Hayden Homes customers will soon be able to purchase the home of their dreams from the comfort of their couch using a new web application.

Homebuyers for years could do a 3D walk-thru or use visualizers to see a color of a house, but the technology for Redmond-based Hayden Homes takes the experience up a notch by creating a shopping experience like online retailers.

Want a stainless steel sink? Click. Want the garage on the left of the home? Click. The website allows homebuyers to see what their choices cost and how much a mortgage payment would be.

“Nothing existed in our industry like this before,” said Steve Klingman, Hayden Homes president. “There was no known supplier of this digital experience. We had to create it ourselves.”

The immersive shopping experience addresses changing consumer trends.

Builders such as Hayden Homes can differentiate themselves from competitors by providing this relaxed shopping experience, which ultimately can increase sales without incurring more marketing costs.

Nearly 98% of all homebuyers first look online at homes, Klingman said. But the majority of buyers are tech savvy, so it made sense to create an online purchase experience for homes, he said.

Some in the industry, however, fear that buying a home — often the biggest expense for individuals — online could lead to disappointment and is vastly different than buying shoes or a book online.

“I think that buying books and shoes online is fine as those items can easily be returned if not of the size or quality the consumer thought they were getting,” said Lester Freidman, a managing principal broker at Premiere Property Group LLC in Bend. “But to make the biggest buying decision a consumer is likely to make in their life an online, sight-unseen process is fraught with danger.”

Friedman also felt that this process cuts out the buyer’s real estate agent and requires fewer staff manning model home sites.

“What if the colors are not exactly rendered online,” said Friedman. “The size and fit are hard to duplicate and feel on a video screen. Seeing first hand the fit and finish of the craftsmanship is impossible. And how the whole fits onto the space and lot is difficult.”

Creating new pathways to purchasing

Studies have shown that millennials and Generation Z buyers are more comfortable making purchases online, Klingman said. In 2019, the question arose: Why not tap into this market idea and apply it to home buying?

In 2019, the company began tweaking its software to accommodate an online experience. There were a lot of interfaces that needed to be connected. The subdivision layout and plot plans had to be loaded. The building materials for each of the 40 house options, setbacks and interior options loaded. And then there’s the estimated monthly payments and the price that gets added up.

Engineers tweaked the experience so that as of Nov. 13, it will be available company-wide in 60 developments.

The platform, Klingman said, is more transparent and easier for first time buyers, who may find home buying confusing and difficult.

“We realized how non-transparent our industry is,” Klingman said. “It’s hard for buyers to find out information online. We wanted to use feedback from customers to create as much transparency in the space as possible.”

The process, however, does not eliminate the need for sales people at new developments. A sales staff is there to answer questions, help tweak a contract or explain a process, he said. With this digital platform, buyers can come into a sales office feeling like they have done their homework, he said.

“Home buying is very complicated, especially for first-time home buyers,” Klingman said. “That’s the majority of our customers. We wanted to help take them that down the path.”

Hayden Homes has been in business since 1989 and now builds in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho, he said. Each of the developments have about 40 different floor plans for customers to choose from, he said. The technology is not perfect, he said, and there may be instances where a customer selects a home site and a design that doesn’t fit or isn’t appropriate. There are digital protections in place, but that’s where a sales person can help, Klingman said.

It’s a lot more complex to build a home than selecting a shoe or a stroller. Floor plans are limited by the homesite’s physical limitations, he said.

Where it’s working

Customers in Idaho have already had a chance to beta test the digital process, he said. The response has been positive.

“It’s been a positive experience by users in Idaho,” Klingman said. “Customers who have worked with us in our old system and buying a new home from us now are calling us and raving about the experience so far. Those are the exact test users we are so excited to follow them along the journey and make real time tweaks to the system.”

In the end, Klingman hopes that these same first time buyers will remain in contact and turn around and buy their next home from one of Hayden’s agents.

“First time home buyers are no longer at a disadvantage and now are empowered,” Klingman said. “They have more control over the product, greater happiness, greater joy.”