home builder marketing

“Wow… This Is My Home!” How Interactive Kiosks Are Turning Model Homes Into Sales Machines

Tabitha Warren · 07/28/2025 ·

_{Happy couple using sales kiosk to use interactive site map with helpful sales agent. Image created with the help of ChatGPT, CanvaPro, and Outhouse Rendering}

Picture this: a couple walks into a model home, unsure of where to begin. They’re greeted by a warm smile and an interactive kiosk glowing with floor plans, community maps, virtual renderings, and dream-home inspiration. Within minutes, they’re immersed. They’ve found the lot they love, the model that fits, and a vision of their future. No waiting. No confusion. Just clarity and connection.

Welcome to the modern model home, where interactive kiosks, like those produced by Outhouse, are transforming the sales experience from flat and fragmented to fully alive.

Real Builders. Real Success. Real Sales.

Van Metre Homes (Northern Virginia)

Van Metre Homes introduced wall-mounted kiosks to showcase community layouts and floor plans. The displays blend right into their model home aesthetic. They look more like high-end TVs than technology hubs. Behind the scenes, IT teams can manage content remotely, eliminating the need for in-person updates.

To gauge success, Van Metre conducted a case study. The result? Each kiosk draws 25–50 visitor interactions per week and generates an average of three qualified leads per day.

Outcome: Less paperwork. More leads. A smoother sales experience.

*_{Prospective customer using portable kiosk to explore and Interactive Floor Plan (IFP)}*

Interactive Kiosks: From Browsers to Believers

Across the U.S. and Canada, Iinteractive kiosks help home builders level up their customer experience. With tools like:

Interactive markup: Lets buyers make notes on floor plans, plan furniture layouts, and dream big.
Lot-Fit tools: Match models to available lots and help buyers visualize the perfect fit.
Localized presentations: Like W.B. Home in Pennsylvania, many builders use kiosks to highlight nearby attractions that matter to modern buyers.

Outcome: Buyers go from passive browsers to active planners. Engagement deepens. Sales teams gain insight.

5 Reasons Kiosks Make Sales Centers Smarter

Benefits from Kiosk Deployments

Benefit	Why It Matters
Lead Generation	Forms capture buyer info fast .
Remote Content Control	Updates can happen across properties without lifting a finger onsite.
Buyer Empowerment	Tools like lot-fit and floor plan personalization give buyers control and clarity.
Stronger Community Story	Highlight local attractions and perks that make a buyer feel at home.
Operational Efficiency	Less paper. Less chasing. More selling.

Best Practices for Building a Kiosk Experience That Sells

*_{A freestanding kiosk in a cozy, well-lit model home corner.}*

Want to build kiosks buyers actually use? Here’s what the pros are doing:

Make them look good: Design kiosks that blend in beautifully with model home decor.
Go interactive: Give buyers tools to personalize, explore, and engage.
Keep it fresh: Use a CMS to manage content remotely and keep it relevant.
Capture leads smartly: Let buyers submit preferences and inquiries right from the screen.
Tell the neighborhood story: Use visuals and maps to sell the whole lifestyle, not just the house.

More Than a Screen: It’s Their First Step Home

At Outhouse.net, we don’t just build kiosks. We craft interactive experiences that help buyers fall in love with their future home. From touchscreen site maps to immersive renderings and beyond, we help builders put their best foot forward in the sales center, online, and everywhere in between.

So when buyers walk through your door, they don’t just see a model. They see their home.

Want to see how your sales center could evolve? Visit:

Interactive Kiosks

_{Branded Kiosk Display with Outhouse.net Logo}

Outhouse.net Interactive Kiosks: Smart, Seamless, Stunning

At Outhouse.net, we believe the model home experience should be as beautiful and intuitive as the homes themselves. Our interactive kiosks are designed to do more than just display information: they invite buyers into a fully immersive, self-guided journey.

Here’s what sets Outhouse kiosks apart:

Tailored Content: Showcase site maps, floor plans, renderings, and even photo-realistic virtual tours.
Remote Updates: Change content instantly across multiple locations—no IT visit required.
Lead Capture: Integrated forms turn engagement into real sales conversations.
Beautifully Designed: From wall-mounted screens to sleek freestanding displays, they look like part of the model home.

Whether during a sales tour or after hours, our kiosks ensure buyers always have access to the inspiration and information they need.

Outcome: More engagement. More qualified leads. A seamless experience that sells.

Great Home Builder Social Media Accounts and Posts

Tabitha Warren · 06/16/2025 ·

In reply to a recent blog, a reader wrote into us and asked us for a few examples of great home builder social media. First, we were flattered to be asked this question, and we are happy to give our opinion. If you’d like expert advice, you might want to check out this post by Carol Morgan and this podcast featuring Carol Morgan. I think many of us are always trying to keep current. We read the blogs of several amazing Home Builder Marketers, such as Denim Marketing, Bokka Group, and Meredith Communications, to stay current ourselves. What we’ve learned at Outhouse is that there are quite a few things that make home builder social media great and inspiring at different levels.

The bottom line is a strong social media presence is a crucial tool for brand building, lead generation, and fostering connections with potential homeowners. After years of scouting social media, there are some home builders and related personalities who are truly knocking it out of the park with their engaging and high-performing accounts.

Whether you’re a home builder looking for inspiration or a prospective homeowner wanting to see what’s out there, these examples showcase the power of a well-crafted social media strategy in the home building industry.

Home Building Companies with a Powerful Platform Presence

Larger home building companies are also leveraging social media to showcase their homes, communities, and connect with potential buyers. Here are a few examples of companies that consistently demonstrate a strong platform presence:

Abrazo Homes (@abrazohomes): Known for their dynamic social media presence across various platforms like Facebook, Abrazo Homes consistently shares engaging content that resonates with their audience. Their commitment to storytelling is clearly a key to their success. In fact, you can hear directly from their “Chief Story Teller,” Shane Austin, in this insightful episode of the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast.**
Toll Brothers (@tollbrothers): Known for their luxurious homes, Toll Brothers excels on Instagram with stunning, high-quality visuals of their properties and sophisticated design elements. Their Pinterest presence is also noteworthy, offering a wealth of aspirational home inspiration. You can find their well-organized Facebook page here.
Lennar (@lennar): As one of the nation’s largest home builders, Lennar maintains a significant following across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. They effectively use these channels to showcase their diverse range of home models, highlight community features, and share updates with their audience.
David Weekley Homes (@davidweekleyhomes): Historically recognized for their strong Instagram presence, David Weekley Homes consistently shares beautiful, high-quality photographs of their thoughtfully designed homes. Their visual content often emphasizes architectural details and inviting living spaces.
Meritage Homes (@meritagehomes): Meritage Homes stands out for its engaging and varied content on Facebook. They effectively blend community updates, customer stories, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into their building processes, creating a well-rounded online presence.
KB Home (@kbhome): KB Home frequently utilizes Facebook to share important updates, company news, and valuable customer success stories. They also provide helpful home buying tips and resources, positioning themselves as a knowledgeable partner in the homeownership journey.

Individual Builders and Influencers Setting the Standard

Image of Matt Risinger's, RR Buildings', and Perkings Builder Brother's YouTube accounts

Sometimes, the most compelling stories come directly from the individuals shaping the industry. These builders and influencers have cultivated strong followings by sharing their expertise, passion, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into the world of construction and renovation:

Matt Risinger (@risingerbuild): If you’re interested in the science behind high-performance building, look no further than Matt Risinger. His Instagram account and incredibly popular YouTube channel, “The Build Show,” are treasure troves of information on building science principles, meticulous craftsmanship, and the latest construction technologies. Expect in-depth explanations, on-site demonstrations, and a focus on quality and durability.
Kyle Stympenhorst / RR Buildings (@rrb_buildings): Specializing in post-frame construction, Kyle’s presence across YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook offers a deep dive into this specific building method. His content is often practical, providing valuable tips and insights for those interested in or involved in post-frame projects.
Perkins Builder Brothers (@perkinsbuilderbrothers): Get a genuine behind-the-scenes look at home building and renovation projects with the Perkins Builder Brothers. Their engaging “Builder Brothers” series on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook provides a relatable and often entertaining perspective on the challenges and triumphs of construction.

What Makes Their Social Media Shine?

These high-performing accounts share several key characteristics that contribute to their success:

Stunning Visuals: They understand the importance of high-quality photography and videography to showcase the beauty and craftsmanship of their homes.
Consistent Engagement: Regular posting keeps their audience interested and coming back for more.
Diverse Content: They go beyond just showcasing homes, offering project updates, behind-the-scenes peeks, client testimonials, and informative tips.
Active Interaction: They actively respond to comments, answer questions, and foster a sense of community among their followers.
Platform Optimization: They tailor their content to suit the strengths of each platform. These builders use visuals on Instagram and Pinterest, community on Facebook, and in-depth videos on YouTube.
Strategic Use of Hashtags: They utilize relevant keywords to increase the discoverability of their content.
Compelling Storytelling: They connect with potential buyers on an emotional level by sharing the journey of building a home and highlighting the benefits of homeownership.

Staying Ahead of the Curve

The world of social media is constantly changing and evolving. To find the most current top performers, it’s always a good idea to explore these platforms yourself and see which accounts are generating the most engagement on their recent posts. Keep an eye on those with high levels of likes, comments, and shares. These metrics are often indicators of a strong and active audience.

By studying these successful examples, home builders can gain valuable insights into creating their own compelling social media strategies and connecting with their target audience in meaningful ways.

**Shane Austin has since moved on from a brilliant career at Abrazo Homes, but his thoughts and wisdom still ring very true.

Got questions about home builder digital assets? Call us today for a chat!

A La Carte or Package Deal? Lessons Home Builders Can Borrow from Automakers

Tabitha Warren · 01/05/2025 ·

interactive site map zooming in on home site.

When it comes to marketing and visualization tools, home builders often face a familiar question: Should I buy individual products a la carte or go with a bundled package?

At first glance, buying just what you need seems efficient. Maybe you only need renderings right now or just a few virtual tours for your latest community. But over time, a piecemeal approach can lead to higher costs, inconsistent results, and more time spent managing vendors than building homes.

The auto industry figured this out long ago.

Built to Standard, Not to Chaos

When you buy a new car, you don’t choose every nut, bolt, and feature separately. A team thoughtfully designed the trim package you selected to meet your needs, whether it’s an affordable commuter or a luxury performance vehicle.

That’s not just convenience. It’s a strategy. The buyer inherits the cost savings delivered by standardized packages, simplified production, and streamlined quality control.

Home builders can benefit from that same mindset.

_{When Outhouse tools are created together, design, scale, and branding stay perfectly aligned.}

Efficiency Through Bundling

Bundling services, like interactive floor plans, renderings, virtual tours, and interactive site maps, can lower costs in the long run. Procurement in quantity allows teams like Outhouse to offer competitive pricing while ensuring consistent design, branding, and technical accuracy across every asset.

For example:

Renderings & Interactive Floor Plans: When the same team creates both, they align perfectly in scale and style, saving time on revisions.
Interactive Floor Plans (IFPs) & Virtual Tours: These tools share data and visual assets, which means your buyers see the same details online that they’ll experience in person.
Sitemaps & Interactive Floor Plans: When designers create these tools at the same time, your buyers experience a seamless journey, from understanding where a home sits on the site to exploring how they would live inside, reinforcing brand consistency and improving usability.

And just like in the auto industry, bundling creates a smoother, more predictable workflow. You spend less time managing separate vendors and more time focusing on what you do best: building dream homes for your buyers.

Simplifying the Buyer’s Journey

A well-structured package also makes things easier for your customers. When your digital tools, renderings: interactive floor plans (IFPs), interactive site maps, work together seamlessly, buyers can visualize their new home faster and with more confidence.

That consistency builds trust and reduces confusion, helping potential buyers move from browsing to building more quickly.

3D rendering, interactive floor plan, interactive site map

How Outhouse Can Help

At Outhouse, we understand that every builder’s needs are different, but efficiency doesn’t have to mean compromise. Whether you’re ready for a full-service visualization package or want to start small and grow, we’ll help you find the right fit.

We offer bundled solutions that bring consistency, quality, and savings together under one roof, just like the auto industry’s most trusted brands. From renderings to virtual tours to interactive tools, our products work together beautifully.

When you keep your marketing materials built to the same standard, you’ll see better results: faster, smoother, and more affordable.

Want to learn more about choosing the right level of service?

Check out our blog: Good, Better, Best: Finding the Right Fit for Your Builder Marketing Needs.

Contact Outhouse, LLC to find out how we can help with all your home-building website needs

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How Photoreal Renderings & Virtual Tours Sell Homes

Jim Sorgatz · 04/23/2023 · Leave a Comment

Marketing insights from photos of an expedition to Antarctica

Black and white photo of two sets of jagged rocks forming a saddle. Old fence posts in the foreground. Reminiscent of a moonscape. — *Deception Island – the caldera of an active volcano. Although taken in black and white, this photo accurately represents the starkness and other-worldly feel of the island.*

With even the smallest home builders moving heavily into 3-D photoreal renderings, virtual tours, and animations, I thought it might be interesting to revisit this post from a year ago. This update includes additional information on rendering and virtual reality (VR) tools, plus new images of the latest photoreal renderings, and links to virtual tours. This also is one of my favorite posts, combining my career with my favorite pastime – travel.

A bucket-list trip to Antarctica is one of the most incredible and inspirational journeys. Seeing thousands of penguins and other animals, yet not a single plant anywhere is mind-boggling. The football field-sized+ icebergs, especially the tabular varieties, are astounding. And the monochromatic landscape is other-worldly. I came away with a desire to take better care of our planet, a greater appreciation of finding peace in solitude (this place is desolate!), and the realization I can enjoy summer when the high is just above freezing.

Colorful kayaks and kayakers in water with floating bits of ice, and dark clouds overhead. — *Kayaking in Neko Harbor*.

Penguins surrounding bright orange duffel bags on a large rock, set on a rocky beach with snow in the background. — *The inquisitive penguins.*

I also gained some key marketing insights. A recent post, Rules of Engagement, discusses the powerful lesson we learn from penguins, who are the stars of the Antarctic show. They captivate visitors as they gather stones to build nests, guard their chicks, run en masse along the beach to dive for food, and shuffle around checking out us humans. Likewise, digital marketing tools, including Interactive Floor Plans, Interactive Site Plans, and Visualizers, play a starring role on builder websites and are integral to the new home journey. Captivating and engaging homebuyers, digital tools create strong emotional connections and lead to an increase in closing sales.

A lesson also came on the importance of color and texture and how it relates to visual marketing tools like renderings, virtual tours, and animations. Against a backdrop of grey and white, the most captivating photos include glimpses of vivid color, most often provided by humans. Pops of red, orange, and yellow on ships, clothing, and kayaks look stunning in the barren landscape.

Bow of a ship with red trim cracking a giant ice sheet. — *Cracking a massive ice sheet in Wilhelmina Bay. Note the power or red.*

An expedition team, wearing bright orange and yellow jackets, on an inflatable Zodiac boat cruising through water with chunks of ice — *Traveling by Zodiac in the Antarctic Sound.*

Colors from nature include teal from glacial ice; clear blue skies; orange, pink, red, and purple emanating from the stunning midnight sunsets; bits of orange and yellow on penguin beaks, necks, and feet; and an occasional rainbow. That’s about it! What really makes Antarctica so dramatic are the textures. Smooth snow, jagged rocks, fluffy clouds. Constantly changing due to weather, they overwhelm the senses.

A black ship with red and white trim next to a giant, triangular, blue-tinted iceberg. — *Our ship, anchored next to a massive, blue-tinged iceberg.*

Blue icebergs floating in front of a rocky mountain with snow. Clouds overhead, and reflecting in the water. — *Cool blue on an iceberg and purple-tinged skies add rare bits of natural color in Neko Harbor.*

Bright orange sunset over the ocean against a backdrop of grey clouds. — *The most color at any one time, a vibrant sunset, sometime around midnight.*

And that brings us to the importance of photoreal renderings, virtual tours, and animations in new home sales. Colors and textures appeal to everyone. They move and motivate us, playing an essential role in marketing strategies. Photoreal imagry brings colors and textures to your pre-built homes. It gives potential buyers a realistic view of your homes, often generating sales before a model is ever built. 3-D Renderings are the first place to start. We still see builder websites with flat, black/white stick drawings. Yuck! These in no way engage the senses like a proper photoreal rendering.

*Photoreal rendering for Winslow Homes – daylight.*

*Same elevation for Winslow Homes – a dramatic dusk shot.*

Even more engaging are virtual tours and animations. What’s the difference? Virtual tours, like the ones for DeLuca Homes and KLMR Homes shown here, are user-controlled. Viewers click into a room and then turn the image for a 360° view. Animations, on the other hand, are video tours. Both bring your “model homes” to buyers around the world. Virtual Tours tend to be the most popular as they are more cost-effective, and most users enjoy the hands-on experience.

*Invite your buyers to discover your homes with virtual tours. Click the DeLuca Homes kitchen to explore their Mayfair plan*.

*A stunning home with spectacular views. KLMR Homes Bellos at the Summit.*

People love to explore and engage. These are the reasons many of us enjoy discovering the world. When it comes to purchasing a new home, your buyers also want to personalize. By implementing digital and visualization tools on your website, you invite homebuyers to do all three. Contact Outhouse today to learn more about our interactive floor plans, interactive site plans, virtual tours, animations, visualizers, and renderings, plus our interactive kiosks, which incorporate all.

Clouds and a rainbow between two jagged hills straddling a channel with water. — *A rainbow – the perfect ending to a storm in the Lemaire Channel.*

5 Tips for Selecting the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Home Building Company

Bill Gelbaugh · 10/20/2020 · Leave a Comment

As a successful home builder, you know that the home buyers in today’s world begin their home buying journey online. They are searching for homes and evaluating builders’ new home communities and floor plans via their websites long before they ever decide to make contact with a salesperson and visit a community.

Lady checking out builder website. — An engaging website is critical to new home sales.

You know you need to have a home builder website that generates quality sales leads, and you also want to grow the number of qualified home buyers that visit your site.

You know it would be terrific to have a trusted partner agency to help you navigate the increasing complexities and options that are available in today’s digital marketing toolset. But let’s be honest. You are not an expert in digital marketing techniques and technologies, and you don’t have the time to become one. You are also working with limited marketing resources and can’t afford to waste money on selecting the wrong partner.

We all fear making mistakes, especially when those mistakes will cost us time and money. So how can you move forward with more confidence to find the digital marketing agency that is right for you and will help you sell more homes?

Here are some key questions to consider to help you evaluate a digital marketing agency that you are considering as a partner.

1.) Do they understand the home building industry?

There are a lot of agencies out there that are very good digital marketers but don’t have specific experience in working with home builders. Your local agency down the street may be very good at understanding the nuances of SEO, paid search, email marketing, and more, but do you want to pay them to learn the difference between a floor plan and an elevation, or between a model and an inventory home?

If you are looking for a partner who can help you execute on the tactical level, and will simply take your direction and implement it, then this type of agency may be a good fit for you.

However, if you are not sure what the best steps are to move forward online and you are also looking for strategic advice and guidance and an understanding of what others in the industry are successfully doing, then you will want a digital marketing agency who has not just worked with a few other home builders as clients but is also participating in industry events and sharing ideas on industry best practices.

2.) Can they explain the technical things they do in a way that you can understand and be comfortable with?

Just because digital marketing can be technical in nature, doesn’t mean that you must work with an agency purely on blind trust. It is important that you are comfortable with the direction and tactics that your agency partner is implementing on your behalf. While it is not necessary for them to train you to become a digital marketing expert yourself, they do need to be able to communicate the details of what digital marketing activities they are doing and why they are doing them and do that in such a way that you can understand and be comfortable.

These communication skills will continue to be important well beyond the initial sales discussions when you are deciding whether to work together. While fancy charts and graphs can look pretty and impressive, as the agency reports their progress periodically, ensure they will not just send a canned report but will explain the data and the implications of that report. With every report should come an understandable answer to the question: “Therefore, what’s next?”

3.) Can they describe their process and demonstrate that they understand where to start and how to get you where you want to go?

You feel like your business and the homes you build are unique and special, and they are. But usually, those differences, while important, are a relatively small part of the overall picture of what you do and the homes you sell. This means that an experienced agency is going to be able to see the commonalities between their clients across the services that they offer and define and create their process or framework for successfully serving you.

Having a process to follow does not mean that you will get a cookie-cutter service or that the solutions provided will not be customized to your needs. It does mean that you will get consistency in what they deliver for you and it demonstrates a deeper understanding of how the execution of digital marketing services can help you sell more homes, even when your homes are in a different location or target a different buyer demographic than someone else that the agency has worked with previously.

4.) Does the agency claim to be an expert in everything?

Confidence is great, arrogance is not. It is very challenging in today’s environment for a single agency to be an expert in everything. Be sure to ask where the agency draws the line of which services they will offer for you. For example, at Blue Tangerine, we recognize that we are not experts in helping our clients with their core branding or with logo design, so we have established relationships with several other branding agencies so that we can provide referrals if our clients have a need for those particular services.

5.) Will the agency clearly measure success in a way that you are comfortable with?

When working with your digital marketing agency, it is very easy to lose sight of the ultimate end goal, which is to increase qualified leads so you can sell more homes. This happens because agencies feel, often rightly so, that they don’t have the full control to be held accountable for that result. Instead, they want to focus on metrics like website traffic increases and specific keyword rankings. These are, of course, important metrics that need to be reviewed and will inform the tactical execution of your digital marketing plan and strategy. However, if you double the amount of traffic to your website or your website is now ranking number one for your favorite keyword phrase, and you still do not sell more homes, is that really success?

handshake — Trust between builder and marketing agency is key.

Bonus Tip: Most importantly, are they someone you can trust?

Regardless of how the digital marketing agency you are considering measures up with whatever criteria that you apply, at the end of the day, it’s all about trust. No partnership will ever be successful in the long term if both sides are not able to work together from a position of trust. While trust is something that takes time to develop, here are a few ideas of ways to determine if an agency is trustworthy even before you’ve started working with them:

Do they get back to you in a timely manner, the way they promised to when you filled out the form on their website?
Do they deliver a proposal or quote within the timeframe that they told you they would, or if not, do they keep you up to date with where things stand?
Do they have a demonstrated expertise by working with other home builders?
How do their existing clients feel about working with them?

At Blue Tangerine, we recognize that to be trusted as your digital marketing partner is both an honor and a responsibility. We’d love to earn that trust. If you are ready to start selling more homes, reach out today and let’s talk.

Submitted by

Mila Sorensen, Director of Marketing & Marketing Services
Blue Tangerine.

Blue Tangerine is your website design, development and digital marketing agency all rolled into one – from mobile responsive websites, SEO and PPC to email and social media, we provide full-service solutions to home builders, online retailers, and businesses.