Constellation HomeBuilder Systems and Kijiji Strategic Partnership - Provides National Opportunity for New Home Builders to Advertise To Canadian Home Buyers
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems and Kijiji Strategic Partnership
Provides National Opportunity for New Home Builders to Advertise To Canadian Home Buyers
TORONTO–November 9th, 2022 – Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, North America’s largest provider of home building software solutions, is excited to announce a strategic partnership with one of the Canada’s largest real estate websites, Kijiji. This alliance gives new home builders another way to advertise their new homes to hundreds of communities coast to coast across Canada, directly to millions of unique monthly visitors on Kijiji.ca.
Today’s business-minded home builders want to sell homes as quickly and easily as possible, and this partnership makes it super easy. Powered by Constellation’s new home marketing software platform, NHLS Distribution Engine, it has never been easier for new home builders to create an unlimited number of new home listings to advertise with great convenience and no extra charge to your NHLS account. This comprehensive value offering is exactly what the Canadian new home building industry has been waiting for, a national site for all new homes.
The NHLS platform is built to seamlessly integrate with popular construction ERP systems including NEWSTAR, BuildTopia, FAST, and other systems as requested but can also be used as a standalone solution to accurately distribute listings, with the click of a single button.
“We’re thrilled to be able to share this important strategic partnership with homebuilders,” said Jeremy Halbert, Vice President – Customer Experience and Initiatives Group of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.
“It has been challenging times for new homebuilders,” Halbert added, “Builders will need to get more innovative to promote their homes as broadly as possible. Builders should advertise listings to as many potential home buyers as they can, prioritizing sites that consumers visit frequently. We are committed to empowering builders with digital tools to simplify this process and help builders sell as many homes as possible.”
“It is extremely time consuming for builders to accurately list their new homes online and managing different channels is difficult. We help builders not only push new listings directly to their own website, but we can also automate the process to push that same information to as many 3rd party online Real Estate listing channels as possible such as Kijiji, realtor.com and our very own NewHomeListingService.com. All of this ensures that builders are getting as much exposure as possible. “Halbert continued, “This entire solution is a great example of Constellation’s long-term dedication to homebuilding innovation to deal with the complex process of selling homes.”
Lionel Romain, Kijiji’s Commercial Operations Manager, says “We’re excited to welcome home builders to Kijiji.ca through Constellation and the NHLS platform! Members can easily post high-quality, fully branded listings on Kijiji through an industry tailored syndication service. Members will gain access to millions of monthly visitors with just a few clicks.”
“Kijiji Real Estate helps owners, builders, and agents advertise their properties on Canada’s first marketplace,” Romain continued, “In addition to syndicated listings from NHLS, fully targeted media campaigns are available to amplify the builder’s exposure on Kijiji.”
Building on the joint enthusiasm, Milo Anderson, Director & Founder of NHLS Distribution Engine at Constellation HomeBuilder Systems says, “We are beyond excited to introduce the new strategic partnership between the NHLS Distribution Engine and Kijiji. The NHLS Distribution Engine (NHLS.info) is directly integrated with Kijiji — literally clicking one button sends new communities and homes directly on their site. Thanks to this new collaboration we have effectively changed the landscape of how builders connect with homebuyers on a national level. We look forward to supporting buyers on this journey.”
Continuing our commitment to increasing awareness, simplifying processes, and leveraging our relationships for new home builders, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems looks forward to opportunities, growth, and the increased exposure for new home listings with Kijiji.
For more information on the collaboration, click here.
About Kijiji
Kijiji, which means “village” in Swahili, is the number one classifieds website in Canada, connecting over 16.8 million buyers and sellers each month. Kijiji offers Canadians an easy way to buy and sell and find homes, jobs, and services on a local level. At any given time, there are more than 6 million listings on the network and two new ads are posted on Kijiji every second of every day. Kijiji makes it easy for Canadians to find exactly what they’re looking for in their own community. Visit business.kijiji.ca to connect with a Kijiji digital media expert.
About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the largest provider of software and services in the building industry. Their innovative software solutions, available as standalone or integrated systems, empower builders with information to drive business objectives and simplify the process of building homes and condos. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the home building software division of Constellation Software Inc., an international provider of market-leading software and services for specialized industries, which is traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
For more information, please contact:
Milo Anderson
Director & Founder
NHLS Distribution Engine at Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
403-616-6074
milo.anderson@constellationhb.com
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems to Introduce Game-Changing Industry Data Platform at Build Smarter Conference
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems to Introduce Game-Changing Industry Data Platform at Build Smarter Conference
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, North America’s largest provider of homebuilding software and services, is set to reveal a new data platform that will allow builders to improve their operational insights while freeing up scarce data resources to add more value to their businesses.
With the Homebuilder Common Data Model, Constellation will be able to create a standardized set of industry metrics. By accessing the platform, homebuilders can then access highly valuable reporting, analytics, and dashboards, as well as benchmarks to compare their performance regionally. Many widely-used builder metrics, including backlogs, active selling communities, average sales price, net sales, and more, will be made available.
The platform is built to leverage Constellation’s popular construction ERP systems including NEWSTAR, BuildTopia, and FAST and to provide value across the industry.
“We’re thrilled to be able to share this important innovation with homebuilders,” said Paolo Benzan, Vice President, Data Strategy at Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.
“In this critical moment in the industry,” Benzan added, “Builders need access to timely, accurate, information and trends as they face higher costs across the board. With how expensive and hard to find data resources are, we’re proud to introduce this great way to capture insights while reducing your data footprint.”
A can’t-miss presentation of the Homebuilder Common Data Model is set for Constellation’s Build Smarter Conference. The event will be held in-person from Chicago, Illinois from November 7-9, 2022, with virtual streaming for Constellation customers available as well. The presentation will include a detailed walk-through of this new platform and the key data it will offer homebuilder finance, operations, sales, construction, and other teams. Attendees will see examples of benchmark data and learn the various options for accessing the information.
Chris Graham, President of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, shared his excitement about this announcement. “With true industry expertise behind each of our solutions, we’re proud to be a top, cutting-edge partner to the homebuilding industry. We are committed to empowering builders with the information they need to simplify building processes and maximize return on investment.”
“With the Homebuilder Common Data Model,” Graham continued, “We are powering the industry to build smarter than ever at a time when its impact is needed most.”
About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the largest provider of software and services in the building industry. Their innovative software solutions, available as standalone or integrated systems, empower builders with information to drive business objectives and simplify the process of building homes and condos. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the home building software division of Constellation Software Inc., an international provider of market-leading software and services for specialized industries, which is traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
For more information, please contact:
Elmira Abushayeva
Vice President of Marketing, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
+1 (289) 859-4866
eabushayeva@constellationhb.com
Chris Graham's April 2022 President's Message: Homebuilding Data and Customer Partnerships
We often spend time internally reflecting on the state of our business, where we can improve, and what has been going well. I am proud of how our team has responded to all of the challenges facing our industry. Like you, we are dealing with many unknowns and changes, high levels of production, and other issues in the global and local economies. A day doesn’t go by where we aren’t discussing inflation, interest rates, hiring, diversity, security, remote working, and growth in our businesses. All of these issues require a long-term focus and a dedication to continuous improvement.
Like you, we have seen inflation soar, both in our personal lives and in our business lives. Input costs, salaries, and expenses are increasing. Personally, I’m sure many of us have seen significant increases in energy, food, accommodation, and other living expenses. I have seen statistics showing that this is the highest level of inflation in 40 years, and certainly in my entire professional career. How do you respond? How do you cope? How do people afford a home? These are tough questions and I enjoy discussing them with our customers and members of the team at Constellation.
One thing is clear, a proactive or quick response is the key, and having proper data is critical. It is needed to prepare the information and trends required to make good business decisions. Knowing how your business is performing both with internal comparisons and external comparisons is the key. We are fortunate to have many, many businesses within Constellation for comparison purposes and learning, often in software technology, but also in our approach to running vertical market software companies. We are extremely focused on long-term continuous improvement for our customers. I take pride in knowing that our customers will receive our time, expertise, and attention whenever they need it. In fact, we reorganized our business to do just that, and established a Customer Success department that has grown with our business. We now have over 270 dedicated homebuilding software experts. I value our customer partnerships and relationships immensely, some still going strong after 17 years for me personally.
Working closely with our customers is our focus. It allows us to adapt our construction software solutions to meet the changing needs of the home building industry and we have the team and track record to make it happen. As a long-term trusted partner, we have solutions now and for the future, and we are investing heavily in that future right now. This includes everything from the front end of land development and sales, to accounting, production, purchasing, scheduling, collaboration, and ongoing customer experience and warranty. Our solutions manage that data and information for your team and customers, both internally and externally. Data is the lifeblood of a business, the source of so much opportunity, and a key benefit of the solutions that we provide to the homebuilding industry. I look forward to sharing more ideas and thoughts with you shortly.
If you can’t wait until then, please don’t hesitate to give me a call
Sincerely,
Chris Graham
Top 5 Discoveries at the Build Smarter 2019 Conference
Decoding Today’s Home Buyer, and So Much More.
The Build Smarter 2019 Conference is just around the corner, kicking off on Nov. 18 in Scottsdale, Arizona. This year’s event will take place amidst a much more positive outlook than the industry experienced in the recent past. According to a report from Wells Fargo, “The outlook for residential construction in 2019 is improving versus late 2018, and there are sufficient tailwinds to carry the industry through any near-term economic turbulence.”
That’s very good news. It also makes this an interesting time to be a builder. We’re entering a ‘now or never’ reality in which builders must adopt new ways to market, manage, and communicate – or risk getting left behind. Critically, they also find themselves catering to a whole new class of home buyers that are accustomed to convenience and personalization in the digital age.
To that point, we’ve themed this year’s conference, The Expectation Revolution: Exploring Building Trends, Technology, and Innovation for the Evolving Home Buyer, featuring an agenda packed with fresh content, education, and technical training. Here’s a taste of what’s to come, including five discoveries attendees can uncover at Build Smarter 2019.
(Check out the full agenda and registration details at the Build Smarter Conference site)
#1: Buyer behavior is radically changing, and we’ve got the data to prove it.
The building industry is experiencing an expectation revolution, driven by highly discerning home buyers. It can be difficult to know when and how to adapt your business to keep pace. Understanding buyer expectations take the right strategy and insights. In our keynote, Decoding Today’s Home Buyer, Mollie Carmichael, principal with Meyers Research, will join us to reveal the latest home buyer data to help you understand their evolving demographics, preferences, and expectations.
(For more on 2019 Industry Predictions and Building Trends presented to you by Meyers Research, try our webinar, “2019 Industry Predictions and Building Trends”.
#2: Digital innovation has impacted the home shopping journey – just ask the buyers.
According to a Builder Online article, millennials are set to finally enter the housing market in a very big way, stating, “aging millennials are set to close the headship rate gap with prior generations – likely driving steady long-term growth in residential new construction.”
That’s one explanation for drastic changes in builder/buyer interactions – from the way buyers search for listings, to how they view homes, and how they prefer to interact before, during, and after the sale. The whole industry is undergoing a digital transformation urged by consumers that are digitally savvy and always on the go. How do you respond?
We’ve put together a variety of sessions to help builders tackle this trend from the inside out. In a live Q&A session during our Innovation Panel, attendees will hear from real-life home buyers, builders, and industry experts about how innovation has impacted their personal journeys and experience.
We’ll also present Social Media: 5 Tips from Builders, a how-to session on Maximizing Your Online Marketing and Listing Exposure and bring in a design expert to talk about New Design Trends and Tools – packed with ideas to help you ride the digital wave, expand your online presence, and attract a steady stream of buyers to your listings.
#3: The market is unpredictable, but you can rise above it.
As every builder understands, there are many factors that are beyond their control. It can be difficult to know how to evolve in an unpredictable market. Luckily, builders have access to a secret weapon – and it lives right next door. Your customer is a powerful asset to sharing the insights you need.
In our Live Builder Interview: Marketing & Sales Strategies to Win Home Buyers and Earn Trust Forever, a builder will share their strategies for attracting buyers in an often-unpredictable market, and how to build positive customer relationships throughout the process.
We’ll continue the discussion in Best Ways to Earn Referrals and Transform Your Customer Experience, as well as our Builder Panel: Finding Your ‘Aha’ Moment from Customer Feedback. Guests will learn from our CustomerInsight expert how to acquire and translate customer feedback and hear first-hand from builders how they walk alongside their homebuyers and use what they learned as a catalyst for process and business transformation.
#4: Trade management can either be a thorn in your side or a chance to excel.
According to a recent NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Marketing Index survey, the availability of labor is the leading concern for builders in 2019. Issues with trade management have long plagued builders, often resulting in delayed closings, construction quality issues, and diminished customer trust. Builders must keep projects running smoothly to ensure they are prioritized by the most dependable trades, as well as proactively pinpoint quality concerns.
This is an issue we’ll tackle in one of our Builder University sessions, The Top 3 Challenges of Trade Management. In this session, a builder will share what approaches they find most useful for fostering a positive builder/trade relationship and talk about the best tools to use to improve trade communication and management.
Try " 5 Keys to Effective Trade Management " for effective methods to enhance your trade management, try “5 Keys to Effective Trade Management”.
#5: Relevant builders understand how to bridge the gap between construction and technology.
From evolving expectations to digital disruption, we know the industry is rapidly changing. We don’t want you to simply survive, we want you to thrive. Our goal is to give you the power to build smarter, equipping you with the technology and data you need to remain agile to adapt and grow. Constellation’s ERP software solutions help you bridge the gap between technology and construction, and our Build Smarter Conference reflects this approach. Ultimately, we know you need hands-on training to get the most out of your technology investment. With a myriad of software training seminars, our tech lab, and product user groups, you’ll gain the best practices, tools, and technical know-how you need to improve and grow your business.
To learn more about the Build Smarter 2019 Conference, read the press release, watch the video, or visit our conference registration site. We hope to see you there!
Resources:
Navigating Volatility in the U.S. Residential New Construction Sector, © 2019 Wells Fargo Securities and L.E.K. Consulting
Report: 2019 Will Be Good for New Home Building, February 19, 2019, BuilderOnline.com, Builders: Materials in 2018, Labor in 2019, March 18, 2019, NAHB
Top 4 Homebuilding Topics to Consider for 2019
The residential housing market is healthy, but there will be obstacles during 2019. Prices for new homes may be slowing but there still will be a great opportunity for home builders with the right strategy for the upcoming year based on what builders have learned from 2018.
Residential home builders and developers learned many great lessons in 2018. News headlines suggest that new home prices are declining but the market will still be competitive going into 2019. Coupled with advances in technology, the labor shortage affecting all blue-collar industries, and new emerging trends in home building – builders have many topics to consider for the coming year. Read the top 4 topics builders will face in 2019 and what builders need to know about them to prepare.
A Strong Building Process Will Be Paramount
In a thriving market, home builders may feel safe that their products are a sure sell, but as prices begin to cool and competition rises – you can bet your market competition is coming up with new ways to bring on new homeowners. Whether it is perfectly aligned construction schedules to maximize building efficiency or a customer experience that will have homeowners referring you to their friends and family, expect technology to become part of the solution. With a tight process, expect homebuilders to become more scientific with the way they do business, reports will become their best tool under their belts. For example, for your sales team – tracking monthly new home sales and upgrade sales by each sales representative could make for a competitive company culture. In regards to bidding and purchasing, perhaps establishing a report on costs for resource versus the cost of production could allow you to make better decisions when selecting vendors for your homes’ materials. In accounting, a high-level dashboard report for projected revenue could also become a critical tool for executives to understand the overall company performance. Assigning metrics to each building functions role will become paramount as home building processes take a methodical transformation, with home production optimization comes growth for the builder.
For the complete guide on selecting and growing your building firm through integrated management software, read the complete “Homebuilder E-Guide: Selecting Management Software”.
Labor Shortages – Getting Creative During Construction
Construction and scheduling trades are critical phases in a home builders’ job. It is what brings homes to market for homeowners. The current state of affair for builders is finding the right trades who are committed and fair in terms of their compensation. Due to the lack of interest from millennials in the trades and their higher educational qualifications in comparison to their parents (baby boomers), expect the labor shortage to last a while unless the societal outlook changes on blue collar labor. Expect pre-fabricated housing to emerge as a staple supply chain asset for homebuilders. Manufacturing companies have already come into market and operate as factory line warehouses that manufacture the different parts of homes. The home frame, roof, panels, and decks will all become manufactured offsite and shipped to the lot for assembly. The role of operations managers and superintendents will become more paramount as their role becomes more logistics based than technical in terms of managing home builds.
Interior Customization and Home Upgrades
Interior décor and amenities for new home buyers have become the new expectations from building firms. Home buyers desire the experience of going to a home builders sales office and choosing the different finishes to customize their home interior. Managing these décor appointments also is proving to have taken an interesting turn for 2019. We are seeing many new technologies appearing in design studios, virtual reality has been a tool to showcase alternate finishes to homeowners, we are seeing tablets and mobiles used for quick spec lookups on products. Even the main process has become automated, the focus is now on homeowners and their wishes. As interior décor catalogues become digitized, digital product libraries are helping builders serve contracts to homeowners quicker than ever.
For the complete guide on design studio trends developing in the residential homebuilding industry, read “Top 2019 Design Studio Trends for Homebuilders”.
Navigating a Lucrative Market in 2019
Although the headlines regarding real estate costs are telling us there will be a slowdown in the housing market, the market itself is steady and great for business. There are few factors at play here, Americans are generally feeling good with their job security, the employment to builder permit ratio is above average across the country, and millennials are also entering the homebuyer market and surprisingly choosing to move farther out from the main city’s and selecting smaller entry-level homes in comparison to their parents, the baby boomers. The vacancies in trade jobs have allowed trades professionals to capitalize on the job crater. This intern is driving up costs for builders and ultimately home buyers. Although prices and new homes sales are decelerating don’t expect the market to collapse! During a market like this one, it is time to consider all facets of the business of home building. Customer experience is no longer optional but an edge that will determine which builders gain control of the various markets. Process becomes crucial and the technology driving it as time becomes of the essence during construction, the lack of skilled labor will also pose a choice for builders as their trade base evolves to include wholesale building material manufacturers. One thing can definitively be said, this market will require creativity and commitment to all facets of home building.
For 2019 residential market statistics and opinions from building executives – watch the webinar on “2019 Industry Predictions and Building Trends”.
The Verdict
The market is healthy for homebuilders but there will be challenges along the way. Regardless of the challenge, whether it is dialling in a steady construction process, optimizing building strategies to bypass the lack of available trades, or optimizing your customer experience and product selection to cater to the wishes of homeowners. Builders will need to get creative in the business, embrace innovation and technology, and keep homeowners at the forefront of everything they do.
Sources - Why Millennials are Not Interested in Trade Jobs
2016 Housing Predictions – MetroStudy
Across the country, analysts and forecasters are suggesting that 2016 will be a year of growth for the housing industry. What does this mean for your business?
Look behind the numbers with this infographic from MetroStudy. What factors are driving the growth? Which metropolitan markets will lead the way? Take a look:
Source: BUILDER "A VISUAL GUIDE TO 2016 HOUSING PREDICTIONS"
The Biggest Challenges for Builders in 2015
Hanley Wood’s Builder 100 survey asked hundreds of builders “What is your biggest challenge to growing and building your business in 2015?”
We’re all familiar with the biggest challenges the market is facing right now–the availability of lots and qualified labor, rising material costs, and stringent mortgage qualification standards that are boxing out potential new home buyers.
But in the Builder 100 survey, we asked builders to identify the biggest impediments to their personal success in 2015, which provided insight into how pervasive some of these hot-button issues are, and how many builders are impeded by these bottlenecks at the same time.
In order to quantify the qualitative answers from each builder and search for any trends, we looked to the words. We compiled all the responses and set a minimum of five occurrences per word, leaving us with 31 words that appeared five times or more in all of the answers.
Top Five Occurring Words: (note that we combined words where no meaning would be lost)
- land/lot/lots: 93 occurrences
- labor/workforce: 36 occurrences
- available/availability: 35 occurrences
- cost/costs: 24 occurrences
- finding/supply: 23 occurrences
Continue reading the analysis with an interactive map at builderonline.com.
Last month, we discussed how Land Pressure: Combating Zombie Subdivisions is impacting homebuilders and how we can help. Clark Ellis at Big Builder has also discussed the impact of land competition in Homebuilder Moneyball. And labor just scratches the surface of the Pain Points in the Homebuilder Supply Chain found by Big Builder.
Join us at PCBC 2015 and we’ll show you how our solutions can help you reduce these costs before your competitors do.
The Lean Builder: The “Perfect Storm” of 2015
Scott Sedam is The Lean Builder. He was also a keynote speaker at our PARTNERS 2014 Customer Conference, where he vividly illustrated how lean building impacts a builder’s bottom line. (Constellation customers stay tuned, we will be announcing our 2015 conference soon!) Below, Scott outlines 10 questions that will impact homebuilders this year. Like a good scout, be prepared for an active 2015!
Scott describes the outlook for the homebuilding industry in 2015 as the “perfect storm” — with one helpful caveat. The outlier is the strong jobs market; the US has added a solid 750,000 jobs in the past three months of numbers. Not bad. Now, for the bad part.
Scott suggests all builders ask themselves 10 questions looking forward to this year. We’ll briefly look at each of them below.
- Raw land? The land across the country is spoken for – or very expensive.
- Land development? Fuel prices are down, but all other costs are up: surveying, engineering, plot planning, legal fees, and of course all materials. Employing a land planning system such as LandDev can give you the visibility and automatic controls you need to tightly manage your land budget.
- Entitlement? Governments across the country are raising fees on developers (but not taxes!) to pay for infrastructure shortcomings.
- Trade labor? Yes, costs will increase. But becoming the “builder of choice” in your market(s) can drastically reduce this impact. Cash will only go so far this year – trades need to want to work for you. Learn how DSLD Homes became the builder of choice in Louisiana.
- Material? With your trades onside, what about your material suppliers? Trade shortages from 2014 will trickle down to material shortages this year. Just like with trades, suppliers benefit from a streamlined procurement process (and timely electronic payment!).
- Overhead? Human resources in the homebuilding industry are increasingly strained as builders look to hire new talent and experienced leaders. Overhead costs are up everywhere. Mitigate these increases with effective management, and allocate overhead to ensure profitability across the board.
- Financing? An improving economy inevitably leads to rising interest rates. When people compete for money, the price of money climbs. Financing programs, like LGI Homes’ Credit Counsel Program, can help your buyers find their dream home.
- Sales, Marketing and Advertising? Success = more marketing! From social media to your (new and improved) local Parade of Homes, sales and marketing will cost you more this year. Tight integration between your front-end website and sales center and your back-end management software can help.
- How many believe that the retail sales price will increase enough to cover increases in 1–8? If you think your sales prices can increase faster than the above costs, then you don’t have a problem. (Good luck!)
- How many of you believe that your profit will increase in 2015? Scott says: “Have a definite plan of action to help you find dollars you’re not finding today either by earning a higher sales prices or reducing cost, or both—and that plan had better be specific and intentional with assignments and accountability established. Managing by memo such as strongly urging everyone to work harder and smarter and to stop wasting money doesn’t count.” Well said.
Data from 125 builders shows an average of $60,000 in waste per $250,000 to $300,000 home – that’s 20%! No builder can reduce all of that waste, but what if you could reduce waste by just 4%? Multiply that by your average home price, say $250,000, and you’re saving $10,000 per house. How many closings last year? 50? That’s $500,000 in profit.
Request a demonstration of how our solutions can help with these goals.
Original article via Professional Builder.
Scott Sedam is President of True North Consulting.
Reflecting on IBS 2012, Lessons Learned.
A certain sense of optimism could be felt at this year’s IBS show, with more than 51,000 builders, remodelers and other members of the home building industry in attendance of the four-day event. While nobody claims the economy is recovering at the rate we would all like, there are signs of improvement over last year’s show. This economy has forced us all to be more creative in finding ways to increase our growth, while keeping an eye on the bottom line. The fine line between wanting to do more while not overextending ourselves has never been more difficult to decipher.
This sentiment was most apparent during Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech, one of the event’s keynote speakers. He stated that 1 ¾ million homes are currently unoccupied and for sale, and one in five mortgaged homes in the US is currently ‘under water,’ meaning it’s worth less than what the homeowners owe on it. The Federal Reserve predicts a further one million homes per year for the next three years will fall into foreclosure. Obviously not the kind of news 2,500 people in attendance wanted to hear. Bernanke did offer a few options on how to help the housing market stay on its delicate road to recovery. The foreclosure to rental initiative aims to shift some of the burden of managing foreclosed and vacant homes to private investors. By mandating that the properties be used as rentals, the program seeks to lower rent where foreclosures have hiked up demand and to stabilize communities in the hardest-hit areas. Bernanke also discussed the option to reduce foreclosed inventory by land banks. It was evident that it will take different options in different parts of the country for the housing market to stabilize itself. Not one solution would fix all.
During the show, builders of various sizes, business type, needs and wants visited our booth, requiring software to accomplish a multitude of different tasks. Some of them were looking to grow their business and wanted to leverage technology to do so; they foresee growth this year and wanted to ensure their company is technologically prepared to handle it. Others were start-ups, some former executives from national builders starting their own company or independent builders capitalizing on new opportunities in their communities. It became very clear that all builders were looking for ways to streamline their business operations, maximize their profits while decreasing their costs, basically to do more with less.
At Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, we are in the unique position to offer a variety of different software solutions specifically designed for the homebuilding industry. HomeDev Pro and BuildSoft continue to have a solid base of custom and small production builders. For builders building at the 100 home mark and looking to maintain that level, Builder360 and BuildTopia offer end-to-end functionality to address their needs. Our flagship products, NEWSTAR and FAST are the only fully integrated single database solutions to handle every aspect of a large, multi-state production builder. Much like the Federal Reserve will continue to work diligently for different solutions across the country, Constellation will continue to develop, support, and enhance its product suite for all types of builders. From website to warranty we have the right product for every builder.
ICI Homes CEO Mori Hosseini – Home Builder Optimism on Mad Money
ICI Homes CEO Mori Hosseini was interviewed by Jim Cramer on Mad Money to provide a private builder’s perspective on the current U.S. Housing Market and his experience in Florida. Confirming Constellation’s observation of recent home builder optimism, Mori reports a higher sales velocity with his company’s best April sales level since 2006.
ICI Homes CEO Mori Hosseini on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money – April 28th, 2009
(Mori appears close to the 3-minute mark)
Home Builder Confidence Returning with Dramatic Increases in Techology Investment
Markham, ON, May 14, 2009 — Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, the largest provider of construction accounting software, reached 20 new sales in April 2009. Builder confidence is on the rise demonstrated by the homebuilder software sales in a market where technology investment has been on the back burner.
During the market downturn builders chose, for the most part, to forego investing in technology. This is beginning to change as many homebuilders are taking the time now to ensure they can be competitive as the market begins to recover.
For Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, this new confidence is observed by comparing the monthly average of 4 to an impressive 20 home building software implementations in April. This is most pronounced with smaller builders as they organize for improved market conditions. These builders are back and are getting prepared for the changing market with a strong commitment toward technology investments. By implementing technology ahead of growth, they are able to delay increasing staff with better control systems in place.
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the largest supplier of software for home builders, helping builders manage their information technology costs with cutting-edge integrated software solutions to run their businesses more effectively. Constellation continues to invest in product enhancements and service offerings, while providing regular upgrades to keep builders current with today’s technology demands.
Constellation will be at the 2009 Pacific Coast Builders’ Conference (“PCBC”) in San Francisco, CA from June 17-19, 2009, booth #S1316. Please contact us to request an appointment, or visit our booth. All of our new solutions will be available for demos and our product experts will be available for detailed discussions.
About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems:
As the largest home building software company in the industry, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems has helped more than 2,100 builders manage their information technology costs with integrated software solutions to run their business from dirt to warranty. From planning to homeowner services, we have land development software, new home sales and marketing software, production, purchasing, scheduling, accounting, warranty, electronic homeowner manuals, and vendor portal solutions designed exclusively for the home building industry.
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is a division of Constellation Software Inc. (“CSI”) and is a publicly traded company.
Media Inquiries:
Cathy Kotsopoulos
ckotsopoulos @ constellationhb.com
(888) 723-2222