For many purchases, a shiny marketing brochure will do. But when you’re asking a buyer to make the biggest purchase of their life based off a brochure, it’s a tough sell. 

For years, show homes were seen as a necessity to persuade buyers to make the decision. But show homes are incredibly expensive. And this expense is incurred before any sales are made. This is a problem, as developers often need to sell up to 70 percent of units before a lender will extend credit. So, how can developers provide a compelling presentation of their houses without incurring the enormous costs of building and maintaining a show home?

An online home configurator is a cost-effective and in many ways superior alternative to the traditional show home. A configurator allows more customization options than a physical show home. And that is what today’s consumers want. This appetite for personalized experiences has been fed by their experience in retail. It’s not surprising that they would want the same experience for the purchase of their new-build home. 

Home configurators not only add value during the marketing stage, they can potentially revolutionize how new home developers sell and build homes too.

Selling more upgrades is a margin improver, and configurators definitely do sell more upgrades. Buyers can view their selected configuration and chosen updates in real-time, and receive detailed and personalized documents straight from the website, including prices and small print. As a result, there are fewer questions down the line for the sales team, and fewer errors, and sales costs go down substantially. Finally, the builder can work directly from the files generated by the configurator. In short, online configurators make it possible for developers to sell customizable homes at scale, as the resources, time and effort required is much reduced.