you wonder if this isn’t why social media is starting to play such an enormous role in helping buyers overcome fear. Just how huge would it be for a buyer to stumble upon your community’s fan page on Facebook and read positive comments from actual home buyers? What is the value of seeing a Twitter stream from a real estate agent who just had a positive interaction with your organization? A recent Nielsen poll shouted it out loud and clear: of people polled, 90% said they most trusted recommendations from people they know above all other forms of advertising. So overcoming buyer’s fears will be closely related to rebuilding trust. And we’ll need some allies in that task. Existing buyers. Our friends in the real estate community. Even our Trade Partners. We’ll need counselors on-site, not “salespeople”. We’ll have to be patient and methodical in showing value and helping the buyer to understand, in their terms, why now may finally be the right time to buy. I’m confident we can do it if we understand our buyer’s fears and the information they’ll need to overcome that fear and that rebuilding trust can simply take a while.