Why do we need an Housing Stock by Number of rooms analysis in a business plan for Central Plumbing & Heating Inc.

Any business that deals with real estate like a Plumbing and Heating Contractor need to have a solid understanding of the dynamics of the local real estate market.One of the key elements of real estate market analysis is the understanding of the distribution of homes by the number of rooms - this is critical because if you are the number of rooms in a house determine many aspects of the spending and living dynamics of the folks that inhabit the house. Having a clear breakdown using this analysis is critical to the success of a small business like Central Plumbing & Heating Inc.

The benefits of understanding Housing Stock by Units in Structure distribution in Mecklenburg County

The classes that have been created to measure the housing stock by rooms distribution of the Mecklenburg County target market range from 1 room homes to homes with 9 or more rooms The purpose of course is to distribute the entire houisng stock into its appropriate category for Mecklenburg County . Once done, we now have created a table that shows the percentage of housing stock by rooms distribution which will total 100% representing the entire housing stock. From there we can now get a very clear understanding of just how many homes in Mecklenburg County a business will be able to target in their marketing. This becomes the basis for the pricing and marketing strategy for Central Plumbing & Heating Inc.

We have used the following classifications to break down the Housing Stock of the target market of Mecklenburg County by Units in Structure:

1. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 1 room.
2. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 2 rooms.
3. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 3 rooms.
4. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 4 rooms.
5. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 5 rooms.
6. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 6 rooms.
7. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 7 rooms.
8. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 8 rooms.
9. Percentage of Homes in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina with 9 or more rooms.

What impact does the Housing Stock by Rooms analysis have on positioning, pricing and marketing for a small business like Central Plumbing & Heating Inc.?

The number of rooms a house has tends to have a very large influence on the dynamics of folks living within the house and how businesses can market to them. The number of rooms will most certainly have an impact on the value of that property - all things being equal, a home with 6 rooms will tend to be higher in value than a home with 3 rooms. Clearly items like the size of the rooms and other factors will impact valuation, but for the most part we all know that homes with more rooms tend to have a larger living space compared and thus command a higher market value.

While it is not uncommon to find large houses with many rooms having only 2 or 3 occupants especially in higher priced neighborhoods, for the most part we find that in most neighborhoods, the more the number of rooms a house has, the higher the number of occupants in that house. This is certainly true of multi-family housing which by definition will have more sooms than the traditional single family home. Likewise, your typical apartment, or town house will typically have fewer rooms than a single family home.

If a small business like Central Plumbing & Heating Inc. were to market it's services to only homes with more than 6 rooms, and the neighborhood is a working class neighborhood it is far to say that they most of the marketing efforts will tend to target multi-family homes with more than the traditional two to three occupants. This information is not insignificant - multi family homes tend to have multiple kitchens, more bathrooms, more electrical wiring, more walls, floor space and larger basements than a home with say only 2 or 3 rooms. Thus the opportunities for kitchen remodelling, plumbing, electrical contracing, painting, carpeting and basement upgrading tend to much better with homes with say 6 or more rooms as compared to homes with say 3 or lesser roroms.

It is not uncommon to hear a business specializing in carpeting, offering to do 1 room for free for every two rooms of work - this offer will tend to be much more effective in homes with 5 ore more rooms. The home would have to have at least 3 rooms to be able to take advantage of this offer, and since the count of rooms includes kitchens and bathrooms which typically tend not to be carpeted, homes will 5 or more rooms will probably be able to use this offer the best. If this carpeting company was to position its services or a marketing campaign towards homes with 3 or fewer rooms, there probably won't be too many takers!

Now if a painting contractor was to use the same positioning for their target market marketing campaign, they may yeild very good results. Even if a home had only 3 rooms that constituted a bedroom, a bathroom anda kitchen - this home could still avail itself of the special being run by the contractor - the owners could get the bedroom and kitchen painted at the contract price and the contractor would simply paint their bathroom for free.

Do the Housing Units by number of rooms for a given location change?

The answer is yes the demand may change - but very slowly. For any target market like Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the overall supply of housing units by a certain amount of rooms tends to be driven by local demand. Thus if Mecklenburg County has been a place where most of the residents are single families, the homes there will typically have between 4 to 6 rooms. On the other hand if there is change in the demographics and many elders start living with their families or many young couples were not able to find jobs locally and moved back in with their parents - also known as the boomerang effect, the demand for homes with more rooms would increase.

Quick Links:

1. Go to the Corresponding Template section for this industry.
2. Go to the Corresponding Business Plan section for this industry.