IBS 2026 Game Plan + The Can’t-Miss Builder Party (Homes.com x Anewgo x Builder Designs)-175

IBS 2026 is coming fast so we’re doing a quick, high-energy game plan episode with Laura Hanson (Director of Strategy, Builder Designs) and returning guest Rick Baldonado (National Sales Director, New Construction, Homes.com).

We kick off with a real-time temperature check on what builders are dealing with right now: buyer confidence, flat rates, “do more with less” pressure, and what needs to change in sales + marketing going into 2026.

Then we get tactical:

• Website trust + brand cohesiveness: how builders can tighten their online experience to build confidence (and stop sending mixed signals).
• What builders should stop doing in 2026: gatekeeping pricing and treating homes like a commodity.
• What will dominate the show floor: AI moving from “toy” to real infrastructure, plus the shift toward voice + multimodal experiences.

Where to find everyone at IBS

• Homes.com booth: South Hall #4082
• Anewgo: stop by Sales Central (we’ll be there all three days). Schedule a time to meet with us HERE. 
• Builder Designs: connect with Laura and catch her IBS speaking sessions (tech + marketing strategy).

The party 🎉🤠

Yes we’re doing the IBS Builder Party: Homes.com x Builder Designs x Anewgo, Wednesday night 7–10 PM at PBR Orlando. Space is limited, so RSVP HERE. “Giddy up… Yeehaw.”

Quick links / contact

• Laura Hanson: l.hanson@builderdesigns.com
• Rick Baldonado: rbaldonado@homes.com
• Anya Chrisanthon: anya@anewgo.com
• Don’t forget: download the IBS app, wear comfortable shoes, and don’t leave your badge at the hotel. 😅

Transcript

Anya Chrisanthon 0:34

Hello and welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for a new episode of Anewgo of new home sales. I'm your host, Anya Chrisanthon, and joining me today. Is Laura Hanson with Builder Designs, who is a director of strategy for them and our returning guest, Rick Baldonado, who is National Director of sales at Homes.com So welcome to the show guys. Today we're gonna talk about IBS because it's quickly approaching. We're just. A couple of weeks away, less than two weeks away at this point. So Laura, welcome to the dark side of things. Thank you. So you've transitioned from being a home builder for so many years to now you are with Builder Designs. So for anyone who is not familiar with you or Builder Designs, give us a quick spiel about what is it that you do now? How did you get into home building and what your career path has been?

Laura Hanson 1:35

Yeah, so I'm located up in the Pacific Northwest and I've spent almost 20 years on the builder side working for a builder up here called New Tradition Homes as their marketing director, and just recently transferred over to the agency side so that I can help other builders. And so now I'm with Builder Designs and I was a client with them for many years, and now I've come over to work as their director of strategy and. Builder designs for those who may not know has been around almost 20 years. They're a website and digital marketing company specializing specifically in home building. So we've served hundreds of, home builders building websites and helping them with their, digital strategy. SEO, And helping them grow their online business.

Anya Chrisanthon 2:20

Amazing. All right, Rick, you've been on our show at least twice before. Mm-hmm. So hopefully the listeners are familiar with you by now, but tell us what's homes.com is focused on right now.

Rick Baldonado 2:34

Yeah, no, thank you Anya. And, good to have Laura on as well too. So, hi everybody. Rick Baldonado homes.com, national Sales Director on the new construction side. So I work with the top home builders in the country. So it's very exciting. homes.com is obviously a national online real estate search platform. Just like the other online portals, the only difference is, we are able to provide builders, even more leverage and scalability and visibility than anybody else. We are. Going out to challenge and disrupt, the current online, search portal, business model as it is. Generally, all other platforms, portals have a pay to play model to list their communities on their site, which impacts home builders marketing budgets. But here@homes.com, you don't have to pay to play if you list your communities. That's part of the value that we provide. So we're very excited. We have a great, great outlook on the market and what we're doing and where we're going. And, pleased to be here.

Anya Chrisanthon 3:35

Yay. I am glad you guys have a great outlook on the market, so that makes me feel good.

Rick Baldonado 3:40

Yeah.

Anya Chrisanthon 3:41

So before we start talking about IBS and all the funs that we're gonna have there, let's take a quick temperature check first. So, Laura, let's start with you. What's the one thing that builder marketing or sales teams are talking about most right now to you about?

Laura Hanson 3:59

I think as we're starting the new year, just coming off a challenging 2025 for a lot of builders, I, think that, there's some, action happening. There's some momentum going forward, but we're still really struggling with buyer confidence. Things are challenging, rates are staying flat, so I think we're just really. Kind of just keep plugging along best practices and trying to recover from maybe a little bit of a difficult year for some of our builders from last year.

Anya Chrisanthon 4:28

For sure.

Laura Hanson 4:29

Yeah.

Anya Chrisanthon 4:30

So follow up for you, since you guys do websites also, what's one thing that builders can do, with their website to help build that confidence for consumers right now?

Laura Hanson 4:42

Yeah. I think now is a really good time for builders to go back and review their website, starting with maybe their brand cohesiveness. I think when you're talking about building confidence, you need to start all the way back with who you are, what you stand for, what you sell, what your brand is, and what your differentiators are. I think there's so much competition in the market right now, and I think that. Taking a step back all the way to your brand and your voice. And of course the first place they're finding you is online, whether it's the website or syndicates, and just really taking a critical eye back to your brand and just saying, could we improve this? Could we convey ourselves in a better way? And then making sure that brand cohesiveness is the same across all your. Platforms on, social, digital, et cetera. Because I think that when your brand is really strong, that immediately invokes a sense of confidence in your consumers so that you don't just come off you like you're a small, maybe onesie, twosie builder, but that you're someone who's very professional and established. And, so I think that's a good place to start right now.

Anya Chrisanthon 5:46

Yeah, that's great recommendation for sure., How are they experiencing you, right? Whether are they coming into your office, they're going on the website, what are they seeing? Is it the same company or is it giving mixed signals? Yeah. And pop shop and Rick, question for you. So what's the symptom that you're hearing from home builders right now and what's the real issue underneath?

Rick Baldonado 6:10

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Whether you're a public home builder or you're a private home builder, we're still all in the same boat, right? And you got X number of communities, your division, or your region, or throughout your entire footprint. But it comes down to how can home builders pivot and optimize their marketing budget and their strategies, right? Do more with less.

Laura Hanson 6:29

Yes.

Rick Baldonado 6:29

Every marketing person is being asked that today.

Laura Hanson 6:31

Yeah,

Rick Baldonado 6:32

do more with less. And everybody has a fixed cost on their budgets, and that's not helping'em pivot. That's not helping them to optimize the market's changed. Real estate is cyclical. It's a bell curve. So when your leadership is asking you to do more with less, what do you do? How do you drive more traffic? How do you get more engagement? How do you, build that top of funnel? How do we stay in front, top of mind, out and out front of these consumers because we don't know when they're going to engage.

Laura Hanson 7:05

Yeah,

Rick Baldonado 7:06

there's a lot of buyer fatigue out there through the incentives and rate, buy downs, et cetera, et cetera. People are in the market, but we just don't know when they're going to engage. So if you can stay out front and top of mind. For your brand and or your community, that's a win because you're gonna be considered at some point, and it's not all about traditional, gimme leads, gimme leads, gimme leads, right? Gimme leads or gimme death. Right? That's, that's somewhat the old way of thinking. It's give me traffic, give me engagement, and help me stay out front, because that will ultimately plant those seeds for leads, right? Mm-hmm. And if you can do that. You're able to optimize and pivot, you're gonna win. You're gonna be, you're gonna get sales. Okay? And that's the message that we convey over here, what we're doing at homes.com. So, and we can help builders certainly do that.

Anya Chrisanthon 7:59

So follow up for you, Rick. Mm-hmm. What should attendees come to you specifically for at IBS?

Rick Baldonado 8:08

They're gonna come to us to leverage, right? I've got a portfolio of communities and every builder's in, they're all in the same boat too, right? They all have communities that overperform and those that underperform because of product, price, and location. And the responsibility falls on the sales and marketing professionals that we all work with to. Create that lift in those underperforming communities and to shift, and that's how we can help because we're able to strategically help those builders. Increased traffic and visibility and overall engagement to those communities.

Laura Hanson 8:42

Mm-hmm.

Rick Baldonado 8:43

On homes.com and through retargeting, through enhancing their all their digital assets. That's part of a package when you partner with homes.com, at a fraction of the price and the upfront costs that we see traditionally elsewhere.

Anya Chrisanthon 8:58

So you guys make sure to step by and see Rick, and we'll tell you where in just a second. So Laura, heading into IBS for the first time? On the dark side of the moon, as I say.

Laura Hanson 9:11

Yeah.

Anya Chrisanthon 9:12

What's your number one goal for IBS this year?

Laura Hanson 9:16

I'm so excited. I always love it for the networking. I think that it is just an awesome time to come together with everyone. And it's especially fun this year to get to know all of our new clients and builders, where traditionally I was, coming from another angle, but I have an opportunity to have a couple speaking sessions this time, and both of them are related to tech. And as it. Applies to, people's marketing strategies overall. And so I'm just really excited to share, some real tech tools, for builders that they can take away. Budget, depending, there's a lot of really good options for smaller budgets and smaller builders and larger builders. And how you, implement some of that tech all the way through from your website on down the funnel and even on the back office. We're gonna talk about that a little bit in one of our sessions. So. Yeah, I was really excited to talk about tech and, meet all the other builders.

Anya Chrisanthon 10:05

Yes. So you guys, I will be sure to link the IBS app and the show notes so you can easily download if you haven't done so already. And make sure to look up Laura Hanson and bookmark that as your favorite so that you can attend her talks. And Rick, I hear you guys are doing some speaking sessions at your booth, is that true?

Rick Baldonado 10:29

Yeah, we have a full schedule that we'll be putting out online for everybody to stop by our booth. We're in the South Hall 40 82. So come stop by. We got, it's a lot of free swag for our home builder partners, some really nice partying gifts, if you will., And some guest speakers from some other industry partners, in, our space. And so we're really excited about that. We got some great, interactive, exhibits there as well too. And some of our other partners, that we have here at homes.com. Our Matterport team will be there. Our apartments.com team will be there, our homes.com team and CoStar. So we've got the whole family of CoStar team there. And so we're really excited and some obviously have some industry partners as well too. So. We're looking forward to. It

Anya Chrisanthon 11:13

sounds like a party.

Rick Baldonado 11:15

Oh, we're

Anya Chrisanthon 11:15

not gonna talk about the party just yet. So. And Anewgo we have four sessions this year, so, I'm presenting one on Thursday and we have two sessions, from our VP of Sales, Beth Byrd. One of them is gonna be at the PWB headquarters. And then John Lee, our CEO, is gonna be demoing something at the, tech lounge so he also has a presentation. So he's gonna be showing up some really cool new technology that we have, AI Assistants If you guys have not heard about that, definitely stop by his presentation. I'll, again, I'll link that in the show notes so you can bookmark that, but he's gonna blow your mind. So it's really, really cool stuff that we're doing. So, speaking of the party, what's the vibe? Who's it for, and why are we doing it?

Rick Baldonado 12:14

The vibe.

Anya Chrisanthon 12:15

The vibe. What's the vibe?

Rick Baldonado 12:16

Giddy up. The vibe is gi Up. Yeehaw.

Anya Chrisanthon 12:22

If you guys dunno what party we're talking about, we're talking about a party that homes.com is co-hosting with Builder Designs and Anewgo and it's gonna be on Wednesday night, starting at seven o'clock. Mm-hmm. Seven to 10. And it's going to be a blast. It's going to be amazing. So what can we expect from the party, because I know you guys don't do anything halfway.

Rick Baldonado 12:50

No, no. We are, we are really excited about this event. It's for all of our home builder partners, builder Designs, Anewgo we're all collaborating and in sync and arm to arm. Sadie Hawkins, if you will, inviting all of our home builder friends and industry partners as well too, to come to this event. And so we're all really excited. We've got, have some free stuff, there to give away as well too. Some fun exhibits, and some other cool, interesting, exciting, things to that will be a surprise. So. If you can RSVP,'cause the numbers are going up and the space is getting limited, so make sure you RSVP and I think we'll be putting that in the, in this chat too, correct? Anya?

Anya Chrisanthon 13:33

Yes, I will have. Okay, perfect. A link for you guys in the show notes. And then, you should be seen invitation from Anewgo and Builder designs in your inbox if you haven't already seen that. Email me, just send it to anya@anewgo.com and I'll be happy to get you on the list. And speaking of the list, who should come to this party? And if you're like, Hmm, maybe I should bring a friend. So what kind of person should our listeners be texting right now to bring them over?

Rick Baldonado 14:04

All home builders.

Anya Chrisanthon 14:07

That's right.

Rick Baldonado 14:07

All home builders,

Anya Chrisanthon 14:08

home builder execs. So if you are in sales, if you're in marketing.

Rick Baldonado 14:13

Leadership, leadership, operations, yeah. Everybody's, every, everybody's a friend. Everybody's a friend at the home builder level. It's not just limited, restricted, but yes, if you are a home builder, custom home builder on up to our public home builder friends, please RSVP come by. Have fun, enjoy yourself, network and collaborate with your peers. That'll be there. And so we're, we're looking forward to seeing you all there.

Anya Chrisanthon 14:39

For sure you guys again, I will link that so that make sure that's gonna be the party to be at IBS 2026, so I can't wait for that. Bring your cowboy boots. I'm packing mine and

Laura Hanson 14:52

yep.

Anya Chrisanthon 14:52

We'll have a good old time. So now we cannot talk about. Some other parties, specifically the Nationals is another party that I'm personally gonna be attending and I'm excited because Anewgo is up for gold this year for Best website for Home Builder. So I'm really excited about that. We just came out with websites just a year ago when announced it at IBS 2025, and here we are a year later. Up for this, prestigious award. So I'm definitely really excited. The nationals is on Tuesday, so are you guys planning on attending that?

Laura Hanson 15:29

I, not this year, unfortunately, I'll be there. Yeah. I love that event. It's not to be missed. It's such a good one.

Anya Chrisanthon 15:36

Yeah. So if you're in home builder marketing or sales, you definitely don't want to miss the nationals. So I'm super excited for it, especially be nominated as always, always very, special, extra special with it. So. All right, so, best advice for our first time IBS attendees. Now, if you're still thinking about coming, you guys, I will also link in the show notes. We have free expo passes, so if you're like, Hmm, do I go, do I not go? We have free expo passes for you. So grab your free expo pass, and it's absolutely worth it. So Rick, starting with you, what's your best advice for first time attendees?

Rick Baldonado 16:19

Make sure you don't leave your, badge back at the hotel room because, that's a real inconvenient and, a long day. Let's just put it that way. Make sure you wear your pass everywhere you go. Wear comfortable shoes.

Laura Hanson 16:32

Yes.

Rick Baldonado 16:33

Go with a friend.'Cause somebody's gonna know somebody. Right. Yeah. And vice versa. If you don't know that person, your friend probably does. They can make an induction, and the next thing you know, your network expands exponentially, and that's essentially why you're there in the first place. So.

Anya Chrisanthon 16:51

That's right. That's right. Mm-hmm. And I do hope that we're gonna have some nice weather in Orlando. I'm sitting here in freezing cold Philadelphia. It's been brutal. So I'm looking forward to maybe squeezing some time by the pool. I'm getting in a few days early for NAHB leadership meeting, so I'm hoping in between I can get myself to defrost by the pool. Laura, how about you? What's your best advice for first term attendees?

Laura Hanson 17:18

Ugh. Well, yeah, Rick said wear comfortable shoes. That's number one.'cause that'll ruin your day. But I think, definitely download the app. I know it's available now. Mm-hmm. Just go in the app store and look up IBS 2026 on there. That'll be your guide for the whole week. There's so much to see and do. It can be overwhelming, but you can go on ahead of time and build your agenda. Find all of the speaking sessions and. Pre make your calendar out and your itinerary. You can invite people through the app. So I would say definitely do the app.

Anya Chrisanthon 17:48

Yes, for

Laura Hanson 17:49

sure. And stop by Sales Central. If you're in sales and marketing, sales Central's a really cool spot to pop in and do some networking and see a couple little quick sessions, but it's kind of a cool little hub. So look for Sales Central, in the app too.

Anya Chrisanthon 18:03

For sure. And speaking of Sales, central Anewgo is gonna have a booth at Sales Central. Oh. So you guys can come see us over at Sale Central. We'll be hanging out there all three days. So come say hi, and tell us what's working for you and what's not, and how we can help. Speaking of what's not working, as we wrap up today's conversation, let's quickly talk about what should home builders stop doing in marketing. in 2026. So, Laura, do you wanna take down first?

Laura Hanson 18:35

Oh, what should they stop doing? Well, one thing I'm seeing is sometimes, and I'm still surprised, is, gatekeeping pricing. I think that we are looking at another year of some probably flat interest rates., Staying elevated pricing and affordability is gonna be top of mind for so many buyers. And I'm still seeing sometimes where it's. Call for a price or they don't have options, pricing or visualizers. And I said, we are so far beyond. That, you know, being an option. So I would say, that's a big one.

Anya Chrisanthon 19:08

You stole mine. That was gonna be mine. Stop. Was

Laura Hanson 19:10

it really

Anya Chrisanthon 19:11

my scuff people?

Laura Hanson 19:12

Okay. Well you're seeing it too. It must be a problem.

Anya Chrisanthon 19:15

Yes. stop gate keeping your stuff because you know what? If somebody's searching for new construction home in Oklahoma City at 500 k, under 500 k, if they don't know your price, guess what? Can't verify the price, can't verify it's under 500 K, moving on to the next person. So it is crucial that you show and you be transparent. Transparency builds trust. So like Laura said earlier, we still see that confidence is really low with consumers. One way to build that confidence is to be super transparent. So Rick, what's your take on what they should stop doing in 2026 when it comes to marketing communities?

Rick Baldonado 19:58

Stop treating homes as if they're a commodity.

Anya Chrisanthon 20:03

Mm.

Rick Baldonado 20:03

Right now it's all, everything looks like X's and O's. We build the only product, the most expensive product or anything that people value the most and that's a home. We're building homes, not iPhones. The incentives, the buy downs, the concessions, all that, right? Look, you're as a home builder, you buy land in a specific area, in a specific neighborhood or a specific community for a reason, and you're looking at building a specific product at a certain price point or a product type with certain features and amenities that are unique and unlike any other community nearby. Yeah. So if we stand tall on that, our community is not for everybody. We're only selling 50 or a hundred homes, or 200 homes or 500 homes. It's not everybody. So stop treating your product like it is for everybody.'cause it's not, it's not a commodity. Yeah. So when you can communicate the value, you can communicate the want and you highlight, why this community is so important to that person.'cause it's not just the home, it's the community. Then your message takes on something completely different and that's not getting watered down by everything else that's happening in the market. And all of us on this call, we all know that.

Anya Chrisanthon 21:20

Yes.

Rick Baldonado 21:21

And I understand your home builder, marketing professionals know that too. And, and believe me, they wanna get to that point as well.

Anya Chrisanthon 21:28

Yeah. And if your homes are more expensive than your competitions, you better explain for a reason why. Tell them why for a reason it more expensive, right? So, yes, explain it. All right, so here's one prediction. What will be most talked about topic on the show floor. So Laura, what do you think it's gonna be?

Laura Hanson 21:48

You know, I've said this last year, and I'm probably gonna say it again. It sounds like it's probably gonna be ai. I'm probably safe to say that, which is, really that maybe it'll take a different spin this year as people have become more knowledgeable. I think last year, people are still kind of, what is this whole thing. I think a lot of people are a lot more comfortable and familiar, but wondering what that's gonna mean for our industry, how that affects sales and marketing. So I think. I've seen a lot of talks that are gonna be taking place around AI or tools, so I think that'll be a big one.

Anya Chrisanthon 22:22

I agree with you. I think this is the year where it stops being a toy and it really becomes infrastructure. So I think there's gonna be a lot of talk about that. How do we make it an infrastructure? And that means we have to have reliable data and verification because if we can't trust it, then it's just a toy. Rick, what do you think?

Rick Baldonado 22:43

Same thing. I, it is gonna be AI and technology and how the two come together, right? You walk into your home, you're, you know, do you flip on a switch anymore? Is there a physical switch that you're gonna have to touch? Or is it just gonna know when you walk into the living room or the dining room or your bedroom and it turns on and it knows how long you're in there, or it understands the time of the day and what light is doing outside, right? Mm-hmm. All this is gonna go into, it's just not about technology, but it's efficiency, right? So it's all, it's all combined. Right. It's all combined, and so what we can do to simplify that process and make the home truly instinctive, instinctual of how we live in it, that's what's gonna be talked about as well as technology. When it comes to, let's face it, new generations are coming into the home buying market. That's not like my generation.

Anya Chrisanthon 23:39

The

Rick Baldonado 23:39

Boomer or the, or the boomer, right. Kidding. No, no, no. I'm kidding. It's not about, it's not about dropdowns anymore. It's voice activation. It's not just punching stuff in chat GPT, it's saying, uh, Hey, I'm looking for this, or I need this, or I want that. And you get what exactly what you're looking for.

Anya Chrisanthon 23:58

Yep.

Rick Baldonado 23:59

That's what's gonna change.

Anya Chrisanthon 24:00

That's right. Multimodel. Right? If it's not just text. Mm-hmm. It's images, it's videos, it's voice. I do agree with you. I think voice is huge. It's funny that the technology is bringing us back to being more. Humanlike. Mm-hmm. And the way we communicate. So that's interesting. How is happening? All right. So if somebody wants to connect with the two of you at IBS, during IBS, what is the best way for them to do that?

Laura Hanson 24:23

We'll have on our builder designs, LinkedIn, page, a link to my contact info or they can reach out to me directly on, LinkedIn or email at L l.hanson@builderdesigns.com. Shoot me an email and we would love to set up a time to connect.

Anya Chrisanthon 24:37

I will include that in the show notes, of course. And Rick, how about you? What's the best way to reach out to you?

Rick Baldonado 24:43

Come, come, come stop by our booth. Come say hi. Come, come chat. South Hall, 40 82. We can't miss us. We'll be big and we'll be visible. You can reach me and obviously in the contact information that Anya will provide at, simply at rbaldonado@homes.com. I will see you out there for sure. I guarantee it. I will be everywhere. So won't,

Anya Chrisanthon 25:04

and you know, what's the best way, won't miss me to see all of us together. Is to show up at the party on Wednesday night. If you guys wanna come party with us, come. We are gonna be ready. We're gonna be wearing our cowboy boots and yeah, we're gonna be having so much fun. So you guys stop by again. Look for your invite in your inbox or reach out to me if you don't see that invite. Alright. On that note as we wrap up, is there anything else that you think we should let our listeners know that we didn't talk about when it comes to IBS?

Rick Baldonado 25:40

Carry a lot of business cards.

Anya Chrisanthon 25:43

That still a thing? Yes. I guess we should. Not a bad,

Laura Hanson 25:46

I don't,

Rick Baldonado 25:46

that's not quite, that's quite not tech, that's not technological, by the way.

Laura Hanson 25:52

Make a digital business card.

Rick Baldonado 25:54

Yeah, there you go.

Anya Chrisanthon 25:55

Get a digital business card. But I do actually, I do have, a whole stack of. Cards that I have, so I'm gonna be bringing,

Laura Hanson 26:02

oh, you're on it. I just used my little Blink app. I'm lazy.

Anya Chrisanthon 26:05

Oh, that's, well, that's good. It's probably smarter way to do it, so, but I, yeah, I don't know. I still like to come home and look through the cards and then like friend people on LinkedIn, whatever else. So, but, all right. So Rick, any last words before I let. You go.

Rick Baldonado 26:23

Just looking forward to seeing everybody RSVP to our, big, shindig party. And we will see you in Orlando.

Anya Chrisanthon 26:30

Yes. So don't forget, download the app. Wear comfortable shoes. Yes. Don't forget your badge. Bring the credit cards. Bring the, business cards. Bring, come to the party. It's gonna be free at the party. You don't need the credit cards for that one. Just to get home and yeah, we're can't wait to see you guys and yay IBS 2026. We'll see you guys in Orlando, but that, bye.