Is home visualization software an effective sales tool?

…Or is it more of a fancy gimmick that looks great but doesn’t really add significant value?

If you aren’t familiar with home visualization software, it’s a tool that allows home remodeling contractors to upload a photo of a prospect’s home onto a laptop or other device. Then the company’s products can be shown on the home to demonstrate how the completed project will look.

Companies that sell siding, windows, roofing, and painting have found this to be a very effective way to drive up sales.

But we wanted to know more about exactly why it drives sales and what homeowners would say about home visualization software.

So we commissioned the independent research company TeamThink, Inc. to get answers. (We had zero influence or control over the responses or results).

The first area TeamThink looked at was the challenges homeowners faced when shopping for remodeling services. The 4 key findings:

  • Curb appeal and aesthetics play a vital role in the remodeling process.
  • It’s extremely difficult for homeowners to envision changes to their home and select the right products or colors.
  • A primary concern for homeowners is staying on budget for their project.
  • Overall, homeowners lack confidence about finishing a project in a way that will make them happy and achieve their desired level of aesthetic appeal.

These are pain points that came directly from homeowner responses and 3 of these 4 can be directly addressed using home visualization software.

Next, TeamThink asked the homeowners about the value of a visualizer when planning a home exterior project.

The 2 key findings about value:

  • Visualizers are perceived as a high value tool during the planning and purchase process for home remodeling projects.
  • Being able to see changes actually made to their home is the most useful feature of a visualizer.

In one question, homeowners were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 how valuable a visualizer is when planning a home exterior projects. Almost 50% rated it at the very top of the scale with a 7, and more than 85% rated it 5 or higher.

That means nearly 9 out of 10 homeowners put a significant value on visualization software. It’s a safe conclusion from this data that an exterior contractor that offers home visualization software has an advantage over companies that do not.

The other key finding is even more eye-opening. The research found that more than 60% of respondents rated home visualization software as ‘very useful,’ and another 15% said ‘useful,’ and 8% more said ‘somewhat useful.’

When you pull all this data together, 92% of homeowners are saying that home visualization software is useful to them in some way during the shopping experience, and a significant majority are calling it very useful.

The facts uncovered in this research validate that homeowners want to SEE how the products will look on THEIR home before making a decision to move forward.

Home Visualization for Remodel Prospects

Here are some quotes from respondents about the perceived value of visualization software:

“The hardest part is visualizing what the project will look like, particularly when you want to do a lot of adjustments. The concern that you won’t like how it looks is serious and anxiety inducing.”

And another quote…

 “[A visualizer] would help a lot to be sure what you’re buying is what you want. So you don’t have to waste money buying more to re-do it all over again or be stuck hating what you did.”

If you’d like to explore adding home visualization software as a sales tool, we recommend scheduling a demo.  It’s free and makes it easy to decide if it’s the right solution for your company.

We’ve also put together a companion article using data from this same research: Research Reveals Best Way To Use Home Visualization Software To Sell More Exterior Projects.

Would you like to see the entire consumer remodeling study? Email us for a copy.