In the month of June, housing production rose nationwide by 6.9%, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 760,000 home units. According to these newly released figures from the US Census Bureau and HUB, this is the fastest rate of new homes construction since October 2008.

“What’s especially encouraging is that, as consumers realize the advantages of purchasing a newly built home while prices and interest rates are so favorable, builders are able to put more crews back to work on construction sites across the country,” said National Association of Home Builders chairman and Florida builder Barry Rutenedge. He continued, “his in turn is helping spur local economic growth, and policymakers need to be very careful to not take any steps that would derail the beginnings of such a positive trend at this crucial time.”

This is the fourth consecutive month single-family housing rates have risen. Multifamily rates have risen 12.8%, keeping pace with the increasing demand for rental units.

Regionally, combined single and multifamily homes housing has risen 36.9% in the West and 22.2% in the Northeast, but fell 7.3% in the Midwest and 4.2% in the South during the month of June. Declines were due to monthly volatility on the multifamily units, as single-family homes showed increases in every region during June.

This increase is good news for all home builders. It shows an increase in interest in the housing market from consumers, who are starting to feel more secure about buying a new home and more comfortable with the market. For more information, check out this article by the National Association of Home Builders.

Thinking of your website as a model home, you know how important the basic framing is: the foundation and walls, the programming and design. But after you build the house, you’re going to fill it before inviting people in. As a custom home builder, you want to show off your eye for detail and design, the perfect staircase or dramatic lighting that makes your potential home buyer gasp in amazement.  Think of your website content as home interior. And that’s why your website is only going to be as good as your content.

Content is what conveys your message, boosts online presence and traffic, and invites the home buyer in. Content needs to be fresh, and it needs to be convincing. We offer a few tips on writing and preparing good web copy.

Be personable. While professional, the atmosphere of company websites online are expected to be personal and relaxed. Very formal language is often looked at askance; you don’t want to be reciting your company history like a Wiki page. You want to tell them a story. Write in first, not third person. Even more important is avoid a pressured, sales-oriented tone.

Now of course you’re looking for sales. But sales are a second step. The first step is drawing interested attention. And that’s designed around giving your potential custom home buyer the information they want. Tell them what you can do for them! People highly distrust pressured marketing and advertising online, even moreso than they do in traditional print advertisement. Visitors want helpful and informative content that isn’t all in their faces. Your style will back up your assurances of honesty and customer service. Hype doesn’t sell.

Be organized. People scan when they read online. Studies show that they skim written material online far more than they do in traditional print media. You want to think like a newspaper, not a book. In fact, too much text will often push people away. Big bold headlines will grab attention and succinctly summarize the material underneath, so that your home buyer can flick through until they find what they need. Then nicely-written and well-organized paragraphs attached will offer them more detail.

And we’re sure you know this, but avoid caps lock. They don’t draw attention, they just feel like SOMEONE IS SHOUTING at you.

Enrich your text. Here’s where we think more about marketing. Using keywords in your copy is necessary if you want to draw in a crowd. SEO enriched copy is key. A balance here is important: use them throughout every page, but don’t over use them, as you don’t want to sound spammy or forceful. When creating keywords, think as the user. What words would you use to find your site? What terms would you throw into Google? Remember that they’re searching as a home buyer, not as someone already involved in the industry. So avoid jargon and use natural phrases.

SEO is crucial. If your website is the model home, and your content the interior design, then SEO is the map to it. If you build a beautiful custom home and no one sees it, what’s the point? You wouldn’t build a custom model home in the middle of the desert! You’d make it easily accessible and well-advertised. So too your website. As always, feel free to contact us with any SEO or web design questions.

As a custom homebuilder, you develop a close relationship with your clients. What kind of unique quality and emotion do you bring to them? Is it a superb professionalism, or perhaps a warm familiarity? It’s important to have a website that reflects your company’s personality. This is a crucial touchstone for any business, but especially for the custom homebuilder, who will have such a long-lasting relationship with buyers. Remember that the far majority of homebuyers find their home online!

Human-Computer interaction is where the elements of computer science, behavioral science, and design come together. Often called interface design, the right website can influence the user through emotional reaction – the same way two people would interact. When it’s done right, the personality of the product will override the computer’s inanimate coldness.

What does that mean for you, the custom homebuilder? Homeowners need to know your trustworthy. Your website needs to convey the same openness as if they were stepping into one of your show homes. You want to create a feeling of invitation, and offer information that’s readily accessible and easily organized. A poor website makes many people assume the product, and company, are equally inferior.

A designer will know all about the architecture of a site, and how to orchestrate it just perfectly for quick information and fantastic user experience. What you bring to the table is the knowledge of your audience! What makes people interested in your custom homes? Is it your luxury features, or green building, or years of experience? The right web designers can create the right influence and feel for your website.

A powerful website is full of personality, that will meet people face-to-face and win their trust. It should also be easy to change, when new communities are opened up or new floorplans drawn. And you need a way to immediately reach back to an interested homeowner and create those sales. Builder Designs offers that website and those designers. With our specialized graphic user interface, and years of experience in homebuilder website design, we can create the website that works best for your company and your potential homeowners. Interested? Contact us and we’d be happy to share the details.

We’ve said before that 90% of homebuyers search online for homes and custom homebuilders. That’s a significant number! For the best sales and homeowner experience, you’ll spend a lot of time thinking about the design and features of your website. But also think about the way people first find you online. That might include SEO, social media marketing – whatever your company needs for name recognition and first page Google results. One feature to definitely consider is a mobile website.

It’s predicted that by 2013, more people will access information and search on their mobile devices than on their computers. Adding a mobile website will therefore have a major impact on your business. Regular websites are difficult to load and navigate on a mobile phone. Time-consuming sites send people off looking for companies that already have a mobile site. Mobile websites allow not just rapid website load time and easy-to-navigate pages, but also immediate access to phone numbers, directions, hours, and contact information. Consider how important this is to your potential custom homebuyer.

With the majority of people searching for homes on mobile websites, having a sharp-looking site with plentiful, organized information is crucial to staying ahead of your competitors. More visibility means more sales. Companies with mobile websites are going to sell more custom homes – that’s just the logic of numbers. Consider what your company can do to stay ahead of market trends and turn potential homebuyers into satisfied homeowners.

If you have any questions about mobile websites, or site design, SEO, and social marketing, give Builder Designs a call. We’d be happy answer any questions and discuss your options.

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