INSTEAD OF TRYING TO COMBINE ITS SALES EFFORTS AND DESIGN selection process at its multiple communities around Boise, Idaho, Hubble Homes centralized the latter function with a 10,000-square-foot showroom adjacent to its corporate headquarters. Once buyers sign a contract, they have 45 days to secure financing and choose their standard or optional finishes at the showroom.
Upon a buyer’s arrival, a staff member locates the contract electronically and outputs a menu of selections, complete with pricing, for that house. Buyers can browse the showroom and complete the form on their own (and return as many times as they like within the 45-day window to do so), or engage a Hubble associate for help, then finalize the list face-to-face. The printed menu follows the sequence of the showroom’s layout and specific product labeling. The menu also provides buyers with the base offering and two upgrade options for each product, in addition to multiple color or finish choices within several categories—a strategy that regulates Hubble’s costs, production cycle, and supply chain.
The space also attracts prospective buyers during “browser nights,” and is open to the public should prospects want to check it out before visiting a model home complex. Even so, Hubble chooses not to display floor plans and elevations in the showroom (though flyers for each community and a comprehensive map are available), pre ferring instead to keep the sales function separate
Opened in June 2005, the showroom helped Hubble boost closings by 22 percent and achieve an average of $25,000 in upgrades per house—though the strategy is about buyer choice, whether in upgrades or extra footage. “We want home buyers to spend money on what’s important to them,” says president Don Hubble.
CAMPAIGN DETAILS Program: Product selection showroom, Meridian, Idaho; Size: 10,000 square feet; Builder: Hubble Homes, Meridian; Cost: undisclosed
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Boise City, ID.
