Mark your calendars for the ultimate real estate experiences with Inman’s upcoming events! Dive into the future at Connect Miami, immerse in luxury at Luxury Connect, and converge with industry leaders at Inman Connect Las Vegas. Discover more and join the industry’s best at inman.com/events.
In a bid to “grow the sales and marketing funnel” of its homebuilder clients, the data provider Zonda has scooped up a widely used new-home listing portal as well as a home-design platform.
The company reported Wednesday in a news release that it has acquired Builders Digital Experience in a transaction that brings under the Zonda umbrella the NewHomeSource.com website of new-construction listings and the home-design platform Envision.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.
Zonda CEO Jeff Meyers said in a statement that the newly acquired services will become even more valuable when paired with Zonda’s existing products.
“With the help of Zonda’s data, consumers will soon be able to find, tour and compare specific homes within a new home community — a far more dynamic experience than seeing a model home listing and sample floor plans,” Meyers said in the statement. “This is a game changer for the industry and will not only create a more engaging platform for consumers but will yield incredibly rich data for builders to inform their business and pricing strategy.”
The move is not Zonda’s first foray into the listing portal space. Prior to the transaction, Zonda had already operated the Canadian new-home portal Livabl.
The newly acquired company, Builders Digital Experience, has been jointly owned by two dozen of America’s largest homebuilding companies, including Lennar, PulteGroup and KB Home, according to the release. The company has risen to more than 1,200 active builders since it was founded in 2000.
Builders Digital Experience CEO Kevin Krone said in the announcement that being acquired by Zonda is expected to drive more leads to the builders who participate on these platforms.
“Zonda, with their deep data and technical experience, is the ideal choice to take our vision to the next level,” Krone said in the statement. “As builders race to keep up with consumer demand for new homes, we’re excited to have Zonda take our tech platform to the next level and ultimately fuel growth for the entire industry.”
Builders on the platforms will also gain greater access to Zonda data on consumer buying trends, market dynamics and lead conversion, the release states.
The move is also expected to beef up the features available to users of NewHomeSource.com, including community layouts, floorplans and self-guided tours of newly built homes using Zonda’s existing integration with UTour.
