Anyone who’s ever built or remodeled a home knows picking the floor plan or addition design is the easy part. The hard work is making choices about the tiniest details, from cabinet stains to drawer pulls. The number of decisions that go into finishing a new home, addition or renovation can run into the thousands.
“Depending on the buyer, making those choices can take hours,” said Louann Busby Kendall, an independent design specialist who works with Windsong Properties.
“I’ve been in this business, working with new-home buyers, longer than I can say, so I have it down; if people are ready to make decisions, we can knock out a whole house in about two hours. But there are many others who just cannot make those decisions,” she said
Indecision is also fueled by the inability to visualize what options will actually look like. In the market’s heyday, builders constructed model homes to show buyers what was available, not only for floor plans, but for finishes and upgrades. Today, a new community may have one model - if any - and buyers must rely on memory and imagination to pick the accents they want.
But with more people becoming Internet savvy, some area builders and remodelers are streamlining the selection process by putting the options online. The result is a more relaxed way for buyers to make choices - and change them several times - from the comfort of their own homes. It also gives buyers an image they can hold onto.
“People really can’t visualize some of these choices. It’s difficult when the items are just listed in writing,” said Heather Fritz, who is working with several local builders to set up “virtual design centers” that give buyers a close-up look at options.
“I start by doing engaging photography of each room so they have something to look at,” said Fritz, whose company Boomer Marketing is based in Woodstock. “For instance, I can give them photos of how the living room will look with or without an adjacent sunroom. I can show how the sunroom will look open or enclosed. It gives then a room-by-room way to build their dream home.”
Having visual references makes selecting options easier and cuts down on changes later in the building process when buyers realize they’re not crazy about the cabinetry stain or the backsplash tiles that sounded great on paper.
“Even after you walk through a model home, you don’t necessarily remember what you saw,” said Fritz. “And if you walk through 10 homes, it’s even harder. We can now give buyers a visual reference they can show to their design professional.”
One of the companies Fritz has teamed with is Windsong Properties, whose detached ranch homes at Bel-Aire in West Cobb and Windsong at Seven Hills in Dallas appeal to the active adult market. Windsong’s marketing manager Carrie Roeger was inspired by Pinterest, an online sharing site, to set up a central Internet source for the company’s design options.
“One of our communities didn’t have a place to create a design center, and we were looking for an alternate solution,” said Roeger. “I got hooked on Pinterest and was playing around with it and took the same idea to create a place where our buyers can go, create a board, and get excited about the finishes in their houses.”
Though most of Windsong’s buyers are 50 and older, Roeger said her market research showed that demographic was the fastest adopter of new technology.
“That’s our demographic,” she said. “And when women get excited about their finishes and options, they’re less likely to give them up.”
The company amassed an assortment of photos showing possible configurations and finishes, such as different bathroom vanities, courtyard layouts, ceiling options, finished bonus spaces, organized closets, built-in shelving and even a few special features builders have added at the request of individual buyers.
“People buy what they see, but we may only have one model they can walk through,” said Roeger. “This is a way for them to see more. And even in the models we have, we can’t put every option in one kitchen. But they can go online and see everything: roll-out shelves, different drawer configurations, finished pantries, island shapes, door sizes, etc.”
When buyers can sift through the options at their leisure, the time spent in the design center can be used more productively, said Kendall.
“Nowadays, with people so into researching everything, the choices can be made before they get here, and doing that helps reduce the stress of the meeting,” she said. “Buyers have already gotten a sense and feel of the cabinet colors, knob styles, tiles, hardwood colors, bricks, stones, you name it.”
At the same time they’re picking out options, clients can contact Kendall in advance of the meeting, so she’s as well-prepared as her buyers.
“They can send me questions about what they’re looking at, and that not only helps them; it helps me,” she said. “I can get a feel for what they want.”
Stacey Osiecki of the online site Home Anatomy has designed an app that works much like the Windsong idea, allowing designers, builders and buyers to share information on features and options. A designer herself, Osiecki started out to make communication with her own clients easier, but she’s discovered it works well in a variety of settings.
“We’ve built a platform that lets professionals share info with their clientele and creates an instantaneous dialogue that streamline the selection process,” she said. “It allows clients to make decisions quickly and transfer those ideas to their builder or architect. And if you are a builder and you have a line of plumbing products you like to work with, you can set up a place where clients can go and say yes or no to their choices.”
Making design choices online also allows buyers or renovators the chance to float ideas by more than just their builder or designer, Osiecki said.
“They can collaborate with anyone - a husband or a friend, for instance,” she said. “It’s a central place where other people can see the selections they’re making.”
For Roeger, the chief selling point of online design selection is that it allows buyers to take their time when making decisions they will have to live with.
“We really believe in having the ability to sit in front of the fire with a glass of wine and dream about your new house,” she said.
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