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Design Inspiration: The High Line, NYC

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Bring Your Home Designs to Fruition at Outhouse

Sculpture by NYC artist Danny Cole.

Have you ever stumbled upon a place so unexpected and exhilarating that it floods your mind with creative ideas and inspiration? That’s exactly what I experienced on a recent trip to New York City while exploring the High Line, an elevated linear park built on a former rail line. This isn’t just any public park; the High Line is a unique blend of art, architecture, and urban design. Stretching 1.45 miles through Manhattan’s West Side it offers stunning views of the city’s skyline and showcases some of its most innovative buildings.

Iconic Architectural Landmarks

From the elevated perch, high above the crowds, the view of iconic buildings, like the Empire State Building, is astonishing. Here are a few of the wonderful buildings you see along the way:

  • The Eleventh (BIG): Designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, this striking complex features two twisting towers at 76 Eleventh Avenue. Known for its bold geometry and expansive glass walls, The Eleventh offers panoramic views and a modern twist on traditional skyscraper aesthetics​.
The Eleventh – designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group.
  • 520 West 28th Street (Zaha Hadid Architects): A hallmark of contemporary design, this building is noted for its curving metallic façade and futuristic appeal. It is one of the last projects by the legendary architect Zaha Hadid, making it a significant landmark on the High Line​.
Condo designed by Zaha Hadid.
  • Chelsea Market: Originally a factory for the National Biscuit Company, this historic building now serves as a vibrant market with various food vendors and shops. The High Line runs through the building, showcasing its blend of old and new architectural elements​.
The High Line making it’s way through Chelsea Market.
  • 10 Hudson Yards (Coach Building): This skyscraper marks the northern terminus of the High Line and is a central part of the Hudson Yards development, a massive urban revitalization project often compared to Rockefeller Center in scale and impact​.
10 Hudson Yards building in the distance.

Unique Experiences and Sights

Walking along the High Line offers more than just architectural wonders. The park itself is a showcase of landscape design, featuring over 500 species of plants. Areas like the Gansevoort Woodland and the Washington Grasslands offer serene green spaces amidst the urban hustle​

Gansevoort Woodland

The High Line also functions as an outdoor art gallery. With installations like Paola Pivi’s “You know who I am” and Nina Beier’s “Women & Children,” the park provides a continuous rotation of thought-provoking art that enhances the visitor experience​.

Mural by renowned Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra.

Although some people don’t love these, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I found “The Vessel,” and a whimsical sculpture by artist Danny Cole to be quite entertaining as well.

The Vessel – centerpiece of Hudson Yards. This interactive sculpture was imagined by British designer Thomas Heatherwick.

What’s The Connection Here to Home Building?

Wherever you find inspiration for new homes, whether it be the High Line in Manhattan, an out-of-this-world experience elsewhere, or a simple walk in the neighborhood park, Outhouse, the outsource hub for home builders, can help bring your wildest ideas to fruition. Give us a sketch on a napkin, and our architectural team will produce a full set of construction documents.

While plans are in progress, our rendering team will meticulously craft your 3D exterior and interior elevations, virtual tours, and visualizers. Our interactive team works their magic to build digital tools like interactive floor plans and interactive site maps that will engage your homebuyers. We can also coordinate digital assets with your web designer including industry experts Blue Tangerine, Bokka Group, Group Two, Meredith Communications, and Adlanta Creative,

All of this can be accomplished simultaneously in a compressed timeline bringing your homes to market faster, and increasing your ROI. 

The juxtaposition of old and new is striking. The iconic Empire State Building in the background.

Conclusion

The High Line is a testament to New York City’s ability to innovate and adapt, transforming an old rail line into a vibrant public space that seamlessly blends nature, art, and architecture. Whether you’re an architecture enthusiast or just looking for a unique urban experience, the High Line offers a fascinating journey through some of the city’s most captivating sights.

If you visit the High Line, or anywhere else that inspires some fresh design ideas, draw a quick sketch, and send it over to Outhouse.  We will take it from there to bring your idea to life!

Strategies for Staying on Top of Home Builder Software Integration: With Insights from Kevin Weitzel

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Outhouse Partner Shares Game-Changing Approaches for Streamlining Operations and Enhancing Customer Experience

In the rapidly evolving world of home building, integrating cutting-edge software solutions has become crucial for success. Kevin Weitzel, a partner at Outhouse, brings his expertise to the forefront, highlighting three key areas where technology integration can significantly impact a home builder’s operations and customer experience. From streamlining lead management to revolutionizing visual asset presentation, Weitzel’s insights offer valuable strategies for home builders looking to stay competitive in today’s market. This blog post explores three critical areas of software integration that can transform how home builders operate and interact with potential buyers.

The CRM Conundrum: Automating Lead Capture

If you have more than a couple leads coming in each day, importing them directly to your Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) is essential… why would anybody want to clerk the consumer given information into their CRM, again, from whatever platform is generating your leads.

–Kevin Weitzel, Outhouse Partner

This is an important point that highlights a critical aspect of efficient lead management and customer relationship management in the home building industry. Here’s why it’s so significant:

Efficiency and Data Integrity: Automatically transferring leads directly into a CRM eliminates the need for manual data entry. This saves time and reduces the risk of human error in transcribing information.

2. Speed of Response: Immediate lead import allows sales teams to respond quickly to potential customers. In the competitive home building market, rapid response times can be crucial in securing a sale.

3. Resource Allocation: By eliminating the need to “clerk” or manually enter consumer information, staff can focus on more valuable tasks like follow-ups and relationship building.

4. Customer Experience: Consumers expect a seamless experience. Having to provide information multiple times can be frustrating and may negatively impact their perception of the builder.

5. Data Consistency: Automated lead imports ensure that all leads are handled consistently, regardless of their source or the time they come in.

6. Scalability: As a home builder’s business grows, manually entering leads becomes increasingly time-consuming and impractical. Automation is essential for scaling operations efficiently.

7. Analytics and Reporting: Direct lead imports allow for more accurate tracking of lead sources and conversion rates, which is crucial for optimizing marketing strategies.

8. Integration Benefits: When leads automatically flow into the CRM, it’s easier to integrate with other systems like marketing automation tools, further streamlining the sales process.

9. Competitive Advantage: Builders who can quickly and accurately process leads are better positioned to outperform competitors who rely on manual processes.

In essence, the statement underscores the importance of streamlining the lead capture process in the home building industry. It emphasizes that in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven market, manual data entry is an unnecessary and potentially detrimental step that can be easily eliminated with proper system integration.

The ERP Challenge: Overcoming Obstacles to Real-Time Pricing

Integrating your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with your interactive floor plans to achieve real-time pricing is a great idea.  Often easier said than done, the lynch pin in this process is almost always the ERP.  The desire from the home builder is there, but far too often, the ERP itself is intentionally lacking in the ability to feed the data, via an Application Programming Interface (API), into other platforms.  Once implemented, the biggest issue is the ERP provider breaking the feed connections; sometimes regularly.”

Kevin Weitzel, Outhouse Partner

The importance of ERP data for real-time pricing in home building cannot be overstated, and the challenges Kevin highlights are significant. Here’s why his point is crucial:

1. Accurate and Dynamic Pricing: Real-time ERP data enables home builders to adjust pricing instantly based on current costs, market conditions, and inventory levels. This ensures competitive and profitable pricing strategies. [6]

2. Customer Satisfaction: Up-to-date pricing information allows sales teams to provide accurate quotes to potential buyers, improving customer trust and satisfaction. [7]

3. Efficient Resource Management: Real-time data helps with better resource allocation and inventory management, reducing waste and improving profitability. [6]

4. Informed Decision Making: Access to current data allows management to make quick, informed decisions about pricing, promotions, and product offerings. [8]

5. Competitive Advantage: Builders who can offer real-time pricing are better positioned to respond to market changes and competitor actions swiftly. [9]

These issues underscore the need for home builders to carefully evaluate ERP solutions, prioritizing those that offer robust API capabilities and reliable data integration. It also highlights the importance of ongoing dialogue with ERP providers to address these challenges and push for more open, flexible systems that truly support the needs of modern home builders.

Revolutionizing Visual Assets: The Power of Integration

“An easy integration for any homebuilder website is to put all visual home assets on one web page. Why have various assets for a particular home/plan on separate pages?  It is quite easy to integrate all of the home’s assets onto a single page.  As an example, images and/or virtual tours can be linked as hotspots on both Interactive AND static floor plans.  When not linked, a menu of a gallery accessible on a floor plan is easy and garners engagement.”

Kevin Weitzel, Outhouse Partner

Interactive floor plans, renderings, visualizers, and virtual tours for a single home should all be on one page of a homebuilder website for several key reasons:

1. Improved user experience: Combining these elements on a single page allows potential buyers to easily access and navigate between different visualization tools without leaving the page. This creates a seamless, intuitive experience that keeps users engaged. [10][4]

2. Enhanced information retention: By offering multiple visual representations in one place, homebuyers are more likely to retain information about the home. This multi-faceted approach caters to different learning styles and preferences. [10][12]

3. Increased engagement and time on site: Interactive elements like floor plans and virtual tours are known to keep visitors on a website longer. Grouping these features on one page encourages extended exploration, increasing the chances of conversion. [12][13]

4. Streamlined communication: Having all visual tools in one location simplifies the process of sharing information with potential buyers. It reduces the need for multiple meetings or explanations, saving time for both builders and customers.[13]

5. Competitive advantage: Offering a comprehensive, interactive experience on a single page demonstrates a homebuilder’s commitment to innovation and customer service. This can set them apart from competitors and appeal to tech-savvy buyers. [13]

6. Personalization opportunities: Integrated interactive elements allow for easier customization. Buyers can explore different options and visualize changes more effectively when all tools are accessible in one place. [12][13]

By consolidating these features on a single page, homebuilders can create a more effective, engaging, and user-friendly online experience that better serves potential buyers and increases the likelihood of conversions.

Conclusion: Embracing Integration for Future Success

Kevin’s insights underscore the importance of embracing integrated software solutions in the home building industry. By addressing challenges in CRM lead capture, ERP data integration, and visual asset presentation, home builders can significantly enhance their operations and customer experience, positioning themselves for success in an increasingly competitive market.

Citations:

[1] https://subcusa.com/5-reasons-why-construction-companies-need-a-crm-today/

[2] https://blog.velocity23.com/blog/making-home-builder-crm-plan-nhbj

[3] https://www.builderdesigns.com/resources/blog/maximizing-roi-why-a-reliable-crm-system-reigns-supreme-for-homebuilders

[4] https://www.motionops.com/blog/importance-of-crm

[5] https://info.builderfunnel.com/what-is-the-best-crm-for-home-builders

[6] https://www.priority-software.com/blog/how-does-an-erp-real-time-data-support-business-growth/

[7] https://www.silkcommerce.com/epicor/maximizing-the-use-of-erp-data-for-real-time-pricing-for-quotes/

[8] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/improve-your-reporting-real-time-erp-data-sagesoftware

[9] https://www.vialaurea.com/en/blog/blog-posts-3/the-power-of-real-time-data-in-erp-systems-21

[10] https://truplace.com/real-estate/3-reasons-floor-plans-are-great-virtual-tours/

[11] https://rextheme.com/real-estate-floor-plans/

[12] https://graphiclanguage.net/blog/benefits-of-interactive-floorplans/

[13] https://www.ecisolutions.com/blog/residential-construction/revolutionizing-home-buying-the-power-of-interactive-floor-plans/

Know Your Homebuyer Audience

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Are you surprised by the new home construction trends in your own city?

Two homes, one much bigger than the other.
Guess which house is the newbie?!

Having been in the industry for nearly 30 years, it is not often that I am surprised by trends in new home construction. The goal is to sell to anyone who financially qualifies. And, in these times of elevated interest rates and home prices the buzz is all about affordability, which typically translates to smaller homes. So, I am shocked to see the newest homes being built in my “affordable” neighborhood are 50%+ larger and significantly more expensive than my home that was built in the fall of 2022. The families shopping for homes right now are, apparently, looking for space, and have the means to afford a bigger house. And I guess that makes sense. Although there genuine efforts by cities and builders to create affordable housing, with a median price of $430,000 nationally per realtor.com, there really aren’t many homes that are affordable right now for first-time homebuyers. This hammers home the importance of knowing your core audience, building for them, and marketing to them appropriately.

There are many builders who do this well and adapt to the changing environment. One example is Arizona based Meritage Homes whose mission today is, “To design and build homes that are innovative, built with care and superior craftsmanship, which deliver enduring value.” Contrast that with their mission a couple years back, “To build move-in-ready affordable homes for entry-level and first move-up buyers,” and you can see the evolution to better reflect the current new home market.

How can you be sure you are targeting the right audience? Begin with a review of your overall marketing strategy. Do your website, sales offices, and print marketing appeal to the potential buyers you are attempting to attract? Although first-time and luxury home buyers are both seeking out their dream homes, the marketing for these two distinct groups looks very different. This is where consultation with marketing experts like Denim Marketing, Blue Tangerine, Adlanta Creative, and Bokka Group to name a few, can be highly beneficial.      

Next, review your digital marketing tools, and upgrade them if necessary. If you are still using static floorplans and stick renderings, think again. Interactive floor plans, renderings, virtual tours, animations, and visualizers all play an integral role in engaging homebuyers and selling homes.

Interactive Floor Plans (IFPs) have universal appeal, and every builder website should feature them. Buyers of all demographics love to select structural options and customize their living spaces with the interactive furniture planner. 

Interactive floor plan with furniture.
Outhouse’s new colorized Interactive Floor Plan

Quality renderings are essential for all builders as well. Black and white stick drawings are never a good option, even for the simplest of homes. Standard 3D (Outhouse Bronze and Silver) renderings are perfectly acceptable for homes at lower price points. For move-up and luxury homes, you will want to implement 3D photoreal renderings (Outhouse Gold). Luxury and custom builders may want to opt for Platinum renderings that can be further enhanced and customized.

Should your budget for digital marketing tools be a bit larger, investing in animations and virtual tours pays off in two significant ways. First, they enable homebuyers to digitally explore your homes from anywhere. Second, both are available at a fraction of the cost of constructing a model home. Your target buyer should be the top consideration when choosing which format to offer. Younger buyers prefer user-controlled virtual tours. Buyers over 50 typically gravitate towards video format animations.

Visualizer showing a before and after kitchen
Visualizer’s allow home buyers to customize interiors and exteriors

Another online tool appealing to home buyers at all price points is the Visualizer. With both interior and exterior versions available, buyers can mix and match colors and finishes to achieve the desired look and feel. The visualization process is so much easier than making selections for an entire house based on one-inch paint chips and tiny floor, counter, and cabinet samples. It also removes some of the pressure and stress from the design center visit.

Here are a couple more ideas to help you connect with your appropriate audience:

Elevate your brand with distinguished print marketing. Consider the hotel industry when investing in print—the swankier the property, the more excellent the print collateral. The manager of the high-end hotel presents you with a “folio” at checkout, not simply hands or emails you a bill. Although print appeals greatly to buyers in the luxury home market, even younger homebuyers like to walk away from the sales center with a brochure featuring their preferred floor plan and elevations at a minimum. In today’s digital world, people still appreciate a tangible marketing piece when making one of their biggest life purchases. Why not present them with something sophisticated or fun, and memorable?         

Printed brochure showing families participating in various activities
A great print piece makes a lasting impression!

Today, the most progressive builders are transforming their websites with artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand and target their audience. Like that provided by openhouse.ai, AI offers home buyers a personalized shopping experience and predicts where your unique market is going with more accuracy.

So take some time during this evolving housing market to understand your homebuyer and determine if your current marketing strategy is meeting their needs. If not, consider working with online marketing experts to determine which digital and on-site tools will move the needle most with your target audience to increase your new home sales.   

Optimizing the Design-Market-Sell Continuum: Tips for Home Builders – Part 2

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In the dynamic world of homebuilding, a term that often echoes through the corridors of innovation is “value engineering.” Investopedia defines it as a strategic method aimed at delivering essential project functions at the minimum possible cost. This approach champions swapping out materials and methods for more cost-effective alternatives while maintaining the integrity of functionality—and, we’d argue, quality, too.

At Outhouse, this principle is at the heart of our Design-Market-Sell methodology. Our suite of services—from drafting to visual aids and digital innovations to print solutions—caters to builders across the spectrum. Yet production home builders crafting anywhere from 30 to 3,000 homes annually, stand to gain the most from our holistic approach. By integrating our seasoned Computer-Aided Design (CAD) expertise, builders can forego the hefty expense of maintaining an in-house drafting team. As our CAD wizards work their magic, our graphics and rendering teams get cracking on interactive floor plans, site maps, virtual tours, and much more, paving the way for a seamless transition to print media and sales office displays. This cohesive strategy not only accelerates your market entry but does so with significant cost efficiency. And therein lies the secret to mastering the Design-Market-Sell continuum.

In the first chapter of this series, we unpacked the foundational tools every builder needs to design, market, and sell new homes. Now, let’s dive into the digital realm that captivates homebuyers and enriches their purchasing journey.

Crafting Emotional Connections: The Power of Interactive Floor Plans and Site Maps

Outhouse has been at the forefront of Interactive Floor Plans (IFPs) and Interactive Site Maps (ISMs) for over two decades, boasting a portfolio that’s as robust as it is innovative. Optimized for mobile use, these tools work like a dream on any device, aligning perfectly with the preferences of over 70% of today’s homebuyers.

Headshot of Outhouse VP of National Accounts Erin Kearney against a wood plank backdrop with the words, "Helpful Tips - Visualizers"
Erin Kearney, VP of National Accounts

Erin Kearney, our VP of National Accounts, emphasizes the importance of understanding buyer needs and adopting a personalized sales narrative. The ability to swiftly capture and analyze consumer preferences sets a builder apart in a market brimming with competition. IFPs and ISMs are more than mere marketing gimmicks; they are bridges to potential buyers’ hearts and minds, allowing them to visualize and tailor their future homes. This emotional engagement is akin to the bond formed during a car’s test drive, transforming a potential purchase of “your house” into “my home.”

Moreover, ISMs offer a comprehensive view of available lots, linking directly to elevations, IFPs, virtual tours, and more, thus streamlining the journey from lot selection to home customization.

Marrying market insights with interactive tools is critical to truly excel in sales. These technologies elevate customer interaction and deepen the emotional bond with their future homes, positioning builders as pioneers in their field.

Sketch of Marilyn Monroe against a wood plank backdrop with the words, "Helpful Tips - Interactive"

Maximizing Engagement with IFPs and ISMs

Success with IFPs and ISMs hinges on precise construction documents and strategic website placement. Marcy Smith, our incredibly talented but media-averse Graphic Department Production Manager, shares invaluable tips for optimizing these tools:

  • Ensure clarity and accuracy in your CAD files before engaging with a digital tools provider. Autodesk offers a free ‘DWG TrueView’ for this purpose.
  • Incorporate a PDF version of your CAD files for ease of reference.
  • For IFP projects, detailed CAD files minimize back-and-forth, saving time and resources.
  • Clearly delineate desired lots for ISMs, especially in master-planned communities, to avoid unnecessary costs.
  • The placement of these tools on the website is crucial; they should be prominently displayed for easy access by potential buyers, enhancing engagement and site retention.
Headshot of Outhouse partner Stuart Platt against a wood plank backdrop with the words, "Helpful Tips - Visualizers"
Outhouse partner Stuart Platt

Virtual Reality: The Frontier of Digital Engagement

Virtual Reality (VR) stands as the latest marvel in digital homebuilding tools, offering virtual tours, animations, and visualizers that transport the model home experience to buyers worldwide. Stuart Platt, an Outhouse partner, advises:

  • For interior VR projects, consider selecting from Outhouse’s extensive library of interior designs to save on costs, unless custom designs are necessary.
  • Utilize color and material visualizers to give buyers a comprehensive view of their customization options, though it’s wise to limit exterior color schemes to maintain community aesthetics.

As a quick VR refresher: Virtual Tours are user-controlled tours – buyers click from room to room. Animations are essentially a video tour. And, Visualizers are customization tools that allow buyers to select options, colors, and finishes whether it be interior cabinets and countertops, or exterior roofing, stone, and siding.

In Summary

The key to optimizing the design-market-sell continuum is to work with a sole provider like Outhouse – the outsource hub for home builders. Whether launching a new community or seeking innovative cost-saving strategies, Outhouse is here to guide you through optimizing your design, market, and sell process. Reach out today to explore how we can transform your homebuilding journey.

Unlocking Success in the Competitive Home Sales Market: How Interactive Tools and Incentives Make New Builds a Smart Choice

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Architect checking house floor plan for new build on tablet device
Architect checking new build floor plan on tablet courtesy of Envato Elements

For the past few years, potential homeowners have been facing a challenging scenario – soaring mortgage rates that threaten to make their dream of owning a home harder and harder to reach. The low supply of existing inventory due to families not moving from their low-interest-rate homes is making the situation even worse. The financial waves of the housing market have left many potential buyers contemplating their options.  Is it still feasible to dive into the deep waters of mortgage loans when the rates are riding too high? Or should they seek the calmer shores and consider a different route altogether?

In this blog, we’ll explore why the alternative path that more and more prospective homeowners are setting their sights on, purchasing a new build home, might be a better option. We’ll also talk about some of the most alluring incentives that home builders can leverage to take advantage of this market. Finally, we’ll talk about the need for home builders to have an effective website with engaging digital tools to set themselves apart from their competitors.

New builds come with some advantages to existing properties. Among these advantages might be the ability to customize the home, energy efficiency, warranty coverage for the initial year of ownership, and lower immediate maintenance costs. Builders that can market these advantages as cost saving advantages might just win prospective buyers from the resale market.  What home buyer doesn’t want to save on every aspect possible of homeownership?

So, what home builder incentives are the most attractive to new home buyers? As mortgage loan interest rates soar, there are two stand out incentives.  First, closing cost assistance can reduce the financial burden of a new home buyer at the time of closing.  This makes homeownership much more attainable to buyers at these heightened rates. The second is interest rate buydowns! Some builders are offering to buy down the buyers’ mortgage rate to get the prospective buyer to a more manageable monthly mortgage payment. From this writer’s logic, this frees the buyer to only need finances for one of the two things themselves. They either need enough money for a down payment or an interest rate buy down if they want a nice low payment for the term of their dream home.

Housing market affordability is so strained that this Fortune 500 homebuilder is offering a fixed 4.25% mortgage rate in some communities

Check out this article from Forbes!

Builders have a myriad of other incentives aside from these two.  They can offer base price discounts on specific homes. This usually happens with the first few homes in a new development.  They can offer free or discounted upgrades, customizations, or appliance packages.  They can also offer to pay HOA fees for the first year. These are just a few of the incentives available that can make new construction more financially attractive than purchasing an existing home.

Never Underestimate the Value of a Good First Impression.”

You’re with me this far. You’re a builder. You offer some of these incentives, but you want to know how to set yourself apart from other builders when marketing to potential homebuyers. Interactive tools may be key in the real estate market.  These tools offer a more engaging and informative experience to potential buyers, making it easier for them to visualize themselves in a potential new home. It can also make sure they clearly understand what the properties have to offer. 

Don’t believe us?  Here’s some statistical proof provided by the Content Marketing Institute:

  • 88% of marketers say interactive content differentiates them from competitors giving them a significant advantage in a crowded market.
  • 93% of marketers agree that interactive content is effective in educating buyers as compared to 70% for static content.
  • Interactive content attracts 2x the engagement of similar static content.

Those numbers are hard to refute, and they are just some highlights. If you want more information, head over to the Content Marketing Institute’s website to read more of their studies.

Some of the best interactive tools come in a few different categories: visualization, personalization, and lead generation, to name a few. When it comes to visualization, the most useful tools for new home buyers tend to be interactive floor plans, virtual tours, and real-time online booking and scheduling. Interactive floor plans (IFPS) allow buyers to customize layouts and explore different design options. Buyers can visualize a space and personalize it to their needs.  This can be a powerful selling point for new construction homes where there are often many customization options.

Interactive Floor Plans Top New Buyers’ Useful Tools Lists

Virtual tours or 3D tours allow a homeowner to experience a home, whether it is real or 3D rendered, from the comfort of their own home.  Builders can showcase the home in detail. This is incredibly important in times when physical access may be limited or just plain inconvenient.

Further, websites can integrate features that allow buyers to schedule appointments, book showings, or attend virtual open houses. This is a convenience for both the buyer and the home builder!

Once the potential buyer is interested in a builder, the best interactive tools need to be personalized; this can be achieved with real-time updates on available homes, pricing, and promotions. After all, everything else on the builder’s site hooked this potential home buyer; the builder will want to keep them interested! A great addition after purchase might be online sales tools. Many websites allow buyers to complete the purchase process online, including signing contracts and making payments.

Finally, lead generation might be the final piece of the interactive tool puzzle. Home builders can use website analytics to gain insights into user behavior. A data-driven approach can help them refine their marketing strategies and help them understand what features are most appealing to buyers. They might use this information to improve their sales tactics. Moreover, valuable data about user engagement and preferences can be provided to builders from their interactive tools. When potential buyers engage with these tools, builders can collect information and follow up with targeted marketing and sales efforts specific to individual buyers.  

Modern websites can capture leads and integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Sales teams can use this information to effectively nurture leads and follow-up. The best way to turn a potential buyer into a homeowner is with timely and personalized information. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social media integration might be the bow on the package. A well-optimized website can rank higher in search and make it easier for potential buyers to find and explore a builder’s properties.  SEO strategies can drive organic traffic to the builder’s site.  With the addition of well-thought-out social media integrations, builders can leverage social networks for marketing and referrals.

To sum it up, modern website assets empower homebuilders to provide a superior online experience, engage potential buyers effectively, and leverage data to optimize their sales strategies.  By staying up-to-date with the latest web technologies and user experience trends, homebuilders can gain a competitive edge in this competitive home sales market. There is definitely room for new home sales to outpace resale with the proper online strategies!

If all of this sounds a little mind blowing to you, a great place to learn about all of these digital tools, and the corresponding analytics would be from the experts at The Home Builders Digital Marketing Summit, and some of the amazing companies sponsoring and hosting the event.

http://buildermarketingsummit.com

Tabitha Warren was an Income Tax Accountant for 15+ years.  In the first months of the pandemic, she took a chance and re-careered to freelance in Marketing.  She currently, and very happily, works with video and photo editing, social media marketing, and now blog writing.

The Importance of a Digital Marketing Ecosystem: A Lesson from Tesla

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Blue Electric Vehicle charging at Tesla Station.
Tesla Image Adobe Stock

When you think of leaders in the electrical vehicle movement, I believe even the Elon haters would have to give props to Tesla. They have moved into a position of power that is rare. One of the chief reasons for this is their self-contained ecosystem. From batteries to auto parts to charging stations and software, Tesla is in control. There is little that is outsourced. 

This streamlined approach makes them significantly more profitable than other auto manufacturers. They also have one of the most powerful computer systems in the world, enabling drivers to control everything from a sleek touchscreen. Tesla also gathers data from their vehicles. Paired with AI, the data from every mile driven gives them the lead in autonomous driving. No one knows when robo taxis will make their grand entrance, but the probability of it happening in my lifetime is exciting!

Tesla Touchscreen Controls
Tesla Touchscreen Controls Adobe Stock

The Ecosystem

What does all this have to do with homebuilder sales and marketing, you ask? It all comes down to the ecosystem. While some builders use individual vendors for renderings, interactive floor plans, print materials, etc., savvy builders understand the benefits of working with a full-service provider like Outhouse. In addition to digital marketing assets like interactive floor plans (IFPs), interactive site plans (ISPs), renderings, virtual tours, visualizers, animations, and digital kiosks, we also have an in-house print and signage shop and a full-service computer-aided design (CAD) department. Clients who use all our services benefit from significant time and cost savings. When you make changes in CAD, those edits carry across our entire ecosystem.  

Our “Touchscreen” – the Interactive Control Center

Like Tesla, Outhouse now has a slick “touchscreen,” our new Interactive Control Center. With the launch of this intuitive administrative back end for our interactive platform, we are setting the stage for a new future in interactive control. A few of the features include:

  • A new look with upgraded graphics for ease of use and improved navigation
  • A clean template with easy-to-see project permissions
  • Choice between light and dark themes, similar to our IFPs
  • The ability to personalize by setting your home page – perhaps a specific community or your interactive floor plan list
  • No more pagination. The plan list is fluid. While not a huge issue for builders with only a few IFPs, builders with dozens will appreciate this time-saver
  • Seamless movement between IFPs and ISPs in the same community. No more toggling between lists of IFPs and ISPs
  • Simplified self-serve reports and the ability to export data in Excel, CSV, JSON, and XML
  • A search box and filters to make it easy to find what you are looking for.

Also coming soon to the Control Center are a dashboard, and everyone’s favorite – widgets. Everything is designed to simplify the management of your interactive tools and data collection from potential clients. 

Tesla’s Super Chargers in a line Adobe Stock

Integration

Integration makes life easier. Ask the owners of EVs manufactured by companies other than Tesla. There’s a reason the most prominent auto manufacturers are signing contracts to access Tesla’s Supercharger network. Constructed in secret, Tesla unveiled their first six Supercharger stations in 2012. From there, they have continued building a Supercharger network nationwide. They understood the need for a strong network of Superchargers for EVs to compete with gas-fueled vehicles. Tesla also fixes and improves their cars simply by issuing a software update. Their ecosystem is fully integrated, from construction to batteries to software to charging stations.

In recent years, Outhouse has enhanced our interactive products to achieve full integration with each other. Starting with our interactive site plan, your home buyers can click on a lot to reveal renderings of the available homes. Click on a rendering, and it opens an interactive floor plan. While engaging with the IFP, home buyers can also view virtual tours and select colors and finishes with interior and exterior visualizers. All of our interactive tools can be neatly packaged into an interactive kiosk for potential homebuyers to peruse while at your sales center.

Outhouse Interactive Site Plan

Before you start your next community, consider how your company might benefit from implementing a complete interactive ecosystem rather than just a few pieces and parts. Today’s home buyers are shopping online; your website should make it easy for them to decide your homes and communities are the right fit for their families. As the EV market grows, you may also want to consider where to place a Supercharger!

Print Marketing Sells New Homes

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Brochure of a K. Hovnanian Homes house

People often ask us why a print company specializing in print for home builders is necessary. Heck, today, builders sometimes ask us if print marketing is still a valuable sales tool! The answer to both questions is a resounding “Yes!” We explain why in this post.

The Role of Print in New Home Sales

In a recent episode of the Digital Velocity Podcast, co-hosts Erik Martinez of Blue Tangerine and Tim Curtis of CohereOne talk with Alex Kupski and Jake Hoffman, co-hosts of the Millennials in Print Podcast, about the Power of Print in the Digital Age. They conclude, “The more channels you’re present on and the more channels you’re marketing to people on, ultimately, the more effective you’re going to be. Print, just like social, just like email, just like your website, just like a commercial on TV, is a channel for you to market on. It’s another arrow in the quiver. It’s another way to reach people you might not have before.”

Print marketing works best when paired with digital marketing. Digital marketing is often the most effective way to draw people in. With interactive site plans, interactive floor plans, renderings, virtual tours, visualizers, and Matterport tours, your website is arguably a home builder’s most potent marketing tool. But it is only effective for a home buyer’s few precious moments on your website. Print collateral, on the other hand, has a much longer life span. Brochures and floorplan/elevation minis often sit on a potential buyer’s countertop or table for weeks or months, a lasting reminder of your homes and communities. Not every prospect immediately purchases a home, so print is a great way to keep them focused on yours. 

David Weekley Homes brochure with cactus front cover, and homes on the back

Data shows that print used in tandem with digital marketing is one of the most effective sales strategies as the two mediums strengthen and reinforce each other. A study by InfoTrends found that 66% of direct mail is opened, and 56% of consumers who respond to direct mail go online or visit a physical store. A recent article in SFGate offers some great tips to sync your print and digital marketing efforts:

  • Place QR codes on print materials.
  • Provide digital opt-ins for direct mail.
  • Include social media reviews and comments on print materials.
  • Include hashtags and calls to action on print materials.

Although digital and print marketing take different forms, They work together to engage customers and keep your brand at the top of their minds.

Why Use a Builder-Specific Printing Company?

The challenge builders face that is unique to our industry is the weekly sales cycle. From week to week, home prices may change, lot availability changes, and options may vary. The typical strip-mall printer is not equipped to automate this process. Outhouse built their business to serve a single industry – HOME BUILDING. We do all work in-house, from CAD for your construction documents to print materials for your sales centers. This allows all teams, including architectural, rendering, graphics, interactive, and print, to work in tandem. By doing so, we create accurate, up-to-date print materials that are consistent and coordinated with your digital marketing assets. Utilizing the latest technologies, we print and deliver materials on time every week, on the builder’s schedule. Challenge solved – you send us your edits, and we coordinate these changes across all platforms.  

Professional Artwork Creation: Outhouse provides clients with the considerable advantage of having drafting and rendering services on-site, allowing coordination with the development of their artwork for all printed materials. This coordination offers clients superior accuracy, faster turnaround times, and lower overall costs.

Coordinated File Management:  Another advantage is the ease of managing and coordinating all created artwork with professional digital file and asset management. All artwork is kept up-to-date, consistent, and coordinated between city design reviews, printed sales materials, large format displays, and interactive web products and services.  

Superior Print Quality:  Superior brand standard quality and consistency every time on every product is only possible with the coordination, color calibration, and production of all graphics, printing, and display under one roof. Unlike a mass-market printer like Vista Print, Outhouse is not a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) printer. We believe that good enough is never good enough, and we have the magnifying glasses to prove it! On rare occasions when colors are incorrect or print quality is not up to snuff the first time off the press, we recalibrate and rerun the job.

Builder-Specific Delivery:  Unlike many industries, home building has a weekly sales cycle, and having your print delivered on time is critical. Outhouse understands this. We meet your deadlines your way on your weekly sales cycle.

Woodside Homes brochure with three homes

The bottom line is print marketing still plays an integral role in new home marketing and sales. There’s a reason the Outhouse Interactive Floor Plan has a save button. It allows prospective homebuyers to save their customized floor plans and print them out for further review. 

What about younger generations? Retail Focus Magazine tells us that print is 30% more memorable than digital. This applies to all age groups. You need look no further than nightclubs which hand out leaflets advertising upcoming events, and university welcome packs to know that print still appeals to young people. The magazine also notes the best campaigns are when print and digital work alongside each other instead of trying to compete. A younger audience may be digitally savvy, but they still appreciate a well-thought-out hard copy campaign.  

Although any printer can give you a halfway decent brochure, only a company like Outhouse coordinates your CAD, rendering, and interactive projects with your print materials and sales office displays. Even if our print pricing is a bit higher, you will save significantly more overall through efficiencies in coordination.     

Woodside Homes floor plan
When you update a plan, Outhouse coordinates the changes across CAD, print, and all digital marketing assets.

New Home Sales Centers Take Center Stage

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Even Smaller Builders Can Have a Top-Notch Sales Office

With the slowdown in residential sales, home builders across the nation are investing in new home sales centers, or model home centers, to showcase their houses and communities. Sales centers are a great vehicle to draw homebuyers in and highlight all your homes offer. Large public builders may opt for elaborate buildouts with cabinets, multiple touch screens, and monitors, especially in larger communities. On the other hand, many small or mid-size builders may ask what it takes to install a sales center. With some creativity and an eye for design, even the smallest production builders can set up an effective sales center in the garage of a model home.

Small room with wood floor, a modern wood credenza and four-legged bench. On the wall are a touchscreen monitor, with K. Hovnanian Homes logo above and 3 large white framed poster on the right.
Come on in and explore. Simple furnishings, large framed panels, a touchscreen display, and an acrylic logo create an inviting, sophisticated room for the K. Hovnanian Looks sales center.


A great place to start is with signage experts like Outhouse. With experience in top-of-the-line installations for some of the most prominent builders and scaled-down designs for smaller companies, we can offer suggestions and advice on model home centers to fit any budget. Large framed panels that tell a story create emotional connections and are cost-effective. A large acrylic logo on the wall and smaller directional signs and nameplates give the room a polished look. A wrap covering an entire wall packs a punch and creates a memorable wow factor.

Large format print. A wrap with the image of motorcycle racers covering two walls in a garage.
An inspirational wall wrap in a private garage. Imagine one like this in your sales center!

The key to a thriving sales center is excellent storytelling and uniformity of the design elements. With this goal in mind, builders sometimes combine their sales center with a design center bringing in additional warmth and visual appeal.

A wall wrap with the image of a boy capturing a firefly in a jar. An acrylic panel with text overlays a portion of the wrap.
Starlight Homes sales centers may have a new look these days, but this is still one of our favorite iterations. Storytelling at its finest.


In today’s digital age, an interactive kiosk is a must. Essentially a mini-website, interactive kiosks integrate your digital marketing tools in a single app for easy use onsite at the sales center. Responsive, device-agnostic kiosks like those provided by Outhouse integrate point-of-interest maps, interactive site plans, interactive floor plans, interior and exterior visualizers, virtual tours, and animations for a seamless home-buying experience. They engage homebuyers and can be installed on any device. Even something as small as a tablet becomes a powerful sales tool. Imagine buyers customizing their home through an interactive floor plan while touring your models.

The home page of an interactive kiosk produced by Outhouse. Buttons along the side link to a Welcome page, Point of Interest map, interactive site plan, and interactive floor plans.
The Outhouse Interactive Kiosk with links to a welcome page, point of interest map, interactive site plan, and interactive floor plans. Buttons can be customized to include virtual tours, interior and exterior visualizers, or whatever else you’d like.


With a more significant budget, consider installing large touchscreen monitors to elevate the impact. Visitors to your sales center will feel like they are in a sci-fi movie as they whiz around maps, floor and site plans, house renderings, virtual tours, and more, all on a grand scale. Hang a monitor on the wall or install it in a custom cabinet or table for a more sophisticated look. Creative License International and the Temeka Group are a couple of companies that build custom furniture for sales and design centers.

A small sales center (model home center) installation for Arizona builder Cachet Homes. Cachet Logo with monitor on the left wall. Union Park logo with floor plan posters, and a blue bench on the facing wall. Touch screen monitor for an interactive kiosk on the right wall with a table below holding print materials.
Cachet Homes Arizona sales center. The complete package in a compact space. Wall mounted acrylic panels, touchscreen monitors featuring an interactive kiosk, and print collateral engage the senses.


The final element of a thriving sales center is print marketing. Although some digital marketing agencies may lead you to believe that print is no longer a viable marketing tool, statistics show otherwise:

Infographic with images representing print marketing statistics which are listed below the graphic.
  • 95% of people under 25 years old read magazines (Top Media Advertising).
  • 82% of consumers trust print ads the most when making a purchase decision (Burstein).
  • Combining print and digital ads makes online campaigns 400% more effective (Top Media Advertising).
  • Print drives higher levels of brand recall vs. digital (77% vs. 46%) (Newsworks).


Think about it. We go to trade shows and expos like the International Builders Show, Pacific Coast Builders Conference, Southwest Builders Show, Southeast Building Conference, and more for human connection. We meet with business associates, physically test new products, and pick up many samples, catalogs, and marketing brochures along the way. When we get home, we review those brochures in detail as part of our decision-making process. Print still plays an integral role in marketing.

A print brochure for Capital West Homes in Arizona featuring a cover with photos of a family, community landscape, and house renderings and floor plans inside.
Print brochure with house renderings and floorplans for Capital West Homes in Arizona. The perfect takeaway for model home center visitors.


Outhouse installs sales centers/model home centers and provides print marketing for home builders across the nation. If you’re ready to install your sales center and would like a quote on signage, interactive kiosks, touchscreen monitors, and print collateral, contact us at [email protected]. If you are unsure where to start, call the Outhouse experts at (602) 371-4394. We are here to help and can guide you in the right direction based on your design requirements and budget.

Rules of Engagement

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Penguins surrounding expedition gear sitting on rocks.

In the military, rules of engagement are a directive specifying the circumstances and limitations under which forces will engage in combat with the enemy.

In Antarctica, the rule of engagement is – bring on the penguins!

Hundreds of penguins walking along a beach. Snow covered ice shelf and mountain in the background.

I recently had the good fortune of taking an expedition to the great white continent. Superlatives are not unwarranted. The icebergs are astounding. The clouds are incredible, unlike anywhere else I have ever been. They feel so close you can touch them. The landscape is otherworldly. And the penguins are utterly captivating and engaging. The Antarctic Treaty dictates that visitors maintain a distance of 15 metres from the penguins, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come to check you out! Penguins are as curious about us as we are about them.

Leopard seal lazily resting on black sand.

Not only are penguins the stars of the show for adventurers like me, they also draw crowds of other animals by sea to Antarctica. Technically, it all starts with the krill, but penguins are a favorite food of leopard seals, fur seals, sea lions, and sharks. And all are prey to killer whales. Watching the circle of life play out in real-time has its sad moments, but it is also one of the most fascinating spectacles on earth. With landings in both Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, I saw more penguins than I could count. Is it possible to get tired of them? For countless other explorers and me, the answer is an emphatic NO! They are SO engaging!

Rules of engagement apply to home builders as well. To sell homes, you need to engage home buyers. Traditionally, this has been accomplished with model home tours and glossy brochures. Although those still play an essential role in new home sales, today, home builder websites are the stars of the show. What used to be seen as a sales mechanism for younger buyers is now the primary marketing vehicle for home builders to reach all generations. This means engaging tools like interactive floor plans and site maps, visualizers, virtual tours, Matterport tours, and interactive sales kiosks are no longer options. In the home building industry, they are a necessity.

Penguin with baby chicks sitting in their pebble nest.

As potential home buyers become more web-savvy, they seek a more sophisticated online experience. This is where connected, interactive platforms, like the Virtual Interactive Platform (VIP) by Outhouse, come into play. Beginning with an interactive site map, potential buyers can click on lots to view interactive floor plans, renderings, animations, virtual tours, visualizers, and more. The beauty is entire platform is built upon a single site map.

Penguins relaxing on a white sand beach. Tall grass in the foreground.

Do not underestimate the power of virtual tours and visualizers. As builders begin moving towards a “buy now” option online, these interactive tools contribute significantly to your website’s ability to engage homebuyers and sell new homes. User-controlled virtual tours allow families to tour your homes from anywhere in the world. Interior and exterior visualizers encourage potential buyers to customize homes, increasing their vested interest.

In addition to incorporating interactive tools on your website, boosting engagement with these tools should also be part of the conversation. There are several best practices to accomplish this. The 2-3 click rule, for example, is the maximum number of clicks to get to your interactive floor plans. Other guidelines relate to how your interactive floor plans and site maps open (iFrames vs. responsive opens). Some of these apply specifically to one tool or another. The team here at Outhouse, or one of our website development partners like Blue Tangerine, Bokka Group, Adlanta Creative, Kovach Marketing, 616 Marketing, Power Marketing, Group Two, or Meredith Communications, are happy to review these with you.

A group of 9 King Penguins.You can see their orange necks.

The goal is to draw homebuyers in and keep them engaged on your website. Like the penguins in Antarctica, interactive tools are the star of the show on home builder websites. Implemented correctly, they keep buyers coming back and, ultimately, increase your conversion rate.

Penguins floating on an iceberg.

10 Lessons Ted Lasso Would Have for the Home Building Industry

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Ted Lasso Pointing at believe poster
Courtesy Apple+

This Fall, “Believe” wore me down.  I had been hearing about Ted Lasso for two seasons.  As a person that isn’t into watching sports, I wasn’t interested in a show about a football (soccer) team.  But references were everywhere.  Finally, on a walk with my husband, I (begrudgingly) looked at him and said, “I think we should watch Ted Lasso.”  His eyes nearly fell out of his head. 

This wasn’t because he had wanted to watch it.  He didn’t even know what it was about.  Recently, he had to return to the office.  He had to host a temporary project for an executive team and teach them to use new tools.  Early in the experience, they made him write “Believe” and hang it over the door to the conference room.  He didn’t get the reference.  We hadn’t watched Ted Lasso.  His team was floored that he didn’t get it.  He was happy to dive in with me and be in on the mantra.

Ted Lasso is a heart-warming show about an American football coach that is hired by an English football (soccer) club.  They hire him for his uniquely up-beat and sometimes over the top coaching style.  He’s charismatic.  Ted arrives in England only to discover that the English don’t believe in hope and optimism.  His own brand of hopeful leadership continuously hits brick walls of negativity.  Ted finds that his first obstacle won’t be helping with soccer strategy, it will be battling prevailing negative, downtrodden attitudes. After his first day on the job, he posts a sign above the locker room doors that simply says, “Believe.”  It’s his way of planting the seed of hope in the minds of his players.

It took three episodes for Ted’s charisma and off-beat leadership style to win my husband and I over. From there, like many people, I started writing down Ted quotes and applying them to my industry: home building.  Here are ten key take-aways for anyone working in home building out there:

1. “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn’t it? If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

If the pandemic has taught us anything, things in the home building industry need to change.  This varies from updating our websites, to having new virtual tools, to designing houses to have better flex space for families that are working and schooling from home.

2. “As the man once said, the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

There is no doubt that home building and sales are hard work! The market might make it seem like hard work isn’t necessary now.  However, home site availability, or lack thereof, has presented new challenges. How are competitors retaining customers with wait lists that can seem unmanageable? Are they just lucky?  Or maybe they are creating luck by working hard and listening to customers?  Have a plan that keeps customers interested.  When products aren’t ready and available, get good at customer nurturing. Wait list management can be one of the more difficult aspects of our industry.  It is hard work, but there are several different strategies to take this on when experiencing “gapping.”  Solutions include setting a priority list without target dates, a priority list with target dates, reservations with or without base pricing, price increases every x sales, lottery releases, eBay style auctions, sell with escalation clauses on costs, or pause sales entirely for a set amount of time.  For more information on these strategies check out this article from our friends at Do You Convert: The Definitive Guide To Priority Lists In 2021

3. “You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? It’s got a 10-second memory.”

There is a rule out there called “the 15 second rule”.  This is how long your website has to catch your prospective customer’s attention! Are you running SEO to see how long customers are staying on your website?  This will tell you if you need to consider updating your website, adding new interactive tools, or scraping it and starting over from scratch.1

Customers need that 10 second hit of endorphins.  Does your website delight? We want those happy goldfish.  Don’t let them forget you.  Well-designed websites, like those made by Blue Tangerine, with great interactive tools, like Interactive Floor Plans by Outhouse are great ways to keep customers on your website and interested in your homes.  For more information on how to build an award winning website and win your customers over, check out this blog by Blue Tangerine: 10 Tips for Home Builder Websites.

4. “If the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes it’s easier to speak our minds anonymously.”

This one is an internal suggestion.  In an early episode, Ted implements a suggestion box for the team.  Things are brought to his attention by a few players that he may not have known on his own.  Not all decisions can be made in a vacuum.  Not all information can be caught by one or two people.  Here at Outhouse, the management does an anonymous annual survey asking what our team would like to see change at the company.  It, also, asks what they like and would like to see stay the same.  It has helped us change and evolve.  There is an open-ended question asking for any other input we think they should know.  The anonymity really opens people up.  They feel freer to say what they feel and think.  Maybe your company would benefit from doing things like this a few times a year.  Maybe your sales agents and marketing team has caught trends or gaps in your system that you’re missing.

Courtesy Apple+

5. “I think that you might be so sure that you’re one in a million, that sometimes you forget that out there you’re just one in 11.”

Demand was at an all-time high in 2021.  It’s forecast to continue this way into 2022.  There are stories out there about customers feeling like they weren’t treated as having been valued.  Home builders knew that another customer would come along and buy the home if the last prospect was unhappy.  This is a terrible way to build a brand reputation and repeat buyers! Don’t be so sure that your company is the end-all-be-all.  Even in a high demand market, customers need to be treated with value.

6. “I feel like we fell out of the lucky tree and hit every branch on the way down, ended up in a pool of cash and Sour Patch Kids.”

Remember that markets change!  What are you doing to market to the future that slows down?  Are you planning ahead? Our friend Meredith Oliver at Meredith Communications hosts a live stream event the first Friday of every month to discuss sales and marketing.  It’s a great place to get ideas, keep on top of market changes, and connect with other people in the industry.  She also has guests that are worth following.  One of her guests may become a valuable resource!  Bottom line: find resources that work.  Luck won’t last forever.

7. “There’s two buttons I never like to hit: that’s panic and snooze.”

I just wanted to drive the point home here.  We are at an unprecedented time in the housing market.  But it is not time to panic.  Maybe it was a few months back for those of us who weren’t prepared for the sudden and massive shift to online home sales, but that ship has sailed my friends!  Hopefully, by now everyone has made the necessary changes, and customers can explore homes online.  It is, however, time to put a plan in place on how to continue that progress.  Know customer expectations.  Have a budget for those things.  Even if those things are in place, it is not time to get complacent.  It is, also, not time to snooze because the market is booming! It’s time to be preparing for when the market slows. Know how to make it through lean times, and how to drive sales during those times. 

8. “I believe in Communism. Rom-communism, that is. If Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan can go through some heartfelt struggles and still end up happy, then so can we.”

This is an industry with extreme highs and extreme lows.  We struggle together, and luckily, we are not in it alone!  What can we do to prepare for those heartfelt times of struggle?  First, consider working with industry experts to grow your home sales.  Many larger builders already do this as regular practice.  Experts help incorporate web tools like interactive floor plans and virtual tours that buyers expect and that top builders are already using.  They also help maintain unique brand identities. Those items are our second point.  Even without expert help, it may be an important strategy to incorporate web tools and present a strong brand identity.  We want customers to recognize us in the din of online marketing vying for their attention. This is how we all end up happy, builders and buyers, no matter the market position.

9. “We all know speed is important. But being able to stop and change directions quickly? Well, that’s like Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak. It don’t get nearly enough credit.”

During 2021, we witnessed the beginning of the “Great Reshuffling.”2  People began to move from where they had to live for work to where and how they wanted to live for work from home.  This shifted market demands to different areas as well as the type of housing that customers were demanding.  Amidst a housing shortage, it was now the mark of a great home builder to be able to shift their offerings.  We’ve seen a high demand for things like flex spaces, green spaces, and so many other trends.  Ted’s lesson here: be able to build a quality product quickly but be able to evaluate market demands and change quickly when the market calls for it.

10. “Here’s an idea that’s gonna help a little or hurt a whole lot. Who needs a drink?”

Like Ted, making real changes and progress in home building starts with belief.  From there, it takes a whole lot of hard work.  For many, it may take changing decades long attitudes, traditions, and processes.  It may take going against the grain, investing in new technology and new talent.  What can’t happen is continuing to do things the same way that we always have.  Like my TV mentor Ted, I’m going into 2022 with a little belief, a whole lotta optimism, and an open mind.  I can’t wait to see how all of our friends out there progress as they adapt to this ever growing industry!  We’ll be here to help.

Courtesy Apple+

Tabitha Warren was an Income Tax Accountant for 15+ years.  In the first months of the pandemic, she took a chance and re-careered to freelance in Marketing.  She currently, and very happily, works with video and photo editing, social media marketing, and now blog writing.

  1. Zheng, D. (2020, May 14). The 15 Second Rule: 3 Reasons Why Users Leave a Website. Retrieved January 7, 2022 from https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/why-users-leave-a-website/
  2. Zillow NewConstruction (n.d.), New Construction Conversion Playbook. Retrieved January 7, 2022 from https://wp-tid.zillowstatic.com/bedrock/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/Zillow_NewConstruction_ConversionPlaybook_2021.pdf

CRAFTING GREAT OKRs – Part Two

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A five-part series: 1. Introducing OKRs, 2. Preparing for the OKR Journey, 3. Crafting Great OKRs, 4. Driving OKR Alignment, and 5. Managing Effectively with OKRs

Summarized by Bill Gelbaugh from: Objectives and Key Results by Paul R. Niven and Ben Lamorte. With additional material from Measure What Matters, Lattice OKR 101 and Perdoo

CRAFTING: THE PROCESS TO CREATE GREAT OKRs

Having discussed characteristics and tips for creating effective OKRs in part one, we are now ready to commence creating great OKRs.

Create
We recommend not using a large brainstorming group to draft your OKRs. Use a small team. A very small team, most likely two or three people. OKR teams are formed to tackle specific business problems, and to discover creative solutions to problems.  People require deep, time-consuming concentration on the task. It’s not realistic to expect a group of 20 (or more) to drop everything and spend the time necessary to create a draft set of OKRs. However, for two or three people, despite the inevitable demands on their time, and while it may not be convenient, it is possible. The small team you convene can invest the required time to delve into the background necessary to create your OKR: Your place in the competitive environment, scrutinizing your strategy, determining your core capabilities, and so on. These are the raw materials that lead to effective OKRs, and they must be carefully considered.

Whether it’s the corporate level or department, we suggest your small team document two to three objectives with one to three key results each. They should be written at a stretch level (20%-30% beyond what you feel is achievable) to inspire.

Refine
Once your small team has completed their initial draft set of OKRs, submit to the wider team for review prior to the first actual full team meeting/workshop. In attendance for the workshop, we would expect the leadership team if you are working on your corporate level OKRs, or the team-level leadership group if it’s a team set of OKRs. The purpose of the session is to critically examine what has been prepared, have the small team explain their choices, generate debate (a vigorous debate we hope), and ultimately come to an agreement on the set of OKRs you will use for this next quarter.

Align
Much of the work in modern organizations is cross-functional in nature–teams working together to solve problems or create new modes of working that will benefit multiple areas of the business. OKRs created at the team level must be created with this context front of mind. 

The small team or dynamic duo we profiled in the previous steps should take your draft OKRs on a road trip around your organization, discussing dependent OKRs with other team leads. You’ll be liaising with colleagues to discuss how some of your OKRs depend on their best efforts while sharing with other teams how you are uniquely positioned to assist them in meeting their goals.

Scoring will often help you in assessing the level of dependency between you and another team. For example, if you determine that one of your key results is highly dependent on another team’s assistance, your aim in meeting with them is to ensure they acknowledge the dependency and pledge their support, which will then allow you to ratchet up your targets because you’re confident they’ll provide their backing when necessary. The converse is also true; other teams may rely on you to meet their targets and, thus, you’ll work with them to show how you can help.

Finalize
Assuming you’re creating OKRs at the team level, during this step the team lead and partners will confer with their superior (most likely a member of the senior executive team) to receive final approval to use the OKRs in the upcoming quarter. It’s also important to ensure that the executive understands the rationale behind the scoring targets you’ve chosen. The last thing you want when results begin to accumulate is mismatched expectations that lead to confusion and disappointment.

Transmit
There are two components in the final step. First is the fairly rote necessity of loading your OKRs into a software system or whatever product (Google Sheets, Excel, etc.) you deem appropriate to track your results each week. A simple process indeed, but a vital one nonetheless. OKRs must be rigorously and formally cataloged and monitored to insure the integrity of the entire OKR process.

The second task is transmitting the OKRs to your team and beyond. We encourage you to communicate them widely, using a variety of media. One method, sharing them in an in-person venue, such as an all hands or town hall style meeting is strongly recommended for a number of reasons. Chiefly, it provides an opportunity for employees who were not directly involved in OKRs creation to ask questions of those who were there when the critical decisions were made.

THE OKR CRAFTING PROCESS

Following are some practical examples of Objectives, Key Results and Initiatives to help you get started.

For further inspiration, this football team graph is an example of OKRs in action. Starting with OKRs for Head Coach, you can see how objectives and key results for other coaches fall into place to support the overall team objective.

OKR | Football Team Example

HOW MANY OKRs SHOULD WE HAVE?

The late screenwriter Nora Ephron left us with a number of Hollywood classics, including When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and Silkwood. All three were Academy Award-nominated for writing. Before she turned her talents to the screen, Ephron was a journalist, and perhaps her greatest gift in that world was the ability to capture the essence of a story. She learned the importance of identifying a story’s core early on, at Beverly Hills High School, from her Journalism 101 teacher Charlie Simms. Here’s the enduring lesson Simms passed on to Ephron. 

He started the first day of class by explaining the concept of a lead. He explained that a lead (i.e., the leading sentence) contains the why, what, when, and who of the piece. It covers the essential information. Then he gave his students their first assignment; write the lead to a story. He presented the facts of the Story:

    Kenneth L Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new school methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown.

The students then hammered away on their typewriters outlining their lead. Each attempted to summarize the who, what, where, and why as concisely as possible: “Margaret Mead, Maynard Hutchins, and Governor Brown will address the faculty on…”; “Next Thursday, the high school faculty will…” Simms reviewed the students’ leads and put them aside. He then informed them that they were all wrong. The lead, he said, was “There will be no school Thursday!” In that instant, Ephron realized journalism was not just regurgitating facts but about figuring out the point. It wasn’t enough to know the who, what, when and where; you had to understand what it meant. Moreover, why it mattered.

When it comes to how many OKRs you produce, we recommend you adhere to the tried and true aphorism: less is more.

Ephron later noted that what Simms had taught her worked just as well in life as it does in journalism. It also works great for OKRs. The day you set foot in the conference room with your team to debate and decide on your OKRs, you’re searching for the business equivalent of the “lead.” Just think of the universe of possibilities that awaits you when someone says, “Okay, what are our most important objectives?” You have customer concerns, shareholders or partners, employees, competitors, the list is endless. They are the organizational equivalent of the “why, what, when, and who.” Your challenge is to cut through the clutter and pinpoint exactly what is most important to you, what will have the most impact right now.

When it comes to how many OKRs you produce, we recommend you adhere to the tried and true aphorism: less is more. There is a huge opportunity cost to increasing your inventory of OKRs. Primarily, lack of clarity and focus around what the company’s priorities truly are. When you begin your OKR process, we recommend you generate a small number (a handful most likely) of objectives that are crucial to the execution of your strategy for the year. Then change tactical objectives each quarter to move the strategic objective forward.

Bill Gelbaugh is one of our Senior Partners here at Outhouse and champions our OKR efforts.

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