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BUILDER WEB RESOURCES

Usability Engineering Resources

Start with your customers and their goals and all your projects will be more successful. The time you invest up-front will pay off tremendously.

If you are after full usability studies in a lab environment, Jeff Harpster has been actively practicing human factors for more than 20 years and was the head of usability at Ameritrade, Inc. before branching out on his own. You can find more information on his website at www.usefulsystems.com. Having used Jeff as a consultant and working jointly with him on several projects, he has earned my confidence. (Note: Lux Solutions and Useful Systems have a business alliance)

Jakob Nielsen is arguably the most gifted usability expert on this fine planet of ours. His website (http://www.useit.com) provides a wealth of information. Here's what we think is worth a read.

Virtual Reality, Animations, etc.

Virtual reality can be an important part of your sales and marketing strategy when you are in a presales environment. After reviewing all the leading vendors at IBS and talking one-on-one with each of them I was left impressed by two of them:

First, Imagenius (http://www.imagenius.com), from Toronto. If you need pre-sale digital animations for multi-family or other lifestyle oriented projects, I think they provide some of the best. There are several vendors in this space and most seem to be Canadian. All their final products look super. They work well with their customers and their process seems strong. Here are a couple of their watercolor still images (about 180K each):

http://www.imagenius.com/pages/projects/images/watercolorimage1.htm http://www.imagenius.com/pages/projects/images/watercolorimage2.htm

Distribution Channels

Okay, we all know about these guys, but they are worth an important mention. Promoting your URL is the best way to drive consumers to you website, but the major new home distribution channels will still drive more leads in total. If you have an effective process for handling your Internet leads, these are a cost effective marketing option. At the right price, you want exposure everywhere homebuyers look for new homes.

Some builders will tell me they participate in one and not in another. If there were two newspapers in your local market and both have significant market share, would you advertise only in one? Probably not. If they both have reach in your local market and you believe your sales counselors at the community are capable of closing the sale, you will likely advertise in both.

Realtor.com - the big daddy. Everything you list with your MLS will show up here. Just make sure your inventory gets into the MLS.

HomeBuilder.com - the original builder website. More people use homebuilder to look at new home neighborhoods and plans than any other.

NewHomeSource.com - the builder owned builder website. They are some of the smartest people I know in the industry and this is reflected in their design. You get lots of leads for the money you spend. There are additional benefits to those who choose to join the consortium.

AmericanHomeGuides.com - American Homes Guides provides a wealth of leads at very reasonable costs. If you have an effective lead management process, this is a distribution channel you should look into. They are also a small team that has exhibited great flexibility in working with builders.

There are others, but start with these.


We appreciate your feedback and thoughts. Please send feedback to: blair@luxsolutions.com