This week on The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast, Mollie Carmichael of Zonda joins Greg and Kevin to talk about research on customer expectations, especially related to customers’ willingness to engage online during the home buying process.
Mollie explains that the home building industry is seeing a vast turn to digital when it comes to consumers buying homes.
“So, obviously we’re seeing a huge shift in technology, and we’re seeing a huge shift in how people shop today, and so we’re always trying to stay out in front with what are the subjects and what are the things that are going to help continue to fuel our industry, and certainly, how we’re shopping for homes is a big shift. Frankly, I think as an industry, we’re behind. So, we’ve been trying to focus on all things that we possibly can to figure out and convince some of the builders and developers throughout the country because unfortunately, if we can’t prove it, they won’t do it.”
This shift has occurred so quickly, and it is creating a great, but exciting challenge for home builders.
“Two years ago, the even discussion of buying a home online was ridiculous. We’re really starting to see those buyer trends shift, but the challenge is the builders have to stay up with what makes that experience easy to make an easy decision.”
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about customer expectation and engagement online.
About the Guest:
Mollie has been a leading real estate strategist throughout the country for more than 30+ years with many of the nation’s most sophisticated home builders, community developers, building product manufacturers, financial institutions, land planners, and architectural firms. Her experience includes multi-million dollar investment strategies with acquisitions, product development, masterplan, and product development, business planning, market expansion planning, and more. Mollie is most known for her leading national research on community and product innovation with consumer insights.
Before joining Meyers Research, Mollie’s career includes positions with The Irvine Company as Vice President of Residential Product Planning, Pulte Homes/Del Webb as the Regional Vice President of Strategic Marketing for the California Region, Lennar as Vice President of Strategic Marketing, and Kovach Marketing as Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing. Lastly, Mollie was most recently a Principal with John Burns Real Estate Consulting for almost 10 years where she led consulting services, consumer and product research, and other specialized research programs throughout the country.
Mollie has been quoted in various media publications nationally and internationally including the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Reuters, Businessweek, and Professional Builder. She has spoken throughout the country at conferences including Pacific Coast Builder Conference, Urban Land Institute, UBS, Building Industry Association, Zillow’s Annual Housing Forum, International Builder Show, and many other venues nationally.