2025 Digital Marketing Trends Every Home Builder Should Know

A bi-weekly round-up newsletter of the best new construction and real estate marketing, sales, and news in the industry.

This newsletter is best viewed online. Click here here to read in your browser.

In This Issue:

💡 The Big Idea: AI experimentation for Black Friday shopping.
🐝 Industry Buzz: Home builder growth slows, while loan limits increase.
🧠 Get Your Learn On: Learn the upcoming 2025 trends in digital marketing.
🏆 Quick Win: Clean up the 404 errors on your site.
🧰 Tech Check: Pick up an affordable domain name with Namecheap.
🤖 A.I. Prompt Play: A prompt to create interesting topic ideas for YouTube.
📚 Recommended Resource: The Ultimate Blog Title Swipe File.
🎙️ From The Podcast: Organize your Hubspot database with contact types.
🏅 Marvellous Marketing: A fun short-form video from DSLD Homes.
📈 Real Estate Market Update: a look at the US stats for November 2024.
... and more!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"Love the easy-to-digest format. Gives me a quick pulse check on the industry and some new things to try."

The Big Idea 💡

We Asked 5 Language Models What to Buy for Black Friday

In this article, Merkle dives into a unique experiment where they test five different AI language models to get shopping recommendations for Black Friday. Check out how these models respond to the same query and gain some interesting perspectives on holiday shopping:

☑️ Discover how AI models differ in their shopping advice and reasoning.
☑️ Learn which categories and products these models prioritize for Black Friday deals.
☑️ Uncover the surprising limitations of AI-generated shopping advice.
☑️ Find practical takeaways for using AI to optimize your shopping experience.
☑️ And more...

Industry Buzz 🐝

📉 Home Price Growth Slows As New Home Sales Decline
This Builder Online article discusses the recent deceleration in home price growth alongside a sharp decline in new home sales. Factors such as high mortgage rates, economic uncertainty, and seasonal trends have contributed to decreased market activity.

Builders are responding with price cuts and incentives, such as mortgage rate buy-downs, to attract hesitant buyers.

💰 FHA Increase Home Loan Limits for 2025
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has raised its 2025 loan limits to address rising home prices, with the baseline for single-family homes increasing from $498,257 to $524,225 and high-cost areas capped at $1,209,750.

These changes aim to expand access to FHA-insured loans, supporting affordability and homeownership by aligning financing options with local market conditions.

🤝 Brookfield Residential Forms New Land Development Partnership With The Kolter Group
Builder Online has details on a new strategic partnership between Brookfield Residential and The Kolter Group to develop and provide finished residential lots and mixed-use pads to builders in the Southeast. Led by Jim Harvey, former president of Kolter Land, the collaboration aims to leverage the strengths of both companies—Kolter's operational expertise in the region and Brookfield's real estate investment experience.

This partnership seeks to capitalize on the Southeast's growth potential and provide builders with expert land development services, targeting markets in Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

Get Your Learn On 🧠 

🖥 2025 Trends in Digital Marketing
Stay ahead of the curve and learn all about the upcoming marketing trends for 2025 with this upcoming webinar from the Digital Marketing Institute.

Digital marketing expert Will Francis and other industry leaders will take a look at how AI, social media and search engines are going to change the industry over the next 12 months and show you how to plan your marketing strategy so you’re not left behind.

The webinar is on December 9 at 10 AM EST/3 PM GST, so make sure you register before then!

Quick Win 🏆

Nobody likes to click a link and be greeted with a 404 error. It’s annoying for users and makes your site seem unprofessional. Plus, search engines hate them. Take 15 - 30 minutes every one or two months to check through your site and redirect any dead links you find.

Tech Check 🧰

If you’re looking for a cheap, reliable host for your website domain, take a look at NameCheap. As the name suggests, they offer very affordable domains, and right now you can get up to 97% off on some products via their Cyberweek sale!

AI Prompt Play 🤖

Replace anything within [ ] with your info

Goal: 10 topic ideas to share on YouTube

Prompt: Act as though you are an expert YouTube marketer specializing in getting real estate agents to show up at the top of search results.

I am a [CITY] home builder looking to create content that shows up at the top of YouTube's search results when someone is searching for real estate related topics in my city.  Below are the titles of the top 5 videos that come up when you search “[CITY] real estate” on YouTube. Based on these titles, give me 10 new topic ideas for videos I can create.

• [LIST THE TOP 5 VIDEO TITLES].

Marvellous Marketing 🏅

Stand-Out Social Post From DSLD Homes
Today's stand-out social post comes from @dsldhomes over on Instagram - we love this fun, football-themed video tour. These types of short videos are great for engagement because they make you stop and watch until the end. That was quite the throw!

Real Estate Market Update 📈

US Market:
According to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors®, the average existing home price for October was $407,200. This number is largely unchanged from September and signals the first holding pattern since average prices gradually decreased from $427,000 in June. With that said, the median existing home sales price is still up 4% year-over-year and the seasonally adjusted annual rate of home sales is up 2.9% in the same period.

From the Podcast 🎙

Discover proven marketing strategies and growth tactics on the Home Builder Marketing and Growth Show with Jeff Schneider. New episodes every week:

#009 | Contact Type: A Custom HubSpot Property To Sort Contacts So Sales People Only Focus On Prospects | HubSpot for Home Builders
This episode provides actionable steps to enhance your HubSpot implementation. In it, Jeff shares a simple yet powerful trick to get your HubSpot database organized for your sales team.

#008 | Model Home Sales Tips: How To Elevate The Customer Experience In Your Show Home Based On My Experience Mystery Shopping Dozens Of Local Builders | Marketing Minute
In this podcast episode, Jeff Schneider shares valuable insights from mystery shopping experiences to enhance customer engagement and boost sales in model homes.

#007 | Digital Marketing Assets for Builders: Balancing Technology, Affordability and ROI | Kevin Weitzel
Join Outhouse’s Kevin Weitzel to learn strategies for home builders to effectively balance technology costs, prioritize digital tools, and maximize ROI without overspending.

Tune into the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music or any of your favourite apps.

What We’re Reading 📖 

The Copy Book by D&AD and Tashchen
Featuring lessons and ad examples from 50+ award-winning copywriters, this book is a masterclass in crafting compelling copy. Each lesson is concise and paired with real-world examples, making it both inspiring and actionable. You can grab it on Amazon here.

Just For Laughs 😂

Points of Interest 🧐

🗓 On this day
On this day in 1848, US President James K. Polk announced the discovery of gold in California, triggering the California Gold Rush.

🧠 Brain Drain
The Oxford English Dictionary has named “Brain Rot” its word of the year after polling over 37,000 people.

🍫 Omission To Mars
A man in the UK has received £2 in compensation after finding a smooth Mars Bar which online followers described as “hideous.”

Whenever you’re ready, there are three ways we can help:

1. Complimentary 1-Hour Strategy Session: Let's get to know each other. We'll hop on a Zoom call to understand your goals and challenges and then provide actionable marketing recommendations tailored to your business. Walk away with strategies you can implement immediately. Schedule your no-cost strategy session.

2. HubSpot Audit & Optimization: Unlock the full potential of your HubSpot investment. Our thorough 60+ point check-up will identify what's working well and what needs attention in your setup. You'll receive a comprehensive report and a 90-minute review session to maximize your HubSpot performance. Request your HubSpot audit.

3. Complimentary Website & Marketing Check-up: Give your online presence a boost. We'll review your website and marketing channels, then conduct a 60-minute workshop to share our findings. You'll walk away with actionable tips to improve your digital marketing and attract more qualified leads. Sign up for your no-cost marketing check-up.

About Velocity23

Velocity23 is a growth agency and has been specializing in digital marketing for home builders for 13+ years. As one of the first HubSpot partner agencies to specialize in the home-building industry, we’ve helped builders across the country solve their challenges with content marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing, and marketing automation. Our experience has led to the development of the Growth Engine Framework™️, a marketing system that’s helped our clients achieve:

🖥 7.4M+ website sessions
🙋 110,200+ leads generated
🏠 9,680+ homes sold
💰 $3.3+ Billion in reported client revenue

If you’re experiencing marketing challenges or you want to sell more homes and grow your company, book a call today and let’s see how we can help.

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