Model Homes

  • SEC Probes For Fraud Among Home Builders

    A commissioner, testifying before Congress, indicates that the government is casting its net wider to uncover wrongdoing in the housing and lending sectors.

  • Model Merchandising On A Budget

    Four top designers share their strategies for keeping the pizzazz for less cash.

  • Scents in model homes to help put buyers in a good mood

    The sense of smell has the strongest connection to the emotional part of the brain

  • Use community events to increase traffic to your sales center

    Leverage the power of residents, vendors and local businesses to keep costs down

  • The Marketing of Green Home-Building

    Builders who have made a commitment to sustainability say that their marketing efforts focus more on education than persuasion.

  • Model Home Merchandising for Fictitious Buyers Translates into Real World Sales

    Model homes designed for fictitious buyers translate into real-world sales.

  • Dressing Up

    How often do buyers enter a splendidly appointed model home and say, “I want that,” but are frustrated because the cost of those furnishings would bust their budgets, or they have no way of purchasing the products? Apparently too often for D.R. Horton, which is why the industry's largest builder is...

  • Home Theater

    Most every builder strives to help prospective buyers envision themselves in one of its new homes, to see themselves cooking dinner, creating family memories, or just hangin' out watching TV. But Centex Homes' Los Angeles/Central Coast division gave real life to that vision with a campaign called...

  • The Reality House: Introduction

    When we assembled the team that would create The Reality House, our show home to debut at the 2006 International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla., our first order of business was to go out looking for signs of unrest in the marketplace.

  • Nine Minutes... and Counting

    HERE'S SOMETHING YOU SHOULD know: New-home buyers spend more time shopping at a Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Blockbuster than they do at one of your model homes.

  • Barrier Free

    Builders who can get a broadband connection installed in a sales model or a job trailer can use readily available equipment from companies such as Cisco and D-Link to provide a WiFi signal throughout a community.

  • Creative Outlet

    A Jacksonville, FL, builder supports a fledgling artist community by featuring works of art in his model home.

  • BUILDER Tech Briefs: March 2004

    - SpeakerCraft's Proficient Audio Systems now features two new programs. - M&S Systems markets intercom to residential builders. - Xplore Technologies Corp. releases affordable heavy-duty Tablet PC for builders.

  • Marketing Smarts: A Model Approach

    A condo project creates an off-site model home that helps boost presales.

  • Editor's Notes: All in the Family

    We've burned up quite a few pages over the years trying to convince you to build homes for non-traditional households--emptynesters, singles, double-income professionals. The compelling evidence that we've always presented is that only 25 percent of U.S. households have children. So, the logic goes...

  • The Ultimate Home: Zeroing in on Housing

    What do you get when you combine a super-tight, energy-efficient home with a large photovoltaic array and a solar hot water heater? You get a home that produces more energy than it consumes--in theory at least.

  • Virtual Models Pay Off

    By BUILDER Magazine Staff. Shea Homes for Active Adults, a division of Shea Homes, had such a positive experience using Alpha Vision's virtual presentation system for sales presentations during its initial 18 months using the tool that the builder integrated Alpha Vision into its overall sales...

  • Holigans Leave MH2

    Harold was the company's former chairman and Michael served as president. No specific financial terms of the agreement were disclosed.As part of the settlement, Olympus also dropped its lawsuit against Harold Holigan.

  • Going, Going, Gone

    Bruce E. Sutter has many fans, even among those who have yet to use Builders Auction Co., in Houston. His is the first firm to make a business of auctioning model-home furnishings, most of which are out-of-date and unsuitable for new models.

  • Editor's Notes: Landmarks

    I always chuckle when someone characterizes the home building industry as backward, resistant to change. This year marks BUILDER magazine's 25th anniversary.