This Executive Forum panel, sponsored by HomeX, explores the opportunities, issues and approaches for builders to capitalize on the aftermarket lifetime value of new homes. Joan Webb, Former CMO and advisor to The New Home Company, and John Galante, President of AE Ventures, host the discussion with panelists Tim Costello, CEO of BDX, Ty Udell, President of Dun Today, Dennis Webb, who is VP at Fulton Homes, and Michael Werner, Founder and CEO of HomeX.
Tim starts the discussion with data about new homeowners. “What’s interesting is new homeowners spend more than any other class of owners, so that’s a really important thing for us to understand.” He shares data that 67% of homes do not include a washer and dryer, and 36% do not include a refrigerator. He adds that a home purchase is one of the most reliable predictors of new car buying. All of these factors present various monetization opportunities for builders. In addition to that, digital products and services can unlock the full lifecycle value of the connected home.
Dennis talks about the needs of homeowners who bought a home 10 years ago and are looking for new appliances. “So what we said is, let’s open it up for everything, and we use Envision as a catalog, so someone would come in or call up and say, I’m interested in this.” Dennis discusses the importance of keeping in touch with homebuyers as a way to capitalize whenever they are ready for their next home purchase.
Ty discusses how many of us are overburdened with emails and a lot of them go to “Spam” or “Promotion,” so they never reach customers. “How do we get to actually communicate with the people that want to be reached out to?” He talks about using push notifications and data mining in order to create linkages to potential clients. “I think that’s where that longevity and that value proposition can start to tie in across multiple different companies, multiple different organizations,” he says.
Michael mentions the opportunities present in the home services market, which is valued at $600 billion. “We talked about how we sold houses during the covid days online. That’s the future,” he says. He talks about all the changes that have happened throughout the years concerning business models and data-rich environments. These developments have opened the door to an experience economy, which presents various opportunities for monetization for homebuilders.
Watch the video to find out more.
