Anewgo of New Home Sales

Replay: The Story Behind Garman Homes’ Bold New Website-169

• Anya Chrisanthon • Episode 169

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A lot can happen in a year, and this episode proves it. We’re excited to re-release the story behind Anewgo’s very first builder website, created with the visionary team at Garman Homes. What started as a bold collaboration has now become an award-winning project, earning Silver at The Nationals less than a year after launch, and now headed to Orlando for a shot at Gold during IBS 2026.

In this conversation, Alaina Money-Garman, Jake Kaplan, and Renee Carlson share the strategy, transparency, design thinking, and buyer-centric philosophy that shaped this website from day one. From curated design packages to authentic storytelling to empowering buyers long before they walk into a model home, this episode reveals the decisions that set a new standard for digital home shopping.

If you want to understand how an innovative builder and an innovative tech partner co-create something that elevates an entire industry-this is the origin story.



Hi everyone. It's Anya Chrisanthon. Welcome back to the Anewgo of New Home Sales podcast and happy holidays to you and your team. I hope this season has given you a little space to breathe, reflect, and get excited for everything ahead. In the new year, and speaking of exciting, I'm thrilled to share some big news. So less than a year after launching our very first Aoga website, we took home the Silver Award at the Nationals for our debut project with Garmin Homes, and in February we'll be heading to IBS in Orlando, proudly going for gold. So today felt like the perfect time to re-release the story behind that award-winning website. So in this episode, you'll hear directly from the incredible Garmin Homes team about their vision, collaboration, transparency, and bold ideas that made this project so special and ultimately helped reshaped what a builder website can be. So happy holidays. Thank you for being part of our Ango community. And now here's the story behind our very first award-winning website with Garmin Homes. Okay. Hi, my name is Andrew Poon with Anewgo, and today I'm here and joined by the amazing team at Garman Homes, and we wanna talk to you about their brand new website. We're gonna tell you about the lessons we've learned, the journey it took us to get here, and why we think this is something that the world needs to know about. Well, let's meet the team we have with us, Alaina Money Garman, the founder of Garman Homes. We have Jake Kaplan, the CFO, and we have Renee Carlson, the VP of Marketing. Thanks for joining me, guys. I'm so excited to have this conversation. It feels like it's a long time coming. Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

It's a fun conversation. I've been really looking forward to it. Me

Andrew Poon

too, me too. I feel like I talked to at least one of you, like once a week. So at this point, you know, there's this beautiful thing where professional relationships become really like family. There's just so much familiarity here.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah. We prefer to work with people that we can build a genuine relationship with. I feel like that's when you get the best result. Mm-hmm. And I think this website's definitely an example of that, right? Where the collaboration really led to discovering something.

Andrew Poon

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

Unique. Yeah. And one of its kind and first of its kind.

Andrew Poon

So let's talk about that because everybody loves a good origin story. Yeah. So let's talk about this. Even before the website was like a real thing, let's talk about this conception before even talked to us about it. What was going on? Down at the Garman office. That was like, okay, we gotta, we gotta do something. By the time you talked to us, it felt like there was this energy.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah.

Andrew Poon

So talk to me about that.

Jake Kaplan

We started to look at our business a couple years ago. Mm-hmm. And we had two different experiences. We had the one experience, which is our nonfiction, where we had semi-custom, we had customers coming into our design studio. Mm-hmm. And picking every single piece in part. And then we had our fresh paint experience and. Our fresh paint experience has curated whole home packages, and what we found is that that experience, we were able to set such great expectations for our buyers. Yeah. And our buyers absolutely loved it. They loved the packages we were creating the, they loved the experience that they were getting from start to end. And. We decided to lean into that because we're like, two experiences means that we aren't doing we're doing just enough for each one. Yeah. We weren't able to fully invest right into one of'em.

Alaina Money-Garman

We were always splitting our energies and our focuses between the two experiences. Yeah. And so we had this sort of epiphany like, we should really run with this horse. Right. You know, we should embrace the fresh paint experience as the garment experience and, and. Only offered the curated design experience.

Jake Kaplan

Right. Because I mean, our current website was set up for both experiences, which means we were causing confusion for our buyers. Yeah. And we decided we're, we're gonna go all in. We're gonna take fresh paint and we are gonna take fresh paint and transform it into garment homes. And that's gonna be our main experience because people absolutely love it.

Alaina Money-Garman

And you're right, like you felt that energy at Garman because. We decided to go all in on this, curated whole home design experience, which allowed us to envision a whole new website. It was like, okay, we're gonna offer all new packages. We're gonna rethink what we thought we knew about the buyer experience, make it even better. But then like translate that into a website that can really. Pull someone in. Mm-hmm. And give them sort of that insider's look behind the scenes. Really. Yeah. And welcome them right in. That was kind of the energy that we came to you with. Like that we have a big idea and we need someone to help us make it come true. But we knew it wasn't, it didn't exist.

Jake Kaplan

We're big storytellers. Yeah. We love to tell stories. Yeah. And yeah. We know that home shopping is it's the biggest purchase that somebody's gonna make, right? Yeah. And we wanna make sure that it's as easy and friendly and as accessible as possible for people. Yes. But we also wanna make sure that we're connecting with them even before they walk through the door. So we had the big task, like how do we do that? How do we. Get our stories injected even before we have the opportunity to meet them face to face.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah.

Andrew Poon

Was the thought always that it would be a website that you were looking for, or did you look at other platforms or other ways to incorporate this and bake this into your existing, or tell me about how you started searching.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah, so I. I, I was excited. I was excited for this project and to really pour my whole self into it, my whole heart into it. And I started chopping for different companies and we were working with the new go. You guys have produced amazing, um, renderings for us. Mm-hmm. And site plans. But we, you weren't in the website business, right? You weren't, you didn't have websites yet? We weren't. So we started, we started looking, but we wanted to look outside of the industry. Yeah. So we're like, none. No other home builder, like all the other home builders websites looked fairly similar.

Andrew Poon

Yeah.

Jake Kaplan

So we, we looked outside. We, we went to, um, web developers in California and New York, and we started shopping with them and started having these conversations and we're like. They may produce a great website, but they don't get home building.

Andrew Poon

Yeah, yeah.

Jake Kaplan

And it's not, it's not gonna translate. It's not, they don't understand the nuances in the back end of what SEO needs to look like and how all of these things need to connect to one another.

Alaina Money-Garman

And Renee's expertise in home builder websites and, Renee had worked for some really larger builders and using sort of that perspective to help us mm-hmm. To help Jake and I. Realize what we were trying to build. Mm-hmm. Because we just, we knew we wanted it to be great. There are a couple builders that do it really well, and I, we definitely pulled up some sites and we were like, okay, we like this. Mm-hmm. But then we would look at like high-end car companies. Sure. Mm-hmm. Like a, a really high-end car and like how you could shop for that and other high-end purchases Yes. That you make. Yes. To, to Jake's point, this is the most money anyone ever spends unless you own your own business. And so we really wanted to take this experience, but. Renee could speak home builder website. You could speak home building. We could speak vision. Yeah. Yeah. And so the four of us really became the team that sort of formed Yeah. This idea.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't just the combination, but there were serendipity involved here because Sure. This, the initial contact was so funny because it was about, I think a month or two before IBS. Yeah. And I. Actually John Lee and myself, we were in a call with the builder and they had asked for the umping time, like, when are you guys just gonna build our website? And we had put it off for years and years because we said That is a really big project. Yeah. We didn't wanna take that for granted. Yeah. And there are a lot of great companies doing great work and we knew that. And it was kind of, we reached the point where we said. You know, I think we have something special to bring to this industry if we do this. And so it was, again, it was just about a month before IBS and then I am on the airplane, the same airplane by the way, as you two going to IBS and I'm checking my email and I get one from Serena and it's a forward from Jake who says, I have this project that I want to talk to you about. And so I think I had just hit respond. I got up, grabbed my bag, and we're sitting in the trim and I'm looking at my email Jake's, there's pictures in the signature, and I'm like, and gimme a second. I just said, Jake, the way that he looked at me, he was like. I don't know this guy. That was funny. And you had a faint recognition because you're like, I've met you before. Yeah, yeah. Um, but it was really funny. But there was so much serendipity there, right? Yeah. Right. And so it just felt like even from that moment Yeah. It was like, oh wow. Wait we're already clicking.'cause this timing is perfect, right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. I, I think too, like to Alaina's point about the car company that. If you're building a house, you, you have the ability to customize so much with a car, building out a car, and we wanted that same functionality. We're like, there's so much to envision in a whole house. So we wanted that technology piece to then also take it a step further. Yeah. We wanted our website to really stand out from the competition. Yeah. And we wanted to be able to showcase our different floor plans and our different interior packages that we were cooking up. And we also, we challenged you and Steven and his team to, to build out this virtual rendering. Yeah. Walkthrough, right? Like that is every single one of our floor plans that he then layered all of our interior packages within. People can walk throughout the house, they can add on their structural options, they can change up the different interior packages, and they can see in real time what their house is gonna look like. Yeah. Instead of having to. I mean, were you, we were used to the PDFs, right? The mood boards and having the different samples and people trying to take a swatch that was this big and envisioning it in a massive Yeah. Floor plan. It's difficult. Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

I think there's, there, that was a huge piece for us because. We have such high expectations for the buyer to be able to visualize things in 2D or, you know, even when you have a floor plan that that changes. It's really hard to picture and it's a super high-end purchase. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so that visualization, you had done such wonderful work with the visualization tools that we were already using Yeah, yeah. With a new go and so. We kind of started with what we loved. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And then tried to grow that into the rest of the website and Renee really helped us sort of understand how each of those components could work together. Like the floor plans, you really wanted the. The floor plans to be functional and Yeah.

Renee Carlson

Yeah. To be right there on the page. And I think it's important to, to think about if you've been in the industry for a long time, you forget how hard it is for someone that's not in the industry. Yes. To envision a home looking at black and white drawings or looking at the little three inch sample of tile. And so, and I remember when I built my first home and then got into the industry after that. I thought to myself, do not ever forget that feeling. You know, always remember how difficult that is, you know, across the board. And so I think that is one of the reasons it makes it so important. And a lot of builders don't, they lose sight of that. It's easy to lose sight of that,

Alaina Money-Garman

The rendering tools were really powerful. We want people to feel confident in their choice. Absolutely. And informed and empowered. Yes. You know, like they can mm-hmm. And they want, we want them to enjoy it. Yeah. To feel like they're getting to, to personalize it on the website and choose what they like. And yeah. It was really, it was really gratifying.

Andrew Poon

Absolutely. Now let's talk about, now that we have this kind of type of experience, what has been kind of the feedback from buyers and. Have the conversations shifted or changed? You know, let's talk about kind of what buyers are seeing and, and what you guys are hearing from them.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah, I mean, I think that our buyers absolutely love, like not only the ability to envision their home before they've walked through the doors, but we're building brand new floor plans. We're building brand new interior packages that they're not able to walk through just yet because it takes six months to build it out. So what we're doing is I. Providing them a model home to walk through and to envision this package from the comfort of their own home. Yeah. That ability has been so cool for them. They really enjoy and they're, they're more knowledgeable coming in. They're coming through our model doors and they know what floor plan they love. They know what, um, interior package they connect with the most, and they're able to be more confident Yeah. In the conversations. Yeah. And bring forward.

Alaina Money-Garman

That's such a key component. They're the buyer. Confidence is really, yeah. What we hoped for. Mm-hmm. You know, and can you imagine, uh, us sitting down with like web developers and we're like, we really want a website that makes the buyer feel confident. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. They're like, what do you mean? Yeah. Right. And it, every component of the website was to empower the buyer to. Walk in to a physical model and feel like they have lots of great information. Mm-hmm. They have confidence in what they're doing. They, we've built trust through storytelling. Mm-hmm. They know what the price is gonna be. Mm. It's not this running tab. The curated design packages, they all have pricing on them. Mm-hmm. And so that, that level of transparency really puts us on the hook. Yeah. To be accurate. But it felt like the best way to, to build a level of trust and collaboration with the buyers.

Renee Carlson

Yeah. Today's consumer is smarter than they've ever been. Yeah. I mean, you, you walk into a model home and our buyers or prospects know more about us than they've ever known before. Right. Yeah. And so this is just another tool to continue that conversation.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. Yeah. I think too, for first time home buyers being able to know what their. All in ticket is going to be Yeah. Before walking in. Yeah. It armor it. It removes that armor from them walking through the doors because they feel so much more connected than they understand what that process mm-hmm. Is gonna look like because we've equipped them. Yeah. Well before they've walked through the doors.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's such a good point. You know, even looking at. Time of session. When we look at web analytics, we see, oh, okay. There's certainly, you know, it's, it's, it's interesting because you, there's a sweet spot. You want them to have more time on your site so that they're more engaged, they're more educated, but then there's also this concept of, hey, how do we get them to where they actually want to go as quickly as possible.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah. So

Andrew Poon

you don't want to be, Hey, they spent. Three hours on there and they didn't know where they were. They spent three hours'cause they were lost. Yeah, right. I would much prefer kind of that bias. We've

Alaina Money-Garman

had that website before.

Andrew Poon

Yes. That

Alaina Money-Garman

was before my time, unfortunately. It was me, so I was the problem. But

Andrew Poon

yes. Kay Taylor Swift. We used to hear all about the lost fire. Yeah. So I mean, but that's totally true though. You know, I think. We, unfortunately, there's not enough data on this yet but I'm really excited for the day where we can kind of focus on this like time to value metric where it's like, mm-hmm. Hey, how much time did it take them to get to point? Z where they wanted to go, right? Instead of, alright, we're right now, we're so antiquated in the sense that we just say like, we just want more and more and more, more time, right? Mm-hmm. But honestly, what we want is more and more and more conversions, right? Not conversions like a registered to be a lead. Conversions like sales. And I really feel like this group here is pioneering that, that metric where we can say, okay, we can actually understand that if somebody spends five minutes, maybe it's 15 minutes on the site. We feel good that they're probably gonna buy a home.

Alaina Money-Garman

Right? Yeah. Or at least come check us out in person. Right. You know? I know. I was the one that was like a a no. A hard no on buying. Sure. Off the site. Yes. I really crave the human connection. Interaction component. Yeah. And so I really wanna continue the relationship at a certain point. So yeah. I'll be very interested in how those metrics Yeah. Evolve. Yeah. And what we learn about it.'cause there'll be some things that we didn't catch. Yeah. And some constructive feedback that'll be really helpful for, you know, refining and innovating this website. I feel like we have something really beautiful and unique. Yeah. And, um. I'm excited about how we make it better.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. You

Alaina Money-Garman

know,

Jake Kaplan

I think too that the buyers that are coming in, we're seeing convert so much shorter in the amount of time because they've spent that time on their website. So Renee's all of her marketing campaigns, you're really getting a better value out of those now. Right. For

Renee Carlson

sure. I mean, the metrics are, it's really fascinating to see. Yeah. So we've been. Uh, three, four months now on the new site and you know, it always takes a little bit of time. But right off the bat, we saw immediately, you know, longer engagement. People were on the website longer, they were visiting more pages, they were, um, engaging with our, with our content more. Um, but the most fascinating part was. You know, we expected also like the leads to go up and we're gonna get all these, these more leads. And that didn't happen. The leads kind of stayed the same and that that metric takes a little bit longer to suss out. But what we found is that the buyers were more educated. They were finding what they needed, and so they had that information. They weren't, you know, what we used to think was a lead was just sometimes people. Asking a question'cause they couldn't find the answer on the website. Right. Right. So those were gone. But what we also started to see over time is that people were getting the information they needed and our onsite traffic picked up. Mm-hmm. People were getting what they needed and going right out to the models. In a time when a lot of our competitors onsite traffic was declining, ours was going up and that, I mean, it. Direct correlation. Absolutely.

Jake Kaplan

That's such a good point that yes, we had more leads prior because people were reaching out because they were frustrated, navigating our website and couldn't find the answers that they wanted.

Renee Carlson

Or it's something D you know, I saw this price on MLS, but your website says something different. Or, you know, we don't have any of that anymore. Yeah.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. Everything kind of syncs. We created the synergy between all of the systems, which has been super helpful. Yeah, and one of the huge selling points for us too, that. We are one of the first builders that have a website that is ai. First, right. So we are ready for the AI search. Yes. We're ready to, to rank high for those results.

Andrew Poon

Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about the integration of the systems, because you guys have Stella, which is your homegrown ERP system.

Alaina Money-Garman

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Poon

And there you had a. Big vision of how to make everybody's life at Garman a little bit easier, but also to use that for transparency for the buyer. So talk to me about that, what that project was like. Uh, I know it was actually a pretty heavy lift.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. Do you wanna take, do

Renee Carlson

you wanna take that one? Well, I can tell you about what it means for me. I mean, it's been incredible. It's been an incredible time saver. It's made us so much more efficient. You know, if I think about how much time I used to spend building a quick moving home on the website, just one home, and you never get just one home. It's always like five or six at a time, I would say. Your medium sized builder, 400 homes a year, you're, you're spending 10, 15 hours a week. Mm-hmm. Managing either building out a new quick move-in, managing the inventory, changing the prices, changing the move in dates. So to have almost a hundred percent of that automated, that's 10 or 15 hours a week that I can do some really cool stuff.

Jake Kaplan

Right.

Renee Carlson

With, so that has been incredible from the consumer standpoint. You know, going back to that, you know, pricing being different here and there. Just the transparency of having everything there. Mm-hmm. You know, knowing that what you see there the site map is correct, the exterior color scheme is correct. The structural options that have been selected, because those are pulling from our system automatically. Building out the interactive floor plan, automatically building out the exterior, rendering the closing date, putting it on the lot, all of that is happening. Behind the scenes. Also, if you change the price if we have a price adjustment that's automatic, it's happening immediately. There's no more, you know, it's different when you get to the model home. So,

Jake Kaplan

yeah. Yeah. I mean, just talk in more detail. Like Stella right now is. Capturing all of the options. It, it obviously has our floor plan. It has the interior package, it has the exterior package, it has the number of bedrooms and bathrooms that are in the house, the square footage, it's calculating. So all of that information we've automated and then it's sending it directly to our website so that. Renee's and her team don't have to, they don't have to manage that. Mm-hmm. Um, same thing with the status. That's what's so nice too, is when a house sells, it's exciting, but then typically there's multiple Yeah. Places you have to go to market as sold. Mm-hmm. This automatically updates it. Mm-hmm.

Alaina Money-Garman

It was part of an overall growth strategy for us. You know, we knew with the number of, of lots that we had in front of us that we were gonna double the size of the company. And so Jim adopted twice the houses, half the work as a mantra. We were gonna preserve the things that made us special to begin with, but we were gonna scale it in a way that allowed for some things to get automated so that we could still work on the parts of I love that. Of marketing, that were the magic. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And the connective tissue, like right. I'm so happy that Renee's not spending her time, replicating efforts Yes. That we can automate, so that she can innovate. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like that. That was a big Yeah. Part of this website endeavor was we have to invest in this, and make sure that we can grow in a way that allows us to still show up as the builder we wanna be.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. I think working with you guys. Was so incredible because one, you guys are always uniquely you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're authentic, right? Yes. And that came out through all the branding, all of the design meetings that we had for almost like a year of design work. Mm-hmm. To go into this, um, which. Actually future builders get to benefit from, because there's elements that now they can use. That Garman really helped to come up with something really special, really unique, really beautiful and aesthetic. Um, that now a lot of builders are able to say, oh, I can borrow some elements of, of how this works here and there. So that working with with you guys on that was incredible. But also, this mind of, Hey, how do we get our team to be able to focus on what they. Do well. Mm-hmm. And what they

Alaina Money-Garman

wanna be doing and

Andrew Poon

what they wanna be doing.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah, exactly. Right. And make sure that we're not bogging them down

Andrew Poon

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

With with the scale. Yeah. And like how can the website really rise to the occasion of who we wanna be at this new 400 houses per year increment. Yeah. And how can the buyer not feel that? Feel unique and special. Yeah. Not one of 400, but one of one.

Andrew Poon

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

How do we do that through a website? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's, that's, you guys really helped us do that.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. I want to, in a second, I want to talk about how we really worked in these packages. Uh, I wanna pull Chad in to talk about that. Before we do that, I wanna just loop back. Tell me a little bit about kind of that design process, what that was like for you guys, uh, how it felt. The good and the bad,

Jake Kaplan

yeah. I mean, designing the website was so fun. I think we're so lucky that you guys are in the same city as us. Like we, I was like, yeah, Andrew's like, you wanna hop on a zoom? I'm like, no, I wanna come to your office. Yeah. Like, I wanna, I wanna actually work through this. Yeah. And I, it made the collaboration that much easier and the synergy that much better. Yeah.'cause we could also work off of each other's energy and. We could go down a path and be like, no, that's not gonna work. And pivot. Yeah. But the design, I mean, what did you think of the design process? Oh, well,

Renee Carlson

I, I was fortunate that I came in kind of at the tail end after you guys had done all of the hard work to make it beautiful. So by the time I got there, it was pretty, pretty baked, the actual design and layout. And, uh, obviously I was very impressed with everything that you guys did. And so it was kind of the onus was on me and Andrew at that point to kind of, you know, you served it up to me on a silver platter and then, uh, we were able to, to. Try to take that to the finish line and still, carry on the vision that you guys created. Yeah,

Jake Kaplan

I will tell you, I mean the, the sessions that we had with you and with the designer, like it was so great because you guys wanted to innovate and you were on our side of like, yeah, maybe we can do that. Like, let's try it and Yeah, that's a good point. Which is very much us. A

Alaina Money-Garman

lot of times we meet with people and we'll tell them what they want and they tell us five reasons why it won't

Andrew Poon

work, and that

Alaina Money-Garman

that's. It fatigues me over time.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. Yeah. And

Alaina Money-Garman

um, with you guys, it was sort of like, let's think about this.'cause I knew, we knew from the bat we wanted that video. We wanted a sense of movement.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. So

Alaina Money-Garman

that the buyer that, you know, someone shopping and our website would feel like invited into mm-hmm. Into our world. Yeah. And, and, and to meet our people. I don't, I don't like stock photography or stock photos or models. I want real. Garman people in the mix, and it was such a beautiful thing to have that part Right. You know, to have people from Garman in the website. Absolutely.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

And really feel that authenticity. Really practice it. Yeah.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah. I,

Jake Kaplan

I love too the, the opportunity, like we were building this website, but we were also working with so many of the other teams at Aoga. Like we were also in the process of redoing our exterior renderings.

Andrew Poon

Yes.

Jake Kaplan

And making them photo real. Yes. And making them feel so much. More lifelike. Yeah. And adding some personalization that really spoke to us and our beliefs and being able to see people represented in, in, in these houses. So that, like that one department was so much fun. And then to work with Steven and the interior rendering walkthroughs. Yeah. That was so much fun. And then Serena, with the site maps and everything, just meshing together to build this giant, really cool functional site. Yeah.

Andrew Poon

Definitely bigger than a website. This project, it was an overhaul. It was an overhaul. We had, I think the entire company, every department was working with you guys. It's no joke. I mean, it was, uh, and I mean, we loved it. Again, you know, one of the things that I am so grateful for is you guys challenged us, right? So like, like you said, yeah, oftentimes a vendor will say like, oh, no, no, no. For these reasons, but there are things that you guys brought to us and said. No, we want the interactivity. Yeah. But we want it to look as good as these other photo rail renderings. And we said, no, we gotta strive for that. And so just through, through you guys kind of pushing that, yeah. It gave us kind of enough oomph internally. Say like, let's, we really got it. We really gotta figure this out.

Alaina Money-Garman

I credit Jake with that, like, relentless pursuit of something exquisite. I've heard him say like, it's not elegant enough. It's not smooth enough. Like his, his bar is high and possibly high for our. Buyers. So that their experience is as seamless as possible. And then we sort of, you know, weave in these moments of connection too, like the little flags in front of the renderings and making sure that people see themselves welcomed in and invited in and represented in what we're offering. And so there had to be both of those things. Yes. Mm-hmm. And our previous websites, we had to. Choose one or the other or maybe neither. Mm-hmm. And it, and it was really wonderful to be able to keep going to, to give each other a yes and yeah, instead of a no. Yeah. That you, it's this or that.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. And there were so many things that we worked on. We all looked at it at the end, we said,

Jake Kaplan

That's not it. That's not it. That's not it. Right? Yeah. But I think,

Andrew Poon

That pursuit of excellence, that pursuit of something exquisite. Yeah. That's what it looks like, is we, you have to try it out. Okay. Never been done before it. Yeah. Okay. We shouldn't have done it. Right. Maybe, maybe put that back, but. That's how we ended up with I think, something really beautiful. Right.

Jake Kaplan

And And there was the trust there too, that we could tell each other. Yeah, no, that's not gonna work. But we tried it. At least we tried it. Celebrate the try. Right. And I'm so grateful that Renee came in when she did to then take the website, like I feel like kind of bundled up the design aspect and the functionality. And then you helped get them the SEO and the functionality in the backend and all of that, right?

Renee Carlson

Yeah, yeah. It was, it was quite a project.

Andrew Poon

One of the things that we really wanted to do with this is to make it easy to manage as well. Not just deliver one thing once and say, hope you like it forever. We'll see you in a couple of years and try to get you to renew. But what we want you to do is, actually say, oh, we have a quick change. Oh, you know what I think we actually wanna shift our branding for this month, right? Yeah. Oh, we wanna celebrate this month. We want to. You know, change our logo for a week or something like that. Yeah. So, you know, our idea was just to make it really easy for the team, again, so that they could get to doing what they do best. So I know that Renee is almost lives in kind of that CMS that we created. So tell us kind of what that experience is like and if it's been different from kind of your other experiences. Oh,

Renee Carlson

absolutely. You know, I've, I've worked with you guys for a long time in previous builders and. Something that has just carried across for, I think it's been almost 10 years. Just the way that you do business and all of the different apps and the software and the tools that you provide to builders. It's always been that way from beginning that you really empower your clients to be their best selves in their own way and be very autonomous in their, in what they're creating. And that's unheard of. It really is. Yeah. You know, we're. You may have opportunities to have a revenue stream and monetize every little change that we need to make. Yeah, you could do that. And I know that because a lot of, a lot of others, other companies like you do that, but you don't. You create these spaces where the client can. Can make those changes and when you see something, if you have a hunch on something or if you have the data to back it up, where previously that would've required me to, you know, make a phone call, submit a ticket, get an estimate, hundreds of dollars weeks later. And then it doesn't work, and I gotta undo it. I can go onto the backend of a new go, click a button, three seconds later, the change is applied and see the results from it immediately, or change it back if I don't see the results that I intended. Like that's a beautiful thing.

Alaina Money-Garman

You empower the client To really take hold of the website and, and, and manage it and, and innovate it. And so, and rather than keep it behind lock and key at like a Tobi Sure. Exactly. You know, and that. That actually helps us innovate more. I'm sure we're spending more money over time by improving it. You know, it deepens the relationship.

Jake Kaplan

I think what I love too is that you guys take feedback so well and you actually listen. Mm-hmm. And you're not just filing it away and saying, yeah, maybe we'll do that eventually, but it's like, no, you guys are working quickly. So I like, we identify an issue and you're like, I'm sure other builders are doing that. Like, let's pivot let's fix that for you. For you and for everybody else. The

Andrew Poon

foundation of all of this was kind of just trust, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And both Renee and other builders, but you, you too have, like, we've all worked together for so long. Mm-hmm. And so that's why, talk to, talk to me a little bit about like, Hey, we're going in here and we know we're the first ones.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah.

Andrew Poon

What was that experience like? Was it a little bit scary?

Jake Kaplan

It was, yeah. It was scary. But I, we also were all in, we're like, yeah, we we're comfortable with that. We're do it. Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

I'm comfortable with that. Unknown.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Alaina Money-Garman

I, and I, we actually, Jake and I have talked about this before. We had some people warn us. Mm-hmm. Like they haven't done that before. Yeah. And we were like, okay. Mm-hmm. Like, yeah. But it's, we had a relationship there and we hadn't done it before either. Yeah. That doesn't mean it can't be done. Right. It just means. It's the first time. Yeah. Which, which allows for the level of collaboration that we knew was necessary. Because if we walked in somewhere and they were like, no, this is how you do it and these are the, this, these are the boundaries of what you can and can't do. Mm-hmm. That wouldn't have worked. Right. So being the first and being the pioneer really is a spot that we feel comfortable with. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I know. As long as you felt comfortable with us, you know, sort of Yeah. Running alongside you and really forming this. In an image that could then be scaled for other builders.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. I feel so lucky and grateful that you guys were our first clients. Aw, thank you. No, I I genuinely, you always remember your first true. I'm not just blowing smoke here. There's no other team that I would've wanted to do this with as, as far as the first Oh, thank you. Because the amount of feedback, the amount of thoughtfulness. Kind of the, the different expertise that everybody brought to the table. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It helped us. So I think it probably, even though the fir getting your website live might have taken a long time, I think that it enhanced our ability to serve other builders. Like it cut probably a year off of mm-hmm. Kind of our ability to start churning, uh, websites out for new builders. That's so great. Yeah. And

Alaina Money-Garman

that's what we want. We always want. The win-win. Yeah. Right. You know, we want it to, we want the website to work for us, and we want you to have a new asset, a new tool that will work for other builders too. Yeah.

Andrew Poon

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, and another way that it really feels like we're really just on the same team, right? Yeah. Right. For

Jake Kaplan

sure. I mean, if anything, like, we want to help raise the bar for the other builders so that. All buyers can experience the type of experience that we're trying to create for them. Yeah. That's what they deserve.

Alaina Money-Garman

And we'll learn things from those other builders. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there'll be things that they bring to the table that you're like, you know, who would like that, Jake? Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean that, that's really the, that ethos of innovation and checking our egos at the door. Yeah. Right. And I think when you're first, you can do that too. Yeah. It's really easy to sort of. Innovate and imagine together.

Renee Carlson

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

Um, say

Renee Carlson

that's already happened. Yeah. You know, you guys have done some other websites since you launched ours, and I'll see something and be like, Hey Andrew, how do I, can I get that? Can I get that feature on ours? Yeah. Oh, that's fun. I didn't know that. Yeah.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. But like, you know, that, that CMS, that approach of allowing for builders to kind of own that.

Alaina Money-Garman

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Poon

It invites so much creativity. Like, like I said, I mean, Renee does stuff all the time. Other builders do stuff all the time, and I have to literally go back into the back end and be like. What

Chad Davies

is

Andrew Poon

this? How

Chad Davies

did you

Andrew Poon

do this? It looks so cool. So how, so, and I'm supposed to be the the subject matter expert, but honestly at this point the builders are really. Starting to own it, and that's so cool. And it's, it's such a cool thing to experience. Yeah,

Renee Carlson

I, I knew that it had really made a change when I started getting excited when the sales team would come to me with ideas for the website because previously, you know, at other companies it was so, you know, I would just cringe because I knew there really wasn't much I could do even, I mean, they were often right. Most of the time. But I couldn't really do anything, or it was such an overwhelming and just a deflating thing. Yeah. I know that's not the greatest feature. Now, I, I have a form that they fill out, like where I welcome feedback because I know that I may might not be able to do every single thing that they ask, but I can say yes way more than I say no, and I can go in and apply those changes.

Jake Kaplan

Right. And to be able to get that real time feedback from people that are out in the field, in the field that are experiencing it. And be able to make a difference for them, right?

Renee Carlson

Yeah. Their boots on the ground, like it, it, you know, we sit in our office and, you know, try to get out into the field, but they're the ones that are looking at this website with their buyers and getting the feedback. So that's been, that's been really nice to be able to do that.

Andrew Poon

Absolutely. Well, I do wanna take some time and talk about. Just kind of the importance and, and the attention that you guys put into creating packages. You had some great work done, great content created, great videos created as well. And I think that we actually are lucky enough to have chat here with us today as well to talk about kind of that process and what it was like to do those videos.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah. Let's get Chad in here.

Chad Davies

Hey everyone.

Alaina Money-Garman

Hi.

Chad Davies

Hi. Hi, Chad. It's fun to listen to you. You're all very intelligent. Um, I, I work with a lot of builders too, and like getting to hear you talk about the customer experience is so. Different than I hear other people talk about it because, uh, Garman to me is a builder built on feelings. Like you kind of feel it right in every interaction I have with you guys. There's, it's not just building a high quality home at a good price. It's like there's a feeling behind that purchase that I think everyone here understands. And to me that that's why it was a no-brainer.'cause Jake reached out. I was like, Hey, we have this idea, and I'm like, okay. We want you to do it. I'm like, okay, what are we doing? And it was kind of like this evolution, like it wasn't very clear Yeah. What the content needed to be, but it was clear. It needed to feel like, feel a certain

Jake Kaplan

way.

Chad Davies

So for us, I mean, we said yes without even knowing what we were signing up for, but I think it worked out.

Alaina Money-Garman

Oh yeah, absolutely. I think it was absolutely the

Chad Davies

most unique thing, unique project that we ever had the chance to work on.'cause our whole company is built on consistency. And, you know, doing things on a, on a dependable, regular basis. And this was the opposite. This was how can we inject personality into the home buying process? And to me that was like a, a dream come true. You don't get to do that every day. So I'm thrilled that you guys have me come on board for this. No, thrilled to have you. Oh my gosh. We knew

Alaina Money-Garman

that you could go on that journey with us. Mm-hmm. You know, there, there haven't been anybody that we were like. This, nobody's gonna get this. Right. You know? And so our, even our, our interactions with you were so real and genuine. And that's what we were trying to replicate in our work. And so that, that helped us do the, the, the layers and the pairs well with layers. The pairs well with videos were such were such a love letter. From me to the buyer about the vision that Julie and I had for each of those packages. And it's not just about the finishes and the features. I mean, we really wanted to see people's lives reflected and not just the lives they have now, but the lives they were dreaming about. You know, the backdrop of somebody's life is not about the tile and the, the carpet and the color of paint. It's about. What makes them feel like the milestone moment of owning your home and building the life Yeah. That you want. Yeah. And so it was about painting this picture of what life looks like inside these homes. Absolutely. And if that matched your vibe. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Or not, it was just a total like vibe thing. I've never said

Chad Davies

vibe more in my life. It was like the whole thing was about vibes though. And like Alaina, I know you, you brought just so many layers you said of of outfits and ideas and colors and we were like, it was like this creative work in progress when we were producing the video with you. Mm-hmm. And I, I don't know anything else that could be like that because it felt like every turn we made was the right one.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah.

Chad Davies

And we were kind of edging closer to this, to this thing we could all feel, but we didn't know what it would look like yet. Yeah. And then it just emerged as this super unique, polished product that I think speaks directly to the people who are ready to receive.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah.

Chad Davies

That so, it was just insane. The whole thing was amazing. Huge shout out to Nick who really like put on. The creative hadn't led the whole process. I mean, he was integral for this whole thing. But

Alaina Money-Garman

do my Nick story Okay. Is, there's a few nick stories. This, um, one of the packages bougie, boho. Okay. Okay. So we're kind of setting this like earthy, it's like where Stevie Nicks might live. Okay. Okay. So we're lighting and we're trying to, you know, we play with the patterns behind me and the sets and he's like, hold on. And he leaves. He like walks out of the studio and we're all like, okay. And he comes back with a branch, a giant branch with leaves on it, and he's like, I'm gonna hold this here.

Andrew Poon

He ripped it off a tree

Alaina Money-Garman

in the, he ripped it off a tree.

Andrew Poon

Yeah, he went outside, ripped. Ripped a branch off of a tree. Mm-hmm. Correct.

Alaina Money-Garman

Brought it back in, put it in front of the light, and so it cast this like beautiful.

Andrew Poon

Oh my goodness. Undulating

Alaina Money-Garman

shadow. That's

Andrew Poon

genius behind

Alaina Money-Garman

me for this bougie boho. Mm-hmm. I mean, it was like chef's kiss,

Chad Davies

right? And it felt organic.'cause it literally was worth It was. It was. That is incredible. Yeah.

Andrew Poon

That's amazing. And that's commitment and that's ingenuity and that's genius all in a moment. Yeah. It was

Alaina Money-Garman

that same commitment to the improv of like, yes. And it was like nobody had like, this is how it's gonna go. It was like, let's try this. Yeah. Yeah. And see where. Where that, how does that feel and yeah. And you guys gave me such good direction on like, say that differently or Try this. Mm-hmm. Or you know, it was, it was a completely organic

Chad Davies

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

Experience. Yeah. But it was so fun.

Chad Davies

Well, yeah, you put on an outfit and then you kind of changed who you were. Yes. Like you had 14 personalities, which generally was scary, but that was, I am a Gemini. It was great. You did awesome. But every time you put on a new outfit, like a new version of you came out and you were speaking to a very specific. Specific person in each of those instances. You could be a professional actress. Like it was amazing. Aw. Because you could like just become a different person and like emit this different vibe and then like all the light and the set change and it was really cool. I, yeah, I think we don't get a chance to speak directly to home buyers and that way. Mm-hmm. Because it's always like features and benefits and location and price. But you were talking about like, Hey, if this is your ideal afternoon, like yeah, maybe consider these finishes in your home and like, no one thinks like that. I just got goosebumps. It's like a, I, it's such a personal experience buying a home. You've been talking about it for an hour. No one speaks about it personally.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah.

Chad Davies

So I think you had the opportunity to do that. You understood the assignment. Yeah. And you did it 14 times. Mm-hmm.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah. The packages really it was so fun and such a privilege to bring those packages to life. And so, because you really get to tell that story Yeah. Of what you were thinking when you picked out all those features. You know, I've been in parade homes where people walk through and be like, ah. Who wanted to put this here? This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. And you're like, that was me. Yeah. And here's what I was thinking. But to be able to tell that story was such a privilege.'cause Julie and I really picture the life lived there. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And picture what it looks like or what it could look like so that we're inviting someone into the life that they've imagined. Yeah. And like live that life here. Yeah. Like feel good. Saying yes to that vision for yourself. Mm-hmm.

Andrew Poon

Here,

Alaina Money-Garman

and, honoring what their life looks like already. Mm-hmm.

Andrew Poon

I love it because for a lot of home buyers they don't know how to think like that. I, I don't know if that I have the ability to Yeah. Um, you know, you show me a couple of things. I can tell you if they're nice or not nice, but for somebody to speak. To me and say like, Hey, this is how to think about this. Mm-hmm. This is how to engage with this. Yeah. This is why it matters. This is why it's thoughtful, right? Mm-hmm. Instead of, okay, I understand a feature list and somebody that, you know, there are people that are more inclined. My wife could probably look at a list and say, oh, this is gonna be a good living space. Mm-hmm. For me, I'm like, long listing's good. Um, but so I, I love the way that you kind of. Gosh, I made it so accessible.

Alaina Money-Garman

Oh, good. Good. Yeah.

Jake Kaplan

I love the concept of pairs well with that. It was inspired by your Pinterest board, like your, your Pinterest dream board, and it's like, these are all of the things that I inspire, aspire to do and the things that I love, and taking those and creating a personality, right. In a,

Alaina Money-Garman

I wanted to put action to the. To the finishes.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. You

Alaina Money-Garman

know, I wanted to inject some life into the home. That's what's really what we try to honor. Yeah. With every home we build is the life that's lived there. Yeah. And that that pursuit of happiness and love and care and grief and the entire spectrum of emotions, like if I'm gonna hold you in that space mm-hmm. It's not just about the pretty things I put in it. Yeah. It's about. It's about holding space for the dreams that you have. Mm-hmm. For that time and place. Yeah. It's beautiful. And so that, that really was the embodiment of that. Mm-hmm. That this website was the opportunity to finally get to tell that part of the story. Yeah. It's beautiful. We couldn't do that before.'cause I can't be in every model. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But that's the story I wanna tell.

Jake Kaplan

Right. What I love too is that, most home builders and as a CFO, you're gonna look at the. The packages and the amount that are being sold, and question, okay, if these aren't being sold, why are we offering them instead? Alaina has such a great analogy.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah, I said that every package is like a song on a great album. So an artist will put, songs on an album, 14 songs on an album, and some of those are are radio hits and they're gonna be played ad nauseum over and over and people are gonna pick them all the time. Mm-hmm. And then there's others that are gonna be more like the fan favorites. Mm-hmm. You know, who really get into it and they're like, I love that song. It didn't make it to the radio, but it's my favorite track on that album. Yes. And then there's ones that the artist makes just for themselves. Mm. To either grow into a different. Place in their career or to try a different style. That's great. That kind of lends credibility to their range. Yeah, and so I think of these packages like that and, and was very clear and being sure that everyone knew that success looked like that sort of, some will be more popular than others, but each one of them is integral to the collection, to the catalog. Yeah. And so, um, that sort of led us off the hook of like everyone being chosen.

Chad Davies

I love

Alaina Money-Garman

that equally.

Chad Davies

I love that. Thanks. That's incredible. And like the selections are bold. Like some of those pairings are not something you would ever see in a model. And I think that might. Nudge the general public into a, a, maybe a better idea of what new homes can look like.

Alaina Money-Garman

Mm-hmm.

Chad Davies

Because everyone likes to play it safe.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah.

Chad Davies

Right. But if you see something that resonates with you that you never would've seen before, You're kind of pushing everyone in the right direction, like you can dream. Bigger better for yourself than maybe you thought possible. Mm-hmm. So I think that nudging was, was really cool. And I You, and you packaged it beautifully. So, yeah. You just don't get to see that stuff.

Alaina Money-Garman

I also wanted people to know immediately if it wasn't for them. That's why it's so bold. Because if it was for everyone, yeah. It would make the decision making process more difficult. They're really concentrated, distilled to an essence where someone can quickly go, no. Maybe. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. You know, that was like the no are very effective in home buying because. It's confusing for the buyer and they question their own choices, but they're like, I like this, but I don't know if that's what's popular or what's, you know, so that, that was intentional to help the buyer make a decision that they felt good about. Mm-hmm. Even repelling them, not that any of them are repelling, but that. You know, some of them, even our team would say like, I would never buy that, but I like it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I like looking at it.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. Right. And that's the beauty of the virtual walkthroughs too, that team and the pairs well with videos, is that you can look at a package and be like, I don't know how that's gonna look on this grand scale. And then to be able to apply it and be like, oh yeah, I do like that. Or, yeah, no, that backs splash. It's too much because that, that particular wall is too large. Yeah. And can divert it away from it.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. I love that. I, I love that analogy. Like I'm still thinking about that analogy. Really? No, because I'm thinking about like, you know, sometimes there's a song on an album that nobody listens to, right. I'm going through something. Yes. And it leak to me. Yes. Like it's, oh my gosh, this is my favorite. You ask somebody if they heard it and you know, maybe they haven't. Or maybe you go back and you listen 10 years later and you're like. This isn't a great song, but at times in my life, it was the best thing that's ever happened to me. Right,

Alaina Money-Garman

because it spoke to you.

Andrew Poon

Because it spoke to

Alaina Money-Garman

you. Exactly. Like, and

Andrew Poon

so I think that's so beautiful. The

Alaina Money-Garman

packages, the names, yeah. The stories. All of that is meant to speak to you at a time in your life where it's the right message. Yeah. And, and at different times it'll be a different message. And

Andrew Poon

to your other point about kind of showing the range of, of an artist, right? Yeah. You know, there's always those times where you say. You had this album, you're like, oh no, that song that you like, I listened to that. Like that. That was like three years ago. It was like warm repeat. I mean, before you guys all thought it was cool. Right? So I also think that, I mean, and that's the same with interior design too. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Like things go in and out very quickly. A lot times they do times right? They do.

Alaina Money-Garman

And I didn't wanna look at trend. I didn't look at trend reports. Yeah. I didn't look at, I didn't try to match anything. Mm-hmm. That was published. Yeah. It was sort of like, I've always wanted our houses to look like the houses that you see in magazines. Mm-hmm. And we don't build, we build at the mid, the midpoint price range. Yeah. Or lower. Yeah. And so we've always needed to scale sort of that design aesthetic Yeah. To, to an accessible point. Yeah. And so I wanted them to look. Unexpected and, but still inviting and, and exciting. I love it. You know, and more than they were expecting. Yeah. Because if the, if you walk in it's just white, gray, beige or a different Sure. Gray beige, beige. That's not exciting and it's hard. It's hard to choose between things that look very similar. Yeah. So ours are sort of dialed in to be polarizing.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

In an effective way.

Jake Kaplan

Circling back to Chad's point about like we had this idea, like we wanted to feel a certain way, but we didn't know what it was gonna do and it took like so much innovation and so much trust on like all of us to be like, okay, this is what we're trying to accomplish. Like how could this actually look?

Alaina Money-Garman

Talk about the flat lays.

Chad Davies

Oh my goodness. So it's like production was 12 days. It wasn't just the two days. We had Alaina in studio doing all the outfit changes and the beautiful introductions, but there was another 10 days after that. Yeah. Where our stylist had gone out for three weeks before we did these shoots and like collected all of these things that kind of. Paired well with each package and we went off the mood boards that were provided. Mm-hmm. And then tried to find stuff that kind of matched and put them together, styled them into these, like really, I don't know if I've ever seen flat lays like this, where you're like pairing things. You're literally just pairing things that you would never guess would go with finishes. It's definitely not like. Home Depot or another builders like design center, like there's a Buddha in one.

Andrew Poon

Yeah,

Chad Davies

right. There's dominoes in one, like there's a record player in one like it. You have all these interesting things that pair well with the finishes, but I think they activate them, they kind of give context and bring them to life in a way that you don't get them just laying on a table. Yeah, and we added a little bit of movement. There's still photos, but I think the moving versions of them are all a little more dynamic. This is my favorite. Yeah. I love the movement, the

Alaina Money-Garman

clinking ice and the glass. I mean, come on. It's the best. It's

Chad Davies

the best. Karen, our stylist slash hand model, she like got her nail done. Like she, she didn't know she'd be a hand model until we're like, Hey, you're gonna do this. Um, but it was, it was a lot of fun. It took so much time to do that though. Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Chad Davies

Each of those takes hours to set up. Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

Uh,

Chad Davies

so multiply times all the packages, you do all those flat lay. And then we had kind of a second round of shots where we're kind of propping everything up and, and getting beauty shots of everything paired together. And I, I think that was the creative input from Nick that I think made people look at this differently than maybe. They anticipated.'cause the flat lay is something we're used to seeing. Mm-hmm. Everyone sees the flat lay. Mm-hmm. But then when you like give some depth and some scale and some volume to these scenes you just begin to look at it a little bit differently. And then when you layer in the actual 3D experience from a new go, and you can actually walk through these spaces you like, you get a certain flavor, you hear the music in the background, you see the outfit, and then you get pushed into the space. That's a very interesting way to introduce finishes. Mm-hmm. Like, we're not talking about finishes anymore. Yeah. Like, we're talking about something very different. Um, so we're almost like guiding the viewer, the buyer Yeah. Into feeling a certain way before they even look at the home. Yeah. Which is like, I don't even know. It almost like Disneyland, where like they get you excited about the ride before you jump on it. Yes. We're getting them excited before they even take the tour. Right. Yeah. And I don't. I don't think I've seen anyone do that digitally. Mm-hmm. In home building, you see it a lot in models. Yeah. But doing that just through the screen, I think is pretty unique. Mm-hmm.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah. That was fun.

Chad Davies

Yeah.

Jake Kaplan

I love that innovation that, I remember the first draft that Nick had sent that it was the flat lays and it was the movement. And I was like, this is great, but I thought it was gonna be bigger. Like I wanted to see it on a bigger scale.'cause again, we're back to samples and it's like, how can you picture that? Mm-hmm. Than in a grand scale and. I remember the push.

Chad Davies

I'm

Jake Kaplan

like, ah,

Chad Davies

okay, okay. We can do this. We can do this. And Nick, Nick pulled through. Nick is a, he's a, he's an artist in so many ways. He is. And you guys supported us in getting us the files we needed. I know there was some stuff there and we made it happen. But like. You mentioned it earlier about you not accepting anything less than perfection because like, you know what is possible. Mm-hmm. And I think without your input and you pushing for that, like next level, it wouldn't have had the same impact. No.

Andrew Poon

Thank

Chad Davies

you. So you huge shout out. Thank you. I mean, it really did elevate everything. Even Nick afterwards, like, this is so much better than I thought. It really So cool. Yeah. He was like, this is like, he was so proud of it after doing all that. Wow. Yeah we definitely had a bro moment at the end. That's amazing. It's true. It was like around holidays and like, it was a crazy time. I was wondering like, do you think this is a good stress test almost for all the systems you guys have built? Because it's a pretty dynamic range. Mm-hmm. Like you have. Simple to very nuanced, complex, finished packages and everything in between. And then we're presenting them in a very unique way.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Chad Davies

Like have you seen anything like that?

Andrew Poon

No, not

Chad Davies

at all. At all. Not at all. I don't know if it almost helps your case in the future.

Andrew Poon

Absolutely. And that's again, kind of going back to being so fortunate to work with this group as kind of the first case of this, right? Because I think there's a lot of elements here, right? There's one, which is. Innovation and that definitely like hands down we have in innovation in this room, right? Mm-hmm. But then there's a lot to be said about making something look easy, right? We just talked about how hard this was mm-hmm. And how many iterations, how much time we've all spent. But I think when somebody looks at the site. The feelings that come to them, it comes easy. Mm-hmm. And I think that's huge. I think that's a huge testament to all the work that we all put in together as a team. Um, and I think to me that's, I don't wanna say mastery because we're always still learning, but that is like a sign of, of greatness when you made something that's so difficult, so hard, easy. Right? Yeah. And so I think that's what we are all striving for as far as what do we want for. Work the buyers. We want it to be easy. We want it.

Alaina Money-Garman

We we wanted to save them. Yeah. From the heart. Yeah, from the brain damage of like how hard it is it can be to navigate something like this. And it's stressful. It's, we've heard the statistics so many times. It's like the third most stressful thing that can happen in your life. Which we take kind of seriously. We're like, geez, okay, well what can we do then? Mm-hmm. Like, how do we, how do we take that stress off and really we, we absorb it. Yeah. I mean, we really push ourselves to do the brain damage ahead of time. Yeah. So that the buyer can really enjoy it and feel a sense of empowerment and accomplishment in purchasing a home. Yeah. And so, but it's like the duck, right? Right. The duck's on the water and just like paddling like crazy underneath. And it's. People, we've always said this, someone who's really great at something makes it look easy. Yeah. And it it's never easy. Yeah. It's just they don't quit.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. Yeah. And to do it as a team too. Yeah. Right. It's not, it wasn't any single person. We've all kind of, it took all of us collaborated in order to get there. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think it's just, I don't know, it's just a beautiful thing to be able to celebrate This

Alaina Money-Garman

sounds like we should toast. Yeah, we should. Yeah. Absolutely.

Andrew Poon

I think that, uh, this deserves a toast. One last question before we, we toast this. I mean, I think, I certainly feel like as a team, we've, we've set the bar, we've set a new bar in the industry. You guys being so innovative. Where do we go from here? How do we continue to strive to get better? How do we continue, how do we continue to do the hard work to make it easy? Mm-hmm.

Alaina Money-Garman

I'll go first. Yeah. We listen. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We listen to the buyers. You know, we've made all these assumptions about what we think is great and now we have to listen. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And see what works and what actually might not work.

Jake Kaplan

Yeah, absolutely. And to that point too, like we adapt we know that it's not a set it and forget it. We're gonna constantly be changing and making sure that we're up on the latest technology and that we're always providing service to people. Yeah. Absolutely.

Renee Carlson

Yeah. And I would say, I mean, we're, we're always gonna be on that outer edge of what's happening. We're always gonna be pushing the limits. Mm-hmm. And we're always gonna partner with companies like you that, that allow us to do that. You don't ask us to fit your mold. Yeah. You let us come in and, and work together and, and be creative and do do the things that. Push us all to, to be better.

Alaina Money-Garman

And you say yes without even knowing what the scale of the project. That sounds nebulous. You have

Chad Davies

to believe in the people you're working with, of course. But I, I have this saying everything takes twice as long as you plan for. And when you go through this all, all this effort, I'm sure you guys didn't think it would take quite so long to get everything moving. But then once it does get moving. You start to see those results. And then I think as it gets moving, the results are bigger than you could even think.

Andrew Poon

Mm-hmm.

Chad Davies

There's an element of patience that you have to develop when you're doing big, bold new things. And some people like put their toe in the water and then they pull it out like, oh, this didn't work. Don't want to do it. Mm-hmm. And I think you mentioned this, like you jump all in, like you have to go all in, otherwise it doesn't work and you have to go all in and just believe it's gonna work. Yeah. And you keep pushing.

Alaina Money-Garman

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Chad Davies

And I think that's the only way to continue to make progress is like. Make big bets and then have the patience to see them through. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Alaina Money-Garman

I think give yourself patience too. Yeah. Mm-hmm. To not have all the answers, but to know that you still, it still has somewhere to go. I think everybody, everybody gave themselves as much patience as we were giving each other.

Andrew Poon

Mm-hmm.

Alaina Money-Garman

Which is rare. Yeah. But a key ingredient.

Andrew Poon

Yeah. Absolutely. From the depths of my heart, the deepest depths. I thank you guys so much for being here with me for taking this journey as a group, as a team. Um, I think it's been a wonderful and beautiful journey and I'm so glad that we get to celebrate together.

Alaina Money-Garman

We are too. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you.

Andrew Poon

Thank

Alaina Money-Garman

you. So great.

Chad Davies

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh yeah.