Builder Designs | Intelligent marketing for home builders

A long-standing force in the custom new home market in Texas, Creative Homes DFW is one of the premier sources for premium Midlothian new homes that are expertly-designed for your personal needs, helping to cultivate living spaces that not only provide the luxury and comfort that you crave, but also help to reflect a unique identity and your personal style. For numerous years now, Creative Homes DFW has been making dreams a reality in Texas’ beautiful Ellis County with their impressive quality, cutting-edge designs, and outrageous value, which all combine to create custom Midlothian new homes that not only present you with a gorgeous new home, but an entirely new kind of lifestyle!

As a second-generation homebuilder and highly-regarded member of The National Homebuilders Association, Creative Homes DFW has been around long enough to really know how to get the job done right, and without causing you to break the bank in order to make your dream custom new home a reality.  From Midlothian new homes that are ready for immediate move-ins to meticulously-crafted new custom homes, Creative Homes DFW offers prospective homebuyers in the Ellis County area a wide variety of new homes that should suit just about any budget and personal need. In the words of a satisfied customer, “Creative Homes DFW’s expertise in customer satisfaction and follow up is the best that I’ve experienced after custom building 3 homes in the last 10 years.”

Year after year, Coldwell Banker Kansas City  continues to set the standard for providing the best in customer service when it comes to finding Kansas City real estate for prospective buyers in and around the Kansas City  metropolitan area. Known throughout the region for being one of the premier sources for Kansas City real estate listings, Coldwell Banker Kansas City offers prospective buyers everything from luxurious new urban condos to comfortable and quiet suburban new homes.

Kansas City real estate is large and diverse, and includes numerous cities, as well as several counties in both Missouri and Kansas. In truth, it can often be hard to keep track of, which is where Coldwell Banker Kansas City comes in to the picture! With the help of any one of the expert agents within the Coldwell Banker family who can help you analyze and compare Kansas City real estate, you’ll be sure to get the best value possible for the property or properties that have caught your interest.  With the assistance of Coldwell Banker Kansas City and the negotiating skills of their agents, you will be one step ahead of the competing in making that dream Kansas City real estate property a reality.

One of the many great qualities of Coldwell Banker Kansas City is their eagerness to make the transition to living in the Kansas City as easy as possible for new residents of this exciting area. On top of providing top-quality Kansas City real estate, Coldwell Banker Kansas City will provide you with helpful information on neighborhoods, schools, social activities, entertainment options, and all kind of recreational opportunities. Coldwell Banker Kansas City also offers comprehensive relocation services  for companies, both large and small. In an effort to save your business resources, time, and money by assisting in the move, Coldwell Banker Kansas City helps to facilitate the transition, and thus ensuring that the business can hit the ground running right away.

If you’re interested and would like to learn more about everything that Coldwell Banker Kansas City has to offer you in the way of potential Kansas City real estate, please call their office at 913-469-1968, or toll free at 888-641-3107.

For nearly a half-century the trusted name of Acuff Homes has carried the gold standard for Kansas City home builders in the city’s greater metropolitan area, and this ambitious builder shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Acuff Homes provides residents within and around the greater Kansas City area with amazing Kansas City new homes that are varied enough to have something for everyone.

Since being first established in 1961 by John and Phil Acuff, Acuff Homes had become the Kansas City home builder that offers a reputation for exceptional quality and appreciative value in any new home they build. Acuff Homes has built custom new homes in Kansas City’s finest neighborhoods, from ready movie in new homes to fully custom built homes that have been meticulously crafted to the homebuyer’s exact preferences. Acuff Homes has long specialized in building new homes that are spacious, luxurious, and affordable, and now Acuff Homes is also offering Energy Star rated homes to any prospective homebuyers who is interested in living a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle.

To learn more about all the ways in which Acuff Homes can make your new dream home a reality, as well as ready to move in new homes for sale, please visit this Kansas City home builders’ user-friendly website at  http://kc.acuffhomes.com/.

As part of an ongoing discussion about “design techniques”, I want to touch on one of the elements that makes a website go from being “good” to “great”.  With the market being as challenging as it is, good isn’t the ticket – you need to be better than your competition.  A great website can do that.   In the home builder market, websites are designed to offer up to date information to potential home buyers – that is job #1.  Many home builder websites do a good job of this.  Throw in a good content management system and you have all the basics covered.  Great sites offer all of the above as well as a “theme” that matches the home buyer demographic. Ex: You are selling custom homes – then the site needs to reflect that you have the credibility and expertise to execute on a dream home for the customer.  You can do this visually, not with copy.  An excellent example of this is Scottsdale custom homebuiler RS Homes. www.rshomes.com.

Good photos drive marketing. You may be superb at selling houses, and may have a great website for promoting your business, but how good is your photography?

Every listing deserves to be represented realistically and ‘show’ like it would in a walk-through in its photos. Bad pictures repel homebuyers and good photography is what sells. People are very visual and photos can tell a story that copy never could.

Many of the best realtors who do use professional photographers say its worth the investment, and they’re not fools. In a study done by Redfin last year, they took a data sample of over 100,000 listings that were for sale. They evaluated the selling price of homes that had pictures taken with a simple digital point and shoot and compared them to properties where the photos were taken by professional cameras and photographers. The end result? Homes that had higher quality or professional photos taken got a higher selling price – between $934 and $116,076 more than the homes that didn’t.

Putting up superior images on the web is extremely important to selling and to give you an edge over the competition. Producing a good photographic presentation inspires confidence and realtors are more likely to get referrals. There are so many MLS photos that do not represent the house well and are shot very poorly. You can’t expect satisfactory results by using a ‘point and shoot’ digital camera and walking around the property snapping away. Hire a professional, the chances are your listings will be looked at more and sold much quicker.

It’s not everyday that you get to work on a project that is tied to such a worthy cause.

ABC’s emmy-award winning television show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has selected Builder Designs client, De Young Properties, to build a home for a deserving family in the Fresno, California area in upcoming weeks.

When we were recently approached by the fine folks at De Young Properties, we jumped at the chance to help. Coincidentally, the creation and launch of the Extreme De Young site came to fruition at the same time we were putting the final touches on the new and improved De Young Properties website. With the holidays and scheduling of other projects, at times it felt like were were staging our own extreme show as we rushed to beat the clock and launch the sites on schedule.

Burning the candle at both ends paid off and we were able to successfully launch both De Young Properties and Extreme De Young bright and early on Tuesday morning.

It was just in time for the local press in Fresno to get a glimpse of the new sites and start rounding up volunteers and donors to give their time and talents to making a dream come true for the lucky family. According to news reports by Central Valley ABC affiliate, KFSN-TV, within the first 24 hours the volunteer response has been overwhelming.

You can keep track of the progress and also the announcement of the lucky family on January 8th by clicking here to watch video excerpts on the KFSN-TV website.

2008 was a challenging year for many of us in the building industry and all of us at Builder Designs are thrilled to have been able to end the year AND kick off 2009 on such a positive note. We wish everyone at De Young and all of the Fresno area volunteers and donors the very best and hope that the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition house is a roaring success and as rewarding of an experience for all of them as it was for us!

BUYER BEWARE! One of these things is not like the other…

You know that saying about imitation being the best form of flattery? Well apparently we should be VERY flattered because another website company likes our work so much they copied it and are trying to pass it off as their own! Don’t believe me? Take a look below.

Builder Designs Website- THE ORIGINAL!

The Copycat Website - an uncanny resemblance they even used our logo!

On the screenshot of the copycat website, I blurred out the company and client names to protect their identities but you should know that their company works in the same industry and claims to provide expert builder consulting, website and design services to anyone in need of it. In fact the president of their company claims to be a “dot com” expert-how odd that an expert would need to take and use our site without permission! They have several websites out there, the domain where ours appears is one of many they maintain and market.

We politely asked the copycat people to take our content off their site but apparently they don’t want to (understandably… since they liked it so much they copied from us instead of trying to come up with original work of their own.), so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to remind buyers to be aware that sometimes things on the internet are not what they appear to be.

It’s almost like having a Stalker….creepy.

Remember that movie where the bad character began assuming the traits of the good one in order to steal her identity? Kind of the same thing here really. I have to say again that while it’s flattering that the copycat folks like our work so much they want to use it for their own company, it’s kind of disappointing to see that moral and ethical business practices have gone by the wayside for some people. Whatever happened to creating and standing by original work and building a successful business by being not just good at what you do, but truthful and honest at the same time? Pretty sad really. Granted, this is all just my personal opinion but a lot of creative work from all of our team members went into making our site and coming up with the content that you find within our pages. It’s oddly flattering and disconcerting to me that someone would stoop so low as to take our work.

So… What should you do?

If you’re in the market for a new website- particularly one in the real estate industry, whether you’re a home builder, realtor or developer- here are 3 things you need to know about Builder Designs.

1. We are an honest, ethical business.

2. We don’t and won’t copy other people’s work- including buying/using cheap templates and crediting ourselves for the design. When you work with Builder Designs, your website is an original!

3. We are really good at what we do!

Never take for granted that the sites you visit are original works created by the company you see displayed. Always ask! If you’re looking for Builder Designs – ask for us by name. Go to www.BuilderDesigns.com

Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations and never settle for less than the best!