Austin, Texas (PRWEB) October 08, 2014
Community pools, fitness centers, dog parks and jogging trails no longer cut it when competing for home buyers in the explosive Texas housing market. Progressive developers are now looking for amenities that make their communities pop.
What does it take to get today’s busy, on-the-go home buyers attention? “If you tell me that a nurse practitioner will come to my home when I am sick is part of the benefits of buying in a particular master planned community, well now you have my attention,” says Nick Balog, CEO of WhiteGlove Health.
“The Texas real estate market is booming,” continues Balog. “All of the key metro areas in Texas – Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio – are experiencing explosive growth. As a result, each market has multiple master planned mega-communities under development, many of which have over 3,000 homes planned when the development is complete. DFW alone has over 15 such communities on the books. As I see it, the competition for today’s home buyer is fierce. Developers have to go beyond the “typical, assumed to be there” amenities to attract buyers in this type of hyper-competitive market.”
Jeff Bilich, National Business Development Manager for WhiteGlove Health, and an experienced real estate agent agrees. “As an active real estate investor, and a licensed Texas Realtor for over 10 years, I have personal experience with what it takes to attract home buyers in one of the fastest growing markets in the country.
Buyers simply want more. Having the ability to say your community includes house calls from a nurse practitioner, who can treat your sick kids at home, and any necessary over the counter meds or generic prescriptions may be included in the visit fee, as an agent, now I’m hooked!”
Since Texas-based WhiteGlove Health operates in four of the fastest growing metro areas of the county, it just made business sense to create a product that would help developers and home builders attract buyers to their communities while simultaneously supporting the healthcare needs of their future residents.
Michael Roeder, Vice President, Business Development and Customers Relations for WhiteGlove Health, was instrumental in pushing for the new WhiteGlove Health Residential Community Solution. “Texas is business friendly. Why else would companies like Toyota take on the task of moving their US corporate headquarters to the Dallas area? And Toyota is not the only one. Companies such as State Farm are consolidating operations here also. Even the Dallas Cowboys are on the move to the exploding suburbs of Dallas.” Roeder continues, “When companies are on the move, so are home buyers. If developers want their communities to catch the attention of these buyers and want to ensure their developments are profitable, they have to take steps to make their communities stand out head and shoulders above others. I’m excited that I work for a company that can be nimble and creative enough to meet the growing demands of the markets where my team works.”
WhiteGlove Health has been offering mobile primary care services to corporate employee populations for over seven years. Recently they have seen municipalities and school districts embrace the concept. Like corporate CEOs, Mayors and School District Superintendents see the value that WhiteGlove Health provides.
How does WhiteGlove Health attract organizations like these? Convenience is the initial attraction as you can’t beat having affordable health care brought to you at your home or office, typically in an 8 – 12 hour window, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. But the true business value comes in the cost savings from deflected insurance claims, compliance in managing “at risk” or chronic conditions, the improvements in employee productivity and the reduction of lost time on the job, and the advantages the program creates from a recruiting perspective when it comes to attracting new talent. But from WhiteGlove Health’s perspective, “the value we focus on is ensuring that when a WhiteGlove Health employed Nurse Practitioner shows up to care for one of our member’s, we want to make sure that they provide the best healthcare experience the member has ever had,” says Balog.
“Consistent continuity of care is essential to the success of our business. We are so insistent about this, we are incredibly selective in the NP's who we employ. The interviewing process alone takes several months,” continues Balog. “It is an expensive proposition. But this is the best way for us to ensure that every time a member visit occurs, the member will rank the experience as excellent on the survey we present at the end of every visit. I am proud to say that our members never hesitate to brag about our service to friends and neighbors. Companies, cities and school districts simply appreciate employees that provide this type of free advertising. “
But in the past, not all of the WhiteGlove Health members’ friends and neighbors had access to the WhiteGlove Health service, just their fellow employees. Now with the development of the Residential Community Solution, that has changed.
The logistics of the service are simple. As a community grows, access to care will grow from an NP who is shared with the overall WhiteGlove Health membership population in a given area to one that will be dedicated to the community, traveling from home to home in a WhiteGlove Health branded golf cart, for example.
But what is the cost of this level of convenience? “In my opinion, it is nominal,” says Bilich. “By having access to a community with over 3,000 planned homes, we have been able to develop a membership pricing model that has minimal impact on HOA fees. Because of this, developers and homebuilders add it into the monthly HOA dues.” Roeder continues, “In simple every day terms, the annual membership fee for one home is less than one typical visit to an urgent care facility. Frankly, it is a no brainer.”
Expansion of the service is already underway to other markets, with Denver and Atlanta on the horizon. WhiteGlove Health is also exploring how to make this model work for office buildings, apartment complexes and high-rise residential buildings. “I see no reason why this model cannot apply to other types of communities
– whether that is a community of business owners who occupy an office tower or a community of apartment tenants or condo owners. As such, we are already developing the business plan and logistics for these types of communities,” says Roeder.