Subscribe: 
Marketing departments at major real estate developers generally strive for top-down control of their message, with the result that home buyers often turn elsewhere for the information they want – and don’t get – from the developer.
Magellan Development Group is one of a very few major Chicago developers reaching out around the Web. Scroll down to the bottom of Magellan’s Web site and you’ll see links to the company’s growing presence around the Web – from Wikipedia to blogs to MySpace.
One of the Magellan blogs includes a page of links to sites – from Yelp to NewHomeNotebook – where visitors can rate and review Magellan and its developments.
This level of transparency on the part of Magellan shows a lot of confidence, and a willingness to listen to consumers – traits that suggest consumers will have a good experience dealing with the company.
Related posts:
{ 10 comments }
Glad you appreciate our efforts to connect with buyers and potential buyers/renters online as well as offline!
I have visited with Magellan Development and their sales staff and had a great meeting. After the meeting I wanted to research their properties more fluently to get the behind the scenes story. Most of the posts that I saw were great, they praised Magellan Development and spoke about their experiences.
I did notice one or two negative ones on different sites but they sounded like the same person ranting about the same issues but just using a different screen name. Personally, I think that sucks because it puts a cloud over a reputable company such as Magellan. It also sucks that rippoff report comes up when a google search is done. There are sooooooo many complaints about the rippoff report and its B.S. content that it shouldn’t even act as a valid source for info. I once saw a post on ripoff report about a kindergarten school that my daughter went to. The post was all made up (fake) because, being a parent I was extremely concerned, I called the school and got the truth behind it.
I like the fact that Magellan Development has confidence in their properties and services. Its unfortunate that I lost my job in this economy because I was really planning on pursuing a move with them.
Eric,
I’ve seen the posts you refer to, which do all appear to be the work of one person with an unknown agenda. That same person also commented on our videos of Lakeshore East.
The numbers aren’t in for 2008 yet, but Magellan was the largest homebuilder in Chicago (according to Crain’s) in 2007, with over $500M in sales. Any organization of that size is a lightning rod for some of society’s walking wounded. I worked in a mental hospital for 4 1/2 years and kept that sort under lock and key. Back then they sent crank letters. Now they have the Internet.
Sites like this that try to provide an open forum for legitimate gripes and praise have to accept the illegitimate gripes – and praise – that comes with. Buyer will, hopefully, rely more on their personal experience and talking to a builder’s other buyers than on anything they read online.
I had a similar thing happen to me. I meet with Leila Zammatta during the Fall to find a nice place to buy in the city. The housing market was just starting to crumble around the country which was why I thought it was great time to get in the market.
Little did I know that my advertising firm was going to be laying off employees, me included. Luckily, i didn’t get to the signing process just yet but i was about 2 weeks away from it. I’m extremely disappointed that at this time I can’t physically buy one of their properties. The current market is so unstable that my condo dreams have to be put aside for the time being.
I have to say though, Magellan Development was a great company to meet with. I hope to become financially set in the coming months, but this economy is so unpredictable that i can’t put my word on it.
Jill,
Tell me that I’m wrong in thinking that you work for Magellan’s search engine optimization firm and are toying with us – dishonestly.
We really don’t appreciate people trying to game us in this fashion. Despite what you may be thinking, it doesn’t do Magellan any good either.
Should you have any questions about the above exchange, please contact Magellan Development Group at 312-469-8054.
If you take Magellan Rep up on this offer and call, please stop back here and report what you’ve learned.
Eric,
You may be interested in knowing that Yelp has deleted a half dozen positive reviews praising Magellan, leaving only a negative review and one expressing skepticism about all the positive reviews that have been deleted.
My belated search on your e-mail address indicates that you’re quite a busy little fan of Aqua, posting raves on it all over the Web, but not mentioning your lost job. Your MySpace profile doesn’t mention your lost job either.
You must have been mightily impessed and motivated by something relating to Aqua, since you haven’t had anything to say about any other real estate development. What was that motivation, Eric?
I see that Magellan’s sales staff is hard at work trying to cover their tracks on the web sites again. The reports on Yelp, NewEastSide, Ripoffreport etc are more than one person. Then again, so are all the false praises of Magellan’s sales staff as they provide false positive reviews of the company and the construction. Caveat Emptor, and have a good attorney if you deal with these guys.
It’s been a few months since this exchange took place, and an update is in order. I’m confident that the posts referred to in this thread were not written by any Magellan employee. In fact, Magellan Development took appropriate measures to rectify the situation shortly after the posts appeared.”
Check out the videos I did with randomly-approached Aqua home buyers on this YouTube playlist. You’ll get a better fix on Magellan from those videos than from any anonymous reviews on the Web.
In the interest of transparency: we’re currently pitching Magellan to become a client. I don’t think that biases my take on this but, if you do, so be it.
Comments on this entry are closed.