Builder Designs Review
Home builders need a way to market their new builds to potential buyers. That means getting online, establishing trust, and showcasing houses through a hyper-visual website. Are there website designers who cater to this specific industry?
Builder Designs is a website design and creative agency that works exclusively with home builders. While their focus is clearly on creating custom websites, they also offer a handful of templates. Plus, they host a suite of industry-specific technologies, like maps and floor plans.
So, as a professional website builder platform, we wanted to investigate their products and services. Are they transparent? Are they functional? Are they the best option for home builders? If not, we’ll share some alternatives.
What is Builder Designs?
Builder Designs is a small-scale website and creative agency for the home builder niche. Although initially, it was just a website builder, the company now offers related services, including digital marketing, SEO, SEM, and custom software solutions for builders.
The company began in 2008 as a partnership between a local builder in Kansas City, Kansas, and a self-declared “computer nerd” who agreed to develop his website. Since that first launch, the company has worked with more than 400 home builders and helped showcase almost 10,000 homes.
What features does Builder Designs include?
What stands out about Builder Designs products and services is the lack of detail compared to other website design companies.
Other companies carefully explain what each package or plan includes, but Builder Designs provides only the bare bones. This means it's difficult to understand and explain their services adequately.
For example, it's unclear whether their digital marketing services are available as ad-hoc options or must be purchased as a part of a greater marketing package. We also don't know what social media they manage, how many posts it includes, or what website analytics they can provide.
As a company focused on builders, they do offer a number of Proptech (aka Property technology) solutions. These include interactive floor plans, build and price tools, and buy-it-now options.
With that in mind, the following features highlight only a handful of details — the most we could grasp from their website.
Custom designed websites
- Completely customized design
- Custom web copy
Blueprint pre-built websites
- Choose from 5 website templates
- Mobile friendly designs
Digital Marketing
- Services include content, social media, email, graphics, and analytics
Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO and SEM)
- Off-site SEO (Google My Business)
- Advanced SEO
- Google Ads
- Reputation management
Proptech
- Specialized online tools to assist home buyers in their purchasing journey
- Including interactive floor plans, buy it now options for online shoppers to place a hold on the home of their choice, build and price tools, and more
How much does Builder Designs cost?
The biggest frustration with Builder Designs is the lack of transparency on costs. Nowhere on their website can you find prices for their website designs, templates, or any of their auxiliary services. We also couldn't find information on Builder Designs through popular review websites like Clutch and Trustpilot.
This is a problem. As you may have noticed, every major website builder displays prices these days. Transparent pricing helps customers determine whether the service fits within their budget. Instead, Builder Designs funnels everyone through their sales team, a delay that not every business owner has the patience for.
Without pricing information, there is an immediate barrier to use. Instead of instantly knowing if you want to pursue their services based on price, you'll have to go through the lengthy process of submitting an inquiry through their contact form and waiting for feedback from their team.
Who is Builder Designs best suited for?
Very explicitly, Builder Designs only works with home builders. Other industries need not apply, as they have hyper-focused their work around this sector. With a suite of builder-specific tools, like interactive floor plans and buy-it-now options, they have developed creative options that serve the needs of builders.
Do they provide better or more affordable solutions than other website builders? Unfortunately, the lack of detail on their website means it's hard to tell. There are no prices listed and no details about what each product contains, so we can't compare it with other companies. Often, when prices are omitted from the website, it’s a good indication their rates are high and bandwidth is limited.
What are the pros and cons of using Builder Designs websites?
How good are Builder Designs' pre-built website templates?
Builder Designs emphasizes its custom solutions more so than its website templates. However, under the pre-built section, there are a few templates clients can choose from — a grand total of five templates.
Fundamentally, each is a great design, but there is a lack of clarity about what the templates include. The sample websites showcase dozens of pages each, covering elements like warranties, realtors, quick move-in homes, and financing information.
But how much does each additional page cost? Is there a minimum number included in the base price? It's not clear. In the world of web design, additional pages or features quickly add up to push the original budget far beyond what you envisioned.
Another missing detail is whether or not the templates include any industry-specific tools Builder Designs advertises (ex: buy-it-now and interactive floor plans). From the templates, it looks as if these features are not included.
Should you need to edit any aspect of the website (text, graphics, new pages), we suspect you’ll need to go through Builder Designs. There is no easy web editor designed for you (the client) to make tweaks and updates after launch. On other design platforms, you can make these simple updates yourself — and for free!
On the surface, the functionality and design behind these five templates is definitely serviceable.. But without prices or product details, it's genuinely hard to compare.
What are some Builder Designs alternatives for home builders?
For the home builders out there that need more transparency on prices and services, there are other website builder options.
If your team has the time and patience, it's possible to use one of the many simple build-it-yourself solutions now available. These include GoDaddy, Wix, and WordPress. Although not explicitly optimized for home builders, they are at least quite affordable.
There is also the entirely custom avenue — creative agencies like Blue Corona and Blue Tangerine target the home builder industry. But, just like custom construction is substantially more expensive, custom websites are as well.
A custom website can run you over five thousand dollars. Then, if you need to make any updates (even simple ones), you’ll have to pay the agency every step of the way.
But, is there a website builder that is both affordable and highly attuned to the home builder market?
B12 is an all-in-one business solution to help get your company online and in front of prospects. Our AI-driven builder creates industry-specific designs, which our expert designers and copywriters finesse to highlight your unique brand identity. It’s accessible for small business owners to get great web design. You don’t have to code or learn a complex new platform — much of it is done for you by professionals.
We also focus on providing tools that make online business administration easy. With online payments, client engagement integrations, and other helpful features, you can use the B12 as an all-in-one tool to reach, work with, and transact with clients online.
Transparent services, straightforward pricing, and specialized solutions — it's the best of both worlds.
Builder Designs review summary
In summary, Builder Designs creates beautiful websites, but there is a dire lack of clarity on prices, products, and features.
As a home builder, you would never agree to a service without knowing the price and doing comparison research, so why would you do it for your website? Public pricing is an important, transparent business practice, not to mention it's what people have come to expect with online services.
We also struggle to understand what each of their service offerings entails. Every service only has a generic description. As a prime example, they offer a "Content" service (filed under the digital marketing menu), but they do not explain what that service covers. Do they offer custom web copy, blogs, off-site copy support, home listings, or something else?
We'll never know. Unless, of course, we schedule a call with their sales team.
We know home builders need upfront prices and clear service offerings — for their new builds and new websites. We've purposefully created a straightforward pricing model: no hidden charges, clear business solutions, and better customer service.
Plus, you can try it for free. Schedule a personalized demo today to let a B12 Consultant show you the difference we can make for your company.
