M/I Homes

Making Emotional Connections
with the Most Educated Homebuyers

It’s been an absolute pleasure to partner with a homebuilder that is always looking for the next best thing with their buyers top of mind. M/I Homes does a fantastic job of ensuring they are providing the best homebuying experience possible.

For them, it’s all about making that emotional connection. We help by crafting visual and interactive experiences that spark this connection. And as we all know, the more emotionally attached we get to something, the more likely we are to make a buying decision.

If potential homebuyers have already pictured themselves moving their furniture in, decorating, and hosting family and friends in your homes, they will be more likely to make it THEIR home. But, those consumers need some help seeing that.

“We can’t expect people to read a blueprint, but we can demystify some of the process a little bit and really invest in their emotional need to see these things more complete.” – Will Duderstadt, VP of Corporate Marketing at M/I Homes

Seeing Is Believing

So, how exactly is M/I Homes creating this emotional connection? Well, seeing is believing, after all. They provide an experience for their buyers from the very first time they interact with the brand. By working with us on collateral like Responsive Interactive Floor Plans, Exterior/Interior Renderings, Interactive 360° Panoramas, and Virtual Staging, they allow homebuyers to truly see themselves in their homes—to get a good look around and feel like they are actually there.

“People sometimes have a hard time seeing someone else’s vision. Whether that vision is for a full-blown community or just an individual plan, connecting those dots is hard for a lot of consumers because everything else they buy they get to go touch, feel, or test drive and then buy a version of it.”

Give Your Sales Teams
More Time

With all of this imagery available and readily accessible on multiple platforms, M/I Homes is finding that their homebuyers are more educated than ever. By the time they reach out to a salesperson, that buyer has already been able to tour the home, get a feel for the space, and see all of their options.

If you ask us, having more educated buyers is one of the best things a builder could ask for! The customers do their research, on their own time and at their own pace, while beginning to make that attachment.

That means the salesperson can save so much time with each customer, allowing them to sell more homes and better service their existing clients.

“It is a lower time to sale once we have met someone. Whereas traditionally a salesperson would engage with a prospect for 15-20 days after their first meeting, we are seeing the actual sale occur sooner.”

Make This Space
Your Own

By shopping on M/I’s digital platforms, buyers can even find examples of how different rooms fit their needs. The brand is taking advantage of Virtual Staging to accomplish this in a BIG way, and frankly, it’s exactly how we’d recommend using this imagery.

You see, an unstaged home is hard for buyers to make an emotional connection with. They can’t visualize how they’ll use the space unless you show them. That’s why M/I’s flexABILITY program exists.

“We’re taking spaces within a lot of our homes and allowing people to repurpose them to the thing that fits their current need. Some people need home offices, some need home classrooms, and some want an art studio or a gym. Virtual Staging allows us to take that singular room and illustrate to our customers that there are a wide variety of possibilities.”

Put Your
Homebuyers First

With the help of our artists, this collateral is helping them use their marketing budget wisely. When a space already exists, we don’t have to recreate in 3D to craft content. Virtual Staging takes existing photos and breathes life into them. Our team designs the space, in whatever style or purpose needed, by adding 3D furniture and décor so builders can help their buyers picture themselves there.

Touché, M/I, for taking advantage of collateral like this and putting your buyers first. We’ve been partnering with them for 20 years (yeah, you read that right), and we can’t wait to help them build more connections and sell more homes for years to come.

“At this point, MediaLab is so ingrained in our operations and knows the M/I style, that [MediaLab] is really an extension of our company at this point. That is a deeper, better relationship than hiring a vendor—and it is hard to call [MediaLab] just a vendor because of that history.”

provide the best
homebuying experience

CONTACT US TODAY!