Before You Buy Real Estate, Lessons from Virgin America

We blew our budget this week spending an extra $25 to fly Virgin America from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles. The leadership lessons in customer service are priceless. Southwest Airlines always provides belly laughs which is why we love flying Southwest Airline. Jet Blue has newer planes and was the first to provide televisions in the airplane seats, which we thought was pretty cool back then. Allegiant Air is the most economical commercial airline we fly. We only wish Allegiant Air flew to more cities from Fort Lauderdale and were reliable.

Ahh, then Virgin America changed everything. As we found our seat, we were taken back by the spa like atmosphere on an airplane. Periwinkle ceiling lights with fucia panel lights changed the immediate vibe after the hot stuffy jetway. Soft grey architecture framed the black leather seats. We wondered if this lighting color scheme was designed by Virgin America Founder Richard Branson or is it the lighting color on all new airplanes? We later discovered this is a signature design of Virgin America. As we sat down in my seat, the soft padded seat strap had an enclosed air bag crossing my waist, making us feel strangely safer. Soft piped music played throughout the aircraft. In case you didn’t know, I'm one of those big chickens who white knuckle the armrest while flying. When it was time to depart, the television screens switched to the emergency procedure video and frankly, the video was hilarious. Not only us, but everyone around us laughed and paid careful attention. Pretty creative and smart Virgin America. Applying tasteful humor, the emergency video reminded me through cartoon characters, of the unlikely probability of a crash landing and what we would happen if we did. Did someone say toast?

The television’s built into each seat of Virgin America’s planes are super high tech. Virgin America offers Chromebook tablets, available for rent at their kiosks near their boarding gates, providing inflight internet and email access. The built in television’s provide basic news channels, music channels, movies and games but they are also designed to order table service, your food and drinks delivered promptly by a smiling flight attendant. Again, in Virgin America style, even the menu choices are entertaining. We spent the first 15 minutes designing what we hoped would be my gourmet lunch and realized how fast we could spend another $25 on this flight, between Movies on Demand, a glass of wine, fruit cheese and crackers. Somehow, we didn’t mind. Using the removable remote control from the arm of our seat designed for control freak Type A personalities like us, is another brilliant airplane design. Passengers no longer need to tap the touchscreen television in front of them to change the channel, annoying the heck out of passenger in that seat.

Our pilot soon informed us shortly after take off our non-stop flight was no longer non-stop. Our airplane had been moved to a shorter runway for takeoff because of maintenance repairs being made to the longer main runway in Fort Lauderdale. This meant our airplane could not longer carry enough fuel to take us to Los Angeles. Passengers like me, weren’t thrilled about the extra stop. We specifically chose a non-stop fly and paid more for the flight. We paused for a moment after the announcement and acknowledged, this was not Virgin America’s fault. The pilot reassured us we would re-fuel quickly in Dallas and be on our merry way. We were in less than 30 minutes.

How does flying Virgin America compare to buying real estate ? After the pilot’s surprise announcement, our mind obsessed with real estate, drifted over to promises made to buyers who paid a premium for property and amenities and where inconvenienced unexpectedly. When the Great Real Estate Depression began in late 2007, sales tanked at most master planned communities across America, especially in those which weren’t well established. While scoring master planned communities in Southeast, we notice a pattern. If sales began in the mid 2000‘s, those communities seem to be the ones hardest hit, unless the real estate developer owned the property debt free. As with a teenager reaching adulthood, master planned communities over 18 years of age are more mature and seem to be fairing just fine in this sluggish economy. The age of the community may be something you want to pay attention too before you go take a look.

Our thoughts went back to the emergency video Virgin America had created educating the passengers on emergency procedures. Selfishly, we thought how nice it would have been if real estate developers where we purchased property in the past, had created a video tucked in their sales brochures warning me of the purchasing risks, so we would not have been caught off guard. Instead those stock images of perfect America on their sales video grabbed me hook line and sinker. We would have preferred better disclosure, Mr/Mrs Real Estate Developer informing me in the video of the projected growth in ‘normal market conditions’ and the benchmarks their sales team would need to achieve before the budget allowed building X Y and Z amenity. Just like families at home, real estate developers operate within budgets and are monitored by Lenders. Real estate developers who keep in close contact with their communities about progress and delays retain cohesiveness with their property owners. Buyers should find out what level of communication and access the real estate developer provides property owners, especially in newer communities.

Where Virgin America banged it out of the park is their understanding and enhancing the passenger experience, during my captivated 5 hour flight. We're still stuck on the soft periwinkle and invigorating fucia lights which made the cabin calming and pleasant, instead of the energy draining white fluorescents. Something so simple, but so noticeably different. Virgin America understands little ole me and my apprehension of flying and addressed it head on by creating a different set of emotions through atmosphere and video - without puff.

Buying real estate is so much more than buying a pile of dirt or a roof over our head. We save our hard earned money to buy our dream home at retirement and we want our imagined happiness to become our reality. We have earned long term friendships from clients who reached their relocation goals. If you plan to buy a home in a non-gated community, forget the bells and whistles because you won’t get them. You’re pretty much on your own and that is exactly the way many people want. But for business professionals, we tend to want and expect more. We like to feel special because it has become a common experience in everything we do. Preferred seating, reward club perks and a gold colored credit cards. We don’t mind and expect to pay for more for these benefits.

Analyst’s claim America is experiencing a bigger separation between the classes at all levels, from the ultra wealthy to the poverty level. The information age has been a contributing factor creating more first time millionaires than ever in history. However, most people are not millionaires. If you’re like us, you continue to shop at big box discount stores to live within your means. Yesterday’s middle class is becoming tomorrow’s lower class. Businesses who find a way to provide a level of services which spoil the rich and are still affordable to the lower class, will lead the pack in every industry. We believe Virgin America is one of those businesses.

What we take note of as we score real estate communities in the Southeast, is the cost of living at each of these communities and the lifestyle experience they deliver for the money. If you are considering relocating, you must be curious which master planned communities give you the biggest bang for your buck? We're happy to share this information with you. Just give us a call anytime. Before you buy real estate for retirement, we recommend you fly Virgin America to experience how Richard Branson has raised the bar in affordable airline travel and his leadership lessons are worth paying attention to.

By the way, Virgin America is not perfect. They ran out of sandwiches on our long flight which the flight attendants had warned us of earlier in the flight. If this is a common problem, why the heck hasn’t Virgin America corrected it? None the less, Virgin America will be the first airline we look to when we fly again. One more kudos for Virgin America - when our credit card wouldn’t read on their techie television, the flight attendant quickly provided the product we requested and figured out the solution before the flight ended. Buy from businesses who take care of your needs first and figure out how to solve the problems which arise later. Is that so much to ask?

There are master planned communities in the Southeast who provide you this same level of lifestyle experience as Virgin America for a little bit more than the cheapest price in town. Don’t fall in love with the deal because you can be sure someone will find it cheaper and take the wind out of your sail. Fall in love with the experience because the lifestyle experience is where you will find your long term joy. Sir Richard Branson provides powerful leadership lessons.