I’m Kayla. I handle marketing for a mid-size home builder. I also wrangle websites for a living. Last year, I rebuilt our whole site. It was a ride. If you want a blow-by-blow teardown, I put the full notes in this case study.
You know what? Home builder website design is tricky. It’s not just pretty photos. It’s floor plans, lot maps, quick move-ins, tours, and folks who need answers fast. They’re on their phones in a model home parking lot. If your site stalls, they bail.
Let me explain what I used, what I liked, and what I’d skip next time—plus real examples I leaned on while I worked.
The Tools I Actually Used
I tried three paths. All very different. All very real. The exercise reminded me of this architect who built his site three different ways and compared the results—different niche, same headaches.
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Round 1: Squarespace. It was fast to set up. I made a clean site with a plans page, a few galleries, and a simple “Find Your Home” grid. It looked nice. But I hit walls. No good filter for beds, baths, price, and city together. No lot map. No “quick move-in” flag. I hacked tags and categories. It felt duct-taped.
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Round 2: WordPress + Elementor + ACF (Advanced Custom Fields). This was my main build. I created custom post types for Communities, Floor Plans, and Quick Move-Ins. I set fields for price, square feet, beds, baths, features, and status. Then I used FacetWP to make real filters. I added a simple lot map with Mapbox. It wasn’t fancy, but folks could see which lots were sold or held. For 3D tours, I embedded Matterport. For interactive floor plans, I used Outhouse IFP. It clicked.
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Round 3: Agency help with Blue Tangerine. We brought them in to polish it and fix speed. They tightened layouts, improved mobile menus, and set up schema (the little code that helps Google understand pages). They also helped us sync quick move-in homes with our inventory spreadsheet, so we weren’t updating twice. That saved me an hour a day.
Was it perfect? Nope. But it was the first time the site felt built for buyers and for the team who updates it.
Real-World Sites I Studied (And Borrowed From)
I didn’t guess. I peeked at what big builders do and took notes. For an even broader look at award-winning builder sites, I browsed the yearly showcases on Website Builder Awards and noted the UX patterns they praised. For an even deeper dive, the crew behind that awards site put together a brutally honest list of the best building and construction websites that’s worth skimming.
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David Weekley Homes: Their “Quick Move-In” filters are smooth. You can sort by city, price range, and home type in a few taps. I copied that idea. People on phones love speed.
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Toll Brothers: Photo galleries open fast, and tours look crisp on mobile. I made our hero media load light, and I set smaller image sizes for phones. It made a big difference.
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Highland Homes (Texas): Their community pages show schools, commute times, and HOA notes right up front. I added simple “What to Know” blocks on our pages with the same idea. Fewer calls asking, “Is there a pool?”
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KB Home: Their plan pages show options in a calm way. Not too many buttons. I trimmed our plan pages so the CTA stood out: “Schedule a Tour” or “Ask a Question.” One clear action.
I didn’t copy their style. I copied the intent: less hunting, more clarity.
What Worked For Us
I like sharing numbers, but I’ll keep them simple.
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Mobile first won. Our mobile bounce rate dropped by about a quarter. People stuck around, especially on community pages.
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Filters kept folks calm. When a buyer could pick “3 beds, under $450k, near the lake,” they stayed on the site. They felt in control.
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Quick move-in got clicks. I made “Move-In Ready” a top menu item. It was the most tapped link during weekends. Shoppers wanted homes they could see right now. See how builders highlight these listings at communities like Painted Prairie for inspiration.
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Chat helped at night. We turned on a simple chat (drift-style). It wasn’t a robot script. It handed off to a person in the morning. People asked basic stuff: hours, lot holds, HOA fees. That’s gold. It told me what to fix on the pages. Want inspiration from a niche that lives and dies by real-time engagement? FireCams review breaks down how a high-traffic webcam platform fuses lightning-fast video streams with chat cues to keep visitors glued and hitting the conversion buttons—tactics you can borrow even if your content is purely PG. Want more cross-industry ideas for lean, conversion-first pages? Check out the Fort Mill “skip-the-games” landing page—its hyper-local focus, stripped-down layout, and single call-to-action are a crash course in ranking fast for city-specific searches and guiding mobile visitors straight to the next step.
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Speed fixes paid off. We compressed images, lazy-loaded galleries, and cached pages. The site felt snappy. People don’t wait for a slideshow anymore. They swipe.
Where I Fell on My Face
I wish I could say it was smooth. It wasn’t.
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The mega menu was a mess. I crammed “Plans, Quick Move-In, Design Studio, Warranty, Mortgage, About, Careers” all into one. On phones, it felt like a junk drawer. I cut it down. Three top items: Find a Home, Communities, Contact.
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The lot map lagged. My first Mapbox build loaded every lot at once. It crawled. I switched to a simple image map per community with a clean legend. Is it fancy? No. Does it load? Yes.
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SEO titles got weird. I used a plugin that made every page title long and clunky. I rewrote them by hand. “New Homes in Cedar Ridge | Floor Plans & Quick Move-Ins.” Plain. Clear.
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Photos told the wrong story. I posted too many staged shots with fancy decor. People wanted kitchens, closets, and the yard. I reordered photos to show what buyers asked about first.
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Forms felt nosy. My first form had 9 fields. No thanks. I cut it to 4: name, email, phone, and what you’re looking for. Leads went up. Shocker.
Small Things That Mattered A Lot
Tiny stuff changed the feel.
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Price honesty. I added “prices change; call for current” under the price. It saved us angry calls when lumber jumped.
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Specs at a glance. Beds, baths, garage, sqft right under the plan name. Big icons. Easy to scan.
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Design studio preview. One page. Three photos. Short text. People love to picture picking tile.
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Warranty and support. A clear “Service Request” button. A PDF for coverage. That page got more use after close. Happy owners help your brand.
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Reviews on community pages. Not a brag page. Just short quotes where folks are picking a lot. Trust travels.
What I’d Do If I Started Today
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If you need speed and control, use WordPress with ACF and a good filter plugin. It’s flexible, and you can train the team to update it.
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If you have a bigger budget and want expert polish, call a builder-focused shop like Blue Tangerine or Builder Designs. They know the flow buyers expect.
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If you’re tiny and need something live this month, a Wix or Squarespace site is fine. Keep it simple. One page per community. Good photos. A clean phone number. Don’t fake a lot map. Just put “Call for availability.”
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Consider one interactive add-on, not five. We liked Matterport tours. We skipped heavy menu gizmos. Fewer parts. Fewer problems.
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Set one win. Mine was “book a tour.” Every page pointed there somehow.
Real Examples I Used While Working
These are the exact things I looked at and why:
- David Weekley Homes: Their quick move-in filters and clean plan cards. I mirrored the flow.
- Toll Brothers: Fast media and crisp plan pages. I matched their pacing, not their style.
- Highland Homes (Texas): Community pages that answer basic life questions. I added a “What’s Nearby” block.
- Shea Homes: Strong photography and friendly tone. I trimmed our copy to feel more human.
- Lennar: Clear pricing labels and “Everything’s Included” messaging. I wrote one plain paragraph on what our standard features really are.
No links here, but a quick search by name will get you there.