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SURVEYS AID BUILDERS, HOME SEEKERS, ALIKE

Barbara Scanlon was a nurse at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago and Ron Holt was a physician there when they were married two years ago. They moved to a two-bedroom house in rural Massachusetts, Holt`s home state.

”We didn`t like it there,” says Scanlon. ”The house was too small and too out of the way. We both like the big city.”

They came back to the Chicago area a year ago and looked around carefully before deciding to build a home in the Amber Lakes subdivision of Sundance Homes in Woodridge, where the three bedroom Newbury model has a basic price of $94,900.

To Scanlon and Holt the house offered the right combination of location, price and size–three qualities that, builders find, can determine whether a development in which they have put time, effort and money will wind up a triumph or a financial flop.

To increase the odds of success, some builders are relying a lot on buyer surveys to find out beforehand what buyers such as Scanlon and Holt are looking for.

The couple, like many, were prepared to make compromises in their choice of home, but on some points they were adamant.

”We needed to be out of the city,” says Scanlon, because I have a dog, and I refuse to walk him.”

Also, they wanted a ”country” atmosphere without being too far away from Chicago.

”For one thing, we`ve finally gotten season tickets to the Bears games. Also, one of the hospitals my husband works at is in the city. Woodridge is close, and there`s good tranportation on the Stevenson and by the Burlington Railroad.”

This convenience doesn`t preclude being in a very attractive setting, though, she says.

”We were looking for a place where we could be in the country yet not in the country. Here we`re right on a lake and across from a park. We`re not looking out our window into someone else`s window. There`s a low crime rate, nearby shopping malls and eating places, but we don`t feel that we`re in, quote, the `burbs.` ”

There were also financial considerations other than the price of the home.

”I checked the taxes out very carefully,” says Scanlon. ”They are lower in DuPage County than in Cook or Kane. Also, Woodridge has about 100 percent resale value. It`s a growing area. It`s a yuppie area, I suppose.”

Many of the reasons the couple cite might have been predicted by Sundance management. Like other developers, the company has enlisted marketing surveys in its quest to please home shoppers.

The home`s location and ”setting” and proximity to work, for instance, were among important factors disclosed by a survey of visitors to Amber Lakes and three other Sundance developments in a survey last spring.

”It only makes sense to give the buyers what they want,” says Maurice Sanderman, president of Sundance Homes. ”Research like this helps us find out what that is.”

In the survey, a ”safe, neighborhood setting” was second in importance only to proximity to good schools, he says.

”Many Sundance buyers are families buying their second home,” he said.

”The quality of the schools, and rooms that are designed for growing families, have always been of prime importance.”

The results reflect truths found by other builders, including Town & Country Homes.

Kathleen and Ronald Schifsky, who have lived in Buffalo Grove since they were married eight years ago, recently contracted to buy a four bedroom home in Town & Country`s Chasewood development in Lake Zurich.

The Schifskys` son Andrew is 2, and ”we are outgrowing our house in Buffalo Grove,” says Kathleen Schifsky.

Apparently, the town also is outgrowing them.

”Buffalo Grove used to be what Lake Zurich is now,” she says. ”It was more like a country, small-town place. That`s how we liked it.”

Lake Zurich, she says, ”has beautiful parks, and is still close to all the conveniences like shopping and maybe theaters, yet it`s far enough out so I don`t feel stifled.”

The layout of the house also was appealing, she says.

”It has a formal dining room and living room as well as family room and den. The rooms are fairly large. The dining room is larger than any I`ve come across for a formal dining room, and the bedrooms are really well-sized.”

Ronald Schifsky`s position as a sales manager for Land O`Lakes Company makes him travel frequently, so the family wanted to be within reasonable distance of O`Hare airport.

”Other than that,” says Kathleen Schifsky, ”it was up to me where we lived because I`m home more and would be using the area more.”

For a builder such as the Zale Group, a family business that has built single and multifamily developments for 35 years, it`s important to pinpoint differences between buyers of different types of homes, says marketing director Amy Zale.

The company currently is marketing both the multifamily Carriage Homes of Summit Place and the single family Country Homes of Cutters Mill in Schaumburg. Units at Summit Place range from $67,900 to $78,900; and at Cutters Mill from $119,400 to $134,400.

The first thing buyers are interested in is location,” says Zale, ”and once they`ve decided on that they`ll look at subdivisions they consider to be within their price range.”

For single family homebuyers, the school district tends to be very important, she says.

”We knew this when we developed Cutters Mill. Schaumburg is a desirable location for young, growing families. The school system there is well respected.”

In both single and multifamily developments, she finds, buyers want the feeling of increased space.

”In single family homes, in addition to a living room and family room, they want a first floor den that can be used as a study or extra bedroom or whatever. It gives them a feeling of extra space.”

Also, ”most single family buyers cannot live without a two car garage, even if they are not a two car family,” she says.

For multifamily buyers, privacy is a premium, says Zale.

”It`s important to be able to enter their unit directly from the outside or from their garage, without going through a common space.”

For potential buyers of more costly housing some priorities may be different, says Toni Merritt, director of marketing for Hamer Enterprises, which is developing Le Chateaux of Le Provence in the Woods of Bailey Hobson in Naperville, where townhouses of 3,000 square feet range in price from $250,000 to $300,000.

”Our buyers are mostly empty nesters,” says Merritt. ”Usually they have a child in college or one who perhaps is about to get married. These are busy people, professionals. Often both the husband and the wife work.

”Almost all are moving from a large single family house. They want to continue to live in a spacious, beautiful home amid nicely-kept grounds, but they don`t want to have the burdens of exterior maintenance.

”We do the maintenance for them, including exterior window washing. These buyers are trading the time they used to spend working in the yard for the time to do other things, such as travel. They want to have a very nice place, that`s well kept, but don`t necessarily want to do it themselves.”