This week on The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast, Jason Harper of Hunter Quinn Homes joins Greg and Kevin to discuss why home builders should start integrating buy online processes.
Purchasing a home online may not be as straightforward as buying other products online, but home builders should not wait to start implementing buy online options. Jason says,
“… a home can’t really ship to you, but there’s no reason why with today’s technology that you can’t do a virtual walkthrough, you can’t see everything that goes into that home and get a good feel for it. And if the emotional level is high, you don’t want someone else to buy it. So, just having that avenue or the process in place where a customer could say, I’m interested. I like it. I want to hit this button right now and reserve it. I felt that need would be extremely important in the next few years, and we needed to get on board with that.”
Not all potential customers will want to carry out the entire home buying journey online, however, there must be choices accessible. Jason explains,
“And Buy It Now, it’s not going to be for everybody … as technology comes in, some of us old guys like me might not be embracing some of the new stuff that’s coming on board. But for, you know, the millennial group or the group that’s coming up behind them, they’re going to be on board with it … if you don’t have it in place when that happens, then you’re definitely late to the party…It’s definitely going to have to be a choice type thing where it’s a reservation versus a purchase type option available …”
The expectation and desire for buying a home online are growing and home builders should prepare for it now if they haven’t already. Jason says,
“But there’s not any reason to prevent somebody now to go online…just reserve that house for my buyer. It’s going to be a trend. I think it’s going to get bigger as time goes on. It will take a while to implement, but it’s going to be worth starting now so that you don’t look back and say, well, I wish I had started that two years ago or last year. Because you can’t implement it that quick…”
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about developing buy online processes for home buyers.
About the Guest:
Jason has been in the new home industry for a little over 20 years. Starting off in sales for a small local builder, he quickly became their top salesperson. When the company was bought out by a national builder, Jason was asked to become the sales performance coach for their 3 divisions in SC. After teaching for a couple of years, he was promoted to the regional sales manager. When that company pulled out of SC during the downturn of ’09, he went back to his roots and got back into sales for another company that represented multiple builder accounts. Once again Jason’s results caught the company’s attention, and he was asked to teach his sales techniques to their teams.
Jason taught an intro to new home sales boot camp there and held weekly one on one sessions with their new and seasoned agents where he coached them through the day-to-day sales functions. He was then asked to be a sales manager and take on a few of their builder accounts. At one point Jason managed 4 different builders until one builder, Hunter Quinn Homes, started growing very quickly. They eventually took more and more of his time and eventually invited him to come on board full-time and bring the sales team in-house. Jason has been with Hunter Quinn Homes for about 7 years now and during that time they have expanded into 2 different markets and started up a build-on-your-lot division. Hunter Quinn Homes continues to grow and expects to expand into additional markets over the next few years.