Selling Luxe In a Time Of Struggle

Last weekend's half-off options tempted Richardson. But he has to sell his current place. Toll is offering him help with that, providing a professional "stager" to help make it more appealing to buyers and offering zero closing costs.

"I'd like to live here," Richardson said. "But first things first."

Down the street, Toni Edwards browsed the model townhouses. A map in a glass-topped case shows the neighborhood layout, with little Monopoly-like houses that show their status. Most are yellow -- sold. But there are a half dozen lots still empty in the first phase and a few gold houses. The gold ones are the ones that once had contracts but the contracts fell through.

Edwards, her husband and their young daughter strolled through the plush carpeted models, stepped out onto the walkout patio and watched water splash from a fountain. He liked it. But she wondered aloud whether they really needed to move.

"If something hits us and says, 'We've got to do this,' then maybe," she said, thinking aloud. "But so far, that hasn't happened. Do we really need all this space? I don't know what I'd do with all of this."

Richard Benjamin, sales manager for the Glen line, said that even though the base prices stay the same, options are improving the deals that customers can get.

"The way you see it, it's $625,000," he told two women touring the Richmond model

"But the one across the street is $625,000," said Jeanette Tolbert, referring to a larger model house.

"That doesn't have any of the options you see here," Benjamin explained, noting the all-brick exterior, the custom kitchen with granite countertops and the first-floor solarium. The split staircase features twisted iron railings. At the top of the stairs, a custom library has been created with built-in bookshelves, and the children's bathroom is lined with sparkling glass tiles.

Listening to buyers' feedback, Benjamin has played with the layout of the homes in the line, extending kitchens, adding solariums and bumping out second-floor master-bedroom suites. By and large, the changes don't add a lot to construction costs, but they make the buyers feel they are getting more of what they want, he said.

A new Toll house, one would-be buyer said after touring Marlboro Ridge, remains an aspiration that's just out of reach.

"I feel like I should be able to afford this," said Tammy Laster, a management consultant who lives in Howard County and visited Marlboro Ridge last weekend. "We make good money, and we have good jobs. And we still can't do it."