‘Fly and Buy’: Some builders pick up travel tab

Several new programs are allowing buyers to try out a single-family home or condominium before agreeing to purchase it, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Other builders with no available “try-out units” are offering to reimburse buyers for travel costs, including hotel accommodations, when potential customers fly in from out of town to check out a new home.

Toll Brothers, a huge national builder, is offering a “Fly and Buy” program for potential buyers traveling to a new town. In some cases, consumers get to try out a new home in some of their communities. If these guest units are not available, the company helps the buyer find a nearby hotel. The travel costs can be applied to the purchase contract, if the customer decides to buy.

Kelley Moldstad, division president for Toll Brothers’ Seattle, said the company would offer the “Fly and Buy” program for homebuyers visiting any of the company’s 18 Puget Sound communities in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Bothell, Sammamish and Issaquah.

While the company has no local try-out units, Moldstad said Toll Brothers would reimburse travel expenses if potential buyers purchased in one of its communities.