Central Florida Builder Bill Silliman Unveils New Online Technology For Latest Building Venture

ORLANDO, Fla. - July 18, 2014 - PRLog -- – Reputed for his cutting edge designs and innovations in the luxury home-building arena, Orlando Florida builder Bill Silliman has added an innovative technological wrinkle to his marketing and sales operations..

         The veteran award-winning builder who has been building in the Central Florida market for more than three decades has launched Silliman Dream Planner (www.sillimandreamplanner.com), a user-friendly technology designed specifically for his new home-building venture Silliman CitySide which builds exclusively in Metro Orlando’s oldest and most iconic built-out neighborhoods.

         Silliman is believed to be the first builder in the country to incorporate the technology that allows a prospective buyer to visit his site, select a home plan and a specific neighborhood location such as Winter Park, College Park, Maitland or Bay Hill and calculate his monthly payment based on a down payment of his choosing.

         “We believe this will one day be the wave of the future,” says Silliman. “It takes a lot of the guess work out of the home buying process.”

         Silliman says the concept was designed specifically for Silliman CitySide because it shows buyers that they can, indeed, build a new home in the area’s prime zip code markets such as Winter Park, downtown Orlando or College Park which have been built out for decades.

         Silliman CitySide currently has an extensive inventory of available lots in many of those prime zip code areas and continues to add to that list. The company also has product plans to fit nearly every lot size ranging from 50-foot lots – the norm of many older, established neighborhoods – to estate-size lots and everything in between. Home prices range from $600,000 to about $1.5 million.

         And that’s where the Dream Planner enters the picture. The simple step-by-step process works like this: 1) Enter your preliminary budget, including down payment, preferred interest rate and mortgage term to determine your monthly principal and interest payment. For example, if your budget is $600,000 and put $60,000 down, your monthly P&I on a 30-year fixed mortgage at 3.75 percent would be about $2,500; 2) Select your home plan from an array of plans listed by lot size, based on your budget parameters; 3) Choose your lot and location; 4) Select the options you want to include in your home, which range from a standard swimming pool to luxury interior appointment package;  and 5) Process your information and print out your preliminary worksheet.

         Once you have finished your input, Dream Planner will automatically compute your final home price and your monthly P&I house payment.

         “The Dream Planner will help buyers determine what plans – and locations – are most compatible with their budgets,” says partner Mark E. Vergason. “If they determine that Winter Park is out of their range, they might find a more viable alternative in one of the other older, high-demand neighborhoods such as nearby College Park and Maitland or Bay Hill and Windermere in southwest Orlando. That is the beauty of our Dream Planner because it provides prospective buyers with a broad spectrum of choices with a click of their fingers.”

         According to Silliman, demand for properties in Metro Orlando’s prestigious zip code markets remains high as most resale figures reflect. And that continued demand is what has fueled the launch of Silliman CitySide because it provides buyers with the opportunity of owning a new home in a 50- or 75-year-old neighborhood that is built to today’s strict building and energy standards.

         On the other side of the coin, most buyers who have purchased homes in mature, built-out neighborhoods have had to make compromises in the process, he adds. They’ve had to settle for older construction, outdated styling, poor insulation and excessive utility costs. And then there are the additional expenses of renovating the home to reflect their personal tastes and preferences, which typically can exceed $100,000.

         Silliman says he has found an ideal niche in the market and he is taking full advantage of it. Since its launch approximately 12 months ago, Silliman CitySide has invested about $10 million purchasing select properties in its designated zip code areas. It has 15 homes under construction and already has banked about $5 million in home sales.

         “What has impressed our buyers the most is that they were able to live in the neighborhood of their dreams in a home offering all of the conveniences, advantages and amenities of today instead of one that was built a half century or more ago,” he adds.

Silliman has been a fixture in Orlando’s high-end, custom housing market since the early 1980s. His name and the Orlando luxury home builders associated with Silliman Homes have become synonymous with high-end design and fine craftsmanship, which have resulted in numerous industry awards at both the local and national levels, including a prestigious Aurora Award at last year’s Southeast Builders Conference for the Palazzo Lago, a 7,628 square-foot, Mediterranean-styled lakefront estate at Waterstone in Windermere