GA REAL ESTATE SUMMIT: DRIVE MORE SALES BY WORKING WITH A CUSTOM BUILDER
There’s been a surge in the custom luxury housing market in the last several years, and it’s vital that homebuyers spend some time researching and vetting a builder before choosing who to work with as they create the home of their dreams.
This article explores some of the unique ways that real estate agents can help drive sales on a custom home builder’s website, as industry experts like Sherwin Loudermilk of Loudermilk Homes have demonstrated.
Loudermilk Homes is a renowned custom luxury design and build firm with notable honors like the 2022 Atlanta Agents' Choice award and 2021 Best of Houzz Design award. In 2018, Sherwin Loudermilk was invited to join the Builder 20 Group, a peer-to-peer industry trade group of building executives across the country organized by the National Association of Home Builders.
With years of experience in custom home building, agent partnerships, and building a strong brand and reputation, Sherwin gave insights on “Ways to Drive More Sales by Working with a Custom Builder” in Atlanta at the Georgia Real Estate Summit.
This top industry event is courtesy of Homes by Ardor (HBA) and Tim Stout and Associates, in collaboration with Ardor SEO. If you want even more valuable features Sherwin you can check out his recent episode on the Icons of Real Estate Podcast!
A custom luxury home designed and being built by Loudermilk Homes.
Custom Homes Can Help Drive Sales
One thing that isn’t immediately clear to some custom home builders and real estate agents is how many more potential sales they can generate online. Social media marketing is a veritable tool enabling every custom home builder in Atlanta to achieve more with their online marketing strategies.
While conventional marketing on social media is more streamlined, custom home builders can take a two-way approach by involving the market “drivers” and “engagers.”
Here, market drivers are ad elements on social media, allowing you to pull in traffic to the website from multiple sources. On the other hand, engagers build up brand awareness around the acquired traffic by sharing relevant content with them.
In such an arrangement, you can generally get marketing drivers as paid services, while the website itself acts as the “engager.” Both should go hand-in-hand for the best results.
For instance, the builder can utilize pay-per-click (PPC) advertising placements to drive meaningful traffic to the website and use its social media channels to engage leads and potential customers with content and conversations.
Also, you have the option of targeted ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram where you can set intermittent ad campaigns to generate more sales leads. Then, follow up with ad retargets to ensure the brand stays in potential clients’ consciousness until they become buyers.
An entire website for a custom home builder in Atlanta can sustain this sales generation cycle with consistent and relevant content. Higher sales and traffic will improve the brand’s visibility. Also, you can focus on comprehensive real estate SEO for a stronger presence in buyers’ search results.
Custom Home Builder Websites Can Create Value
Content value is crucial to any property brand. Websites for the best custom home builder in Atlanta let you invest in materials that provide value for potential clients.
Prospective homebuyers are only interested in a property website that can create value for each of their projects. While you can generate and engage organic traffic with your custom homebuilder website in Atlanta, a stronger content layout will help you keep your leads.
Valuable content requires a holistic approach. Therefore, consider the site’s structure. The website needs to be quick and responsive, with short loading times. These features enhance the experience potential clients get on your site, setting a great foundation for your future marketing plans.
Your custom luxury home building website could field quality content using the following pointers:
Rich video and photo materials
Customer testimonials — the more, the better
Multiple contact channels
Blog posts or articles that optimize for SEO
Call-to-action prompts positioned strategically on the landing page
A dedicated map and interactive directions page
The best custom builder in Atlanta website should have these content types, especially in a diverse real estate market like Georgia. Hiring a talented professional photographer to capture still photos for your ongoing home projects is key, and those high quality images for your website provide valuable resources for prospective homebuyers and real estate agents who may consider buying a custom luxury home from you.
Also, it's best to hire a professional videographer to showcase the best construction techniques and craftsmanship on the website for the best custom home builder in Atlanta. Video walk-throughs, drone videos, and general brand clips are some great examples to consider.
It also helps to seek advice from industry experts. You could attend events like the Real Estate Masters Summit to learn about value creation in the custom luxury homebuilding space.
The Client Can Create Exactly What They Want With Custom Designs
One other reason property buyers might consider a custom home builder in Atlanta over conventional listings is the ultimate design freedom. A custom luxury home building project involves them in the design process every step of the way and lets them choose everything from floor plans to layout to cabinets, tile, paint and more.
For instance, if the client would prefer a second kitchen for prep space or stacked decks to blend indoor and outdoor living, they can design that into their luxury home design and construction plans. Research shows that more homebuyers want a unique look and feel to their custom home design in Atlanta, and home builder websites help clients plan their dream home.
The best custom homebuilder in Atlanta should offer “above and beyond” services such as a discovery meeting to talk with the homebuyer about their design inspirations. If you’re not sure where to begin, consider taking a design questionnaire to reveal your personal design preferences.
We find that many clients enjoy a more collaborative process and design freedom. A custom home builder takes a flexible and inclusive approach to keep the homeowner involved throughout the design and building process so the home meets their exact needs and wants. Loudermilk Homes developed a 9-Step Process to Perfection to make custom luxury home design and construction easy and fun. It’s also helpful to work with a professional interior design firm to make your luxury home exactly perfect.
The best custom home builders should provide 24/7 access and complete transparency, such as a portal for each homebuyer that includes live video feeds, daily work logs, photos, real-time schedule and budget updates, and an ability to create and approve change orders from any touch-screen device. Loudermilk Homes offers a custom app called Loudermilk Connect to provide these services to every client, plus a complete archive of all of their custom design choices and selections in a Design Guideline Book.
It’s Easier Than You Think
Some home builders struggle with the feasibility, design, and pre-construction process of building custom homes. It’s vital to choose an established and respected home builder that already has a solid network of professional connections such as subcontractors, suppliers, vendors, real estate agents, brokers, and past clients who are willing to give testimonials or recommendations about the experience they had in working with that builder.
Collaborating with subcontractors can help custom home builders reduce construction costs and proactively look for ways to value engineer a home. For example, they can procure materials and services from vendors at discounted or negotiated rates. They can work with HVAC specialists to shorten duct runs, and work with electricians to optimize the location and placement of electrical boxes and wiring. Over time, this strategy results in more competitive pricing and savings for the homeowner, which can attract more prospective clients and enhance the likelihood of new sales contracts.
A well-designed custom home building website can also help homeowners manage their time and have greater visibility into the progress of their project. Sharing the actual construction schedule, daily work logs, photo and video updates, and other aspects of the building process with clients gives them greater transparency and builds trust. Clients also appreciate seeing how the builder is making adjustments in real time for unexpected disruptions such as severe weather, a delay in building materials, or a rescheduled workflow such as tile installation.
Maximizing Efficiency
Because no two custom homes are alike and each home project is built according to its own unique specifications, custom builders must maximize the efficiency and utility of costly materials such as engineered beams, trusses, concrete, rebar, and low voltage wiring. They can also optimize the use of skilled labor and materials such as detailed trim work and other custom finishes.
An experienced custom home builder should also incorporate cutting edge smart home technology such as HVAC controls that can be programmed to adjust the temperature when the family is away, lights that can turn on and off with simple commands, smart sprinklers that can be programmed to pause for 5 minutes when a door is opened or when a delivery person approaches the front door, and even electronic window shades that can lower themselves when the sun gets too bright or a room gets too hot.
Beyond smart home technology, savvy custom builders often use whole home automation systems that can be operated with voice activated commands using popular devices such as Amazon Alexa. Each member of the family can have their own profiles and settings so that a working mother can arrive at home and, with a simple command, the home will turn on the kitchen lights, preheat the oven, warm up the room, and stream her favorite jazz playlist.
Positive Reviews Matter
Every custom home builder relies on their reputation and the quality of their craftsmanship, and getting positive reviews and referrals from previous clients is the best way to win new business and boost sales.
Sophisticated builders can partner with real estate agents to show prospective clients how their processes and approach to custom luxury home design and construction are different and better than those of other builders. For example, is there a detailed design inspiration phase to help the homebuyers understand their unique style preferences? When mechanicals are roughed in, does the builder bring the homeowners to the home for a walk-through to confirm the placement of air vents, lights, electrical outlets and other systems when these items are easy to move and change?
Does the builder have a 500-point inspection before handing over possession of the home, and do they provide the homeowner with a maintenance guide that helps them care for their home?
Are the reviews on Google Business overwhelmingly positive, and did other clients say that they had a good experience working with the builder?
Choosing the Best Custom Home Builder in Atlanta
Choosing the best custom home builder in Atlanta is an easy task when you consider reputation, quality, craftsmanship and transparency. Since the global pandemic in 2020, the demand for residential real estate has evolved rapidly but the custom luxury home market has been resilient and strong. Executives, business owners, professional athletes, entertainment industry executives, and other high net worth individuals want to design and build the custom home of their dreams regardless of what the economy and stock markets are doing.
This demand has increased the number of people seeking out custom home builder websites for relevant information, and insights on what it will be like to work with that builder for the 12-18 months that it takes to design and build the best custom luxury home in Atlanta.
If you’d like to learn more industry-leading tips on real estate marketing, consider attending the Georgia Residential Real Estate Masters Summit sponsored by Homes by Ardor and Tim Stout, a realtor in Newman GA, and produced by Ardor SEO.
Register at https://realestatemasterssummit.com/georgia/! If you miss the date, you can catch a replay of all presentations — including the presentation by Sherwin Loudermilk, Founder & President of Loudermilk Homes — available for streaming for FREE!
