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This is what my home will look like? I was blind and now I can see! Hallelujah!

January 21, 2025
By Stuart Platt

—probably said by around 75% of new homeowners using interactive floor plans.

Outhouse video of site map, to interactive floor plan using furniture to scale floor planner

Buying a new home is a rollercoaster ride of emotions. From the excitement of picking out the perfect neighborhood to the dread of deciphering traditional blueprints that look like a game of Tetris gone wrong, it’s a process that could use a little less stress and a lot more fun. Enter interactive floor plans—the unsung hero of homebuying, making lives easier and dreams closer to reality.

Interactive floor plans are like a crystal ball for future homeowners. Instead of squinting at static floor plans that seem more suited for engineers than everyday folks, you get an immersive, easy-to-use tool that shows you exactly what your new home could look like. Whether it’s a 2D layout or a 3D walk-through, these plans let you explore every nook and cranny of your potential palace.

Wait, so this is what my bedroom will look like with an actual bed in it? And I still have room for a yoga mat? This is sorcery!” —probably said by every millennial buyer ever.

With features that let you zoom in and customize layouts, interactive floor plans put the power back in your hands. Suddenly, picking a home doesn’t feel like a guessing game; it feels like designing your personal dream space—without the confusion and uncertainty.

The Stress of “What Ifs”? Gone.

Happy Homeowners, man and woman hugging. Man lifts woman into the air. Boxes scattered around room ready to unpack. — Happy homeowners courtesy of Adobe Stock

Buying a home comes with a million “what if”s. What if the kitchen’s too cramped? What if the living room doesn’t fit our couch that is basically a family heirloom? Interactive floor plans kick those doubts to the curb by letting you visualize your future home in a way traditional tools never could.

I’m sorry, I can just drag and drop then resize furniture to see how it fits? I feel like a one-person moving company!” —an exasperated but thrilled first-time buyer.

Customization for the Win

Interactive floor plans are more than just pretty pictures. They’re customizable, allowing you to play around with layouts, options, and even kitchen appliances. Want an open-concept kitchen? Boom, done. Thinking about adding a home office? See exactly how it fits before committing.

I just turned my three-bedroom into a four-bedroom with an office nook, all before my second cup of coffee. Take that, HGTV!” —a suddenly confident buyer.

Not only does this customization make the process fun, but it also reduces miscommunications with builders. When you know exactly what you want, there’s no room for “I thought you meant this” moments. It’s a win-win.

It’s like visiting the model home, minus the awkward small talk with the sales agent.” —an introverted and happy new homeowner.

I was sick, and I designed my future house in my pajamas with a tissue stuffed in one nostril. Modern technology really peaked here.” —a satisfied buyer who fully recovered and is now living their best life.

Builders, Take Note: Happy Buyers = Happy Sales

Interactive Floor Plan labeled with many of the pros for both builder and buyer

For builders, offering interactive floor plans isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must. Buyers are more likely to commit when they feel confident in their choices. And nothing boosts confidence like being able to see, tweak, and explore your home before it even exists. Since the first IFP was created decades ago, Outhouse.net is leading the charge, helping builders provide these tools that make buyers swoon.

Conclusion: The Homebuying Hero We Deserve

Interactive floor plans aren’t just about convenience—they’re about transforming the homebuying journey into something exciting and stress-free. They bring clarity to the chaos and turn dream homes into tangible realities. And hey, if you’re lucky, they might just save you from buying a house with a kitchen island that’s one cupboard short of perfect.

Thanks to interactive floor plans, I found my dream home and avoided a layout disaster. Now I’m just wondering if they can help with furniture shopping, too.”—a relieved new homeowner and soon-to-be dedicated IKEA customer.

Stuart Platt, Managing Partner at Outhouse LLC restructured his 25+ year company to an Office Optional (OffOp) business model in 2018. Stuart’s version of the OffOp model enabled the company of nearly 40 employees to downsize its physical office from 14k sf to 6k sf. Based in Phoenix, local employees desiring to work in the office for a few days, weeks or months can reserve any open desk whenever they want. The remaining employees work from home, fulltime across 10 different states and counting. Schedule time to talk with Stuart at IBS by emailing him at StuartP@outhouse.net.

Want to work smarter, not harder? The Outhouse/Blue Gypsy Coffee Station in Sales Central has just what you need:
• Coffee and snacks to improve hustle
• Relaxation to improve recall
• A chance to schedule time with your favorite Home Builder Digital Assets Expert, Kevin Weitzel, here :
https://calendly.com/kevin-weitzel/sales-central-meeting

Navigating Labor and Supply Chain Issues in Home Building

January 10, 2025
By admin-outhouse

Challenges Faced by an Aging Construction Worker Due to Delayed Retirement Age and Physical Strain. Concept Retirement Age, Physical Strain, Aging Workers, Construction Challenges, Delayed Retirement generated using AI by Anastasiia on Adobe Stock — _{Aging Construction Worker Image Generated by AI for Adobe Stock}

The home building industry is facing some rough seas. Labor shortages and supply chain disruptions are rocking the boat, messing with project timelines and profits. The industry lost a ton of construction jobs during the pandemic – over a million, in fact. Things have picked up, but the homebuilding industry was still short almost half a million workers at the end of 2023. And it’s not just finding people; getting materials is a headache too. Construction costs have jumped by almost 40% since 2020, and supplies take forever to show up on site. It used to take under 7 months to build a typical house, but now it’s over 8 – all thanks to these problems.

This isn’t just a temporary storm; it’s a whole new weather pattern for home builders. Builders might want to adjust their sails if they want to stay afloat. In this post, we’ll dive into what’s causing these issues, how they’re affecting the industry, and what can be done about it. Plus, we’ll look at how Outhouse can help builders work smarter, not harder.

Where Have All the Workers Gone?

The labor shortage is a big problem with deep roots. One reason is the “silver tsunami” – experienced workers are retiring, and not enough young folks are stepping up to take their place. For every five retirees, the home building industry only gets about two new workers. That gap is getting wider and wider, leaving home building high and dry, especially for skilled trades. Across the U.S., the construction industry has about 8.3 million construction workers, with 3.4 million in home building, but it’s not enough. A whopping 65% of builders can’t find enough finish carpenters. This drives up labor costs and throws off schedules. To put it in perspective, the industry needed over half a million extra workers in 2024 just to keep up. This is even worse than the shortage during the housing boom back in the mid-2000s, even though fewer homes are being built now. Something has to give!

So, why aren’t young people interested in construction?

College Craze: Many young people think a college degree is the only ticket to success, so they’re not going to trade schools.
Tough Job: Construction can be tough on the body and sometimes dangerous, which doesn’t appeal to everyone.
Competition: Other industries like manufacturing are also scrambling for workers, so everyone isl fighting over the same talent pool.

Supply Chain Snags

The pandemic really showed the world how fragile our supply chains are. Closed borders, factories shutting down, and transportation issues created a real mess, making it hard to get materials and driving up prices. It didn’t help that everyone started panic-buying, which made things even worse .

Lumber prices went through the roof. Appliances, windows, and doors were like gold dust. Projects got delayed, and costs went up all around.

Even though the pandemic is mostly behind us, the supply chain is still tangled. The war in Ukraine, high energy costs, and ongoing shipping problems are keeping things unpredictable. Some companies are turning to tech to help, using things like “control towers” to track materials and adjust to changes quickly.

close up architect showing new house project with tablet, empty land plot background generated by AI for Adobe Stock — _{Tablet computer showing new build generated by AI for Adobe Stock}

Strategies for Success

Builders should consider being proactive to navigate these challenges. Here are some strategies that can help:

Finding and Keeping Skilled Workers

Invest in the Future: Builders can create apprenticeship programs and on-the-job training to bring in new talent and keep our current workers sharp. Some industry groups like the Home Builders Institute (HBI) and Lowe’s Foundation are putting money into training programs to get more people into the trades. Programs like The House That She Built work to educate young people about the opportunities available in the building industry.
Cast a Wider Net: Look beyond the usual places to find workers. Reach out to women, veterans, and people who were formerly incarcerated. Partnering with community groups and schools can help us connect with potential employees.
Show Appreciation: To keep good workers, consider offering competitive pay, offer great benefits, and give them chances to grow. Think health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and opportunities for promotions.
Embrace Technology: Technology can help do more with fewer people. This includes things like automation, prefabrication, and digital tools for managing projects . By investing in technology, home builders can make jobs more efficient and appealing.

Getting Needed Materials

Team Up with Suppliers: Strong relationships with suppliers are key to getting needed materials on time. Open communication and working together can help everyone in the supply chain anticipate problems and find solutions.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket: Have backup plans. Find new suppliers and consider using different materials if current suppliers run into shortages or hike up prices.
Plan Ahead: Ordering materials in advance and keeping enough on hand can help avoid delays and price swings.

Working Smarter, Not Harder

Simplify Choices: One way to ease the strain on the supply chain is to offer fewer product choices, sticking with materials that are readily available .
Package Deals: Offering pre-selected material packages can make things easier for everyone and ensure that everything works together.
Order Early: For important things like windows ordering them six months ahead of time and storing them can prevent delays. This takes some planning and space, but it can be worth it.
Speak Up: Advocate for policies that can help fix supply chain problems. This includes supporting efforts to increase production of things like electrical transformers.

How Outhouse Can Help

Outhouse.net has some great tools that can help home builders work more efficiently and deal with labor and supply chain issues. By outsourcing your drafting to Outhouse, you can save money and get top-notch expertise .

Here’s a quick look at what we offer:

Here’s how these tools can help:

Less Rework: Accurate plans mean fewer errors and less time and money wasted on fixing mistakes.
Clearer Communication: IFPs and other visual tools help everyone understand the plan, preventing confusion and delays.
Smoother Operations: Outhouse products help streamline the design and construction process, making things more efficient.

Riding the Wave

The labor shortage and supply chain disruptions are tough challenges, but home builders can overcome them. By investing in the workforce, building strong relationships with suppliers, using technology wisely, and taking advantage of tools like those offered by Outhouse, home builders can weather this storm and continue building quality homes efficiently and profitably.

Managing Effectively with OKRs

November 11, 2024
By Bill Gelbaugh

_{Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock: AdobeStock_102205126}

After going through the process of creating OKRs, it’s essential not to fall into the trap of “setting and forgetting.” Creating OKRs without regularly sharing and reviewing results is like hoping to win the lottery without buying a ticket. The modern business environment offers countless distractions, each vying for your attention. However, to execute successfully and elevate your performance, regular and disciplined reviews of OKR results must become part of your operating rhythm—a cadence embedded in your corporate culture.

Weekly Meetings

Let’s start with the basics: Weekly Meetings. The purpose of these sessions is threefold: assess progress, identify potential issues before they escalate, and, especially as you begin using OKRs, ensure your team stays focused on what truly matters. Here are some key topics to cover in your weekly meetings:

Logistics: Begin by determining who should attend the meeting, what time works best for everyone, and where the meeting will be held.
Priorities: What are the key priorities—the tasks that must be accomplished this week to move closer to achieving your OKRs? It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of urgent issues, but it’s crucial to ensure the priorities discussed are directly tied to the achievement of your OKRs.
Status: During the meeting, gauge the team’s current level of confidence. Has it increased or decreased? More importantly, why? If progress is on track, implement mechanisms to maintain momentum. If confidence is waning, it’s time to discuss how to shift resources strategically to get back on course.
Engagement: OKRs should challenge and motivate people to engage in the breakthrough thinking necessary to reach new heights. Use the weekly session to assess the team’s mood. Are they still actively engaged, or are they simply going through the motions without genuine commitment?
The Big Picture: Earlier, we defined a health metric as something the company monitors frequently because it represents successful strategy execution. Well-designed OKRs should ultimately drive the success of your overall health metrics, so ensure you’re keeping an eye on the bigger picture.

Weekly Quadrant Focus

One way of managing your OKRs effectively is to break down your weekly focus using a quadrant approach. This method ensures that your team stays aligned with the goals that matter most, while also keeping an eye on the broader picture.

Upper Right | Setting Bold Objectives and Quantitative Results

At the start of each quarter, we set a bold, qualitative Objective along with three quantitative Key Results. The Objective serves as the inspiration for the quarter, guiding our efforts and providing a clear direction. The Key Results are the measurable outcomes we expect if we focus on the right activities.

Each week, we revisit these Key Results and ask ourselves: Are we getting closer to achieving them, or are we falling behind? At the beginning of the quarter, we start with a 50% confidence level—a 50/50 (0.5) chance of hitting the target. As the weeks progress, this confidence level may fluctuate. If it drops from, say, 80% (0.8) to 20% (0.2), it’s a signal that something has changed. The critical question then becomes: What happened, and how can we address and improve this Key Result?

Lower Right | Monitoring Health Metrics

While we aim high with our Objectives, we can’t afford to ignore the fundamentals—our “health metrics.” This lower-right quadrant is where we track these vital signs of our business, ensuring that while we reach for ambitious goals, we don’t lose sight of what’s already working well.

For example, if our Objective is radical revenue growth, it’s easy to get caught up in the pursuit of new clients. However, we must also protect our relationships with current clients. In this quadrant, we might monitor Customer Satisfaction, rating it green, yellow, or red. This helps us ensure that our drive for growth doesn’t come at the expense of the clients who have already invested in us.

Upper Left | Weekly Initiatives to Advance OKRs

In the upper-left quadrant, we focus on the specific initiatives we need to tackle this week to advance our OKRs. These are the three to five critical actions that will move the needle.

We don’t list every task here—just the ones that must happen for us to achieve our Objectives. Life always throws plenty of distractions our way, but the secret to success lies in focusing on what truly matters. By sharing these initiatives, we can challenge ourselves to ensure we’re investing our time in activities that directly contribute to our Key Results.

Lower Left | Heads Up for the Month Ahead

Finally, the lower-left quadrant is our “heads up” space—a pipeline of important activities expected in the coming month. This area is crucial for keeping the entire team, including Marketing, Sales, Operations, and Admin, prepared and aligned.

By anticipating what’s coming down the road, we avoid being caught off guard. This forward-looking approach ensures that everyone is ready to support key initiatives when the time comes.

A house with graph showing value over time — _{Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock: AdobeStock_668453216}

End of Quarter Reviews

At the end of each quarter, it’s time to move beyond subjective assessments and grade your performance. The two primary components of the quarterly review meeting are the “what” and the “how.”

The “What”: This involves assigning grades (scores) to each of your key results based on performance throughout the quarter. Each team (or individual, if your OKRs are connected that far into the organization) will determine their final score and provide the rationale to peers, colleagues, and superiors. This transparency offers a valuable opportunity for teams to learn from each other’s objectives, key results, triumphs, and challenges—showing what’s possible when the entire organization is aligned.
The “How”: While the grades are important, the real value lies in the discussions that follow. These conversations should challenge conventional views, uncover assumptions, and test hypotheses. In our experience, many organizations struggle with these meetings, where honesty and candor should take center stage. Some companies are able to engage in passionate, no-holds-barred discussions, while others are hampered by an overly polite culture that stifles genuine debate. Recent research into effective teams highlights the importance of psychological safety as a critical enabler of group success. To make the most of your OKR data, you need to carefully structure your meetings to maximize learning and drive meaningful change.

Updating OKRs at the End of a Quarter

The mechanics of OKR creation are straightforward. At the beginning of each year, the company establishes its highest-level set of OKRs, which may include both strategic annual OKRs and more tactical quarterly OKRs. These “corporate” OKRs provide the context for the connecting process, where business units, teams, and possibly even individuals create their own OKRs to demonstrate their contribution to the overall strategy.

At the end of each quarter, OKRs are graded, and new OKRs are developed throughout the organization. Some OKRs may remain the same for several quarters, especially those that are critical given current strategic or operational challenges. You may also carry forward OKRs that weren’t fully achieved but remain strategically important. Any OKRs that were successfully completed will likely be replaced with new ones that once again stretch the team to deliver their best.

Scoring the Results

Here’s a quick guide to interpreting OKR scores:

1.0 Score: This represents an extremely ambitious outcome—one that may have seemed nearly impossible at the outset. All key results should be written as a 1.0 to foster breakthrough thinking. It might feel like a “moonshot” if the company has never approached that level of performance before.
0.6 – 0.7 Score: This level signifies difficult but attainable progress, and it’s what you hope to achieve at a minimum. It’s a lofty target—challenging but achievable based on past results.
0.3 Score: This is the “business as usual” target, representing performance that can be achieved with standard effort and little or no assistance from other teams. It’s considered mediocre—precisely what OKRs are designed to eliminate. If a team only reaches a 0.3 on a key result, it’s crucial to understand why.

In our experience, those new to OKRs often encounter one of two outcomes: either they score all ones, or they find themselves scratching their heads because despite their best efforts, their reports are filled with zeros.

After a few quarters, your key result scores should average around 0.6 to 0.7. If your scores are consistently higher, it may indicate that your targets aren’t aggressive enough, and you’re not fully leveraging the talent and potential of your teams.

By following these practices, you can ensure that your OKRs aren’t just another set of goals but a powerful tool for driving strategic execution and achieving your company’s most ambitious objectives.

And with that, we conclude our five-part series on OKRs. We hope these insights help you harness the full potential of OKRs in your organization. Here’s to your success!

CONTACT INFO NEEDED

Bill Gelbaugh is one of our Senior Partners here at Outhouse and champions our OKR efforts.

Summarized by Bill Gelbaugh from: Objectives and Key Results by Paul R. Niven and Ben Lamorte

With additional material from Measure What Matters, Lattice OKR 101 and Perdoo

Driving OKR Alignment to Create Employee Engagement

November 11, 2024
By Bill Gelbaugh

OKR target with bullseye arrow — _{Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock: AdobeStock_1012677617}

Now that we’ve crafted our OKRs, it’s time to focus on how teams within your company can work together to accomplish these goals. While OKRs empower teams with a significant amount of autonomy, the key to overall corporate success lies in connection and alignment. As you communicate your corporate OKRs, it’s crucial that everyone in the organization not only understands them but also recognizes their importance and how they contribute to the company’s success. A well-executed alignment process creates a direct line of sight from every individual employee back to the corporate OKRs.

Connecting OKRs from top to bottom within your organization helps illuminate the relationship between what employees do and how those actions lead to overall strategy execution. This connection fosters learning in two directions. First, as business units, departments, and individuals develop their OKRs, they showcase their unique roles in creating value for the company. To do this effectively, they must understand the business’s strategy, which deepens their grasp of the organization’s purpose. Second, as leaders analyze OKR scores across the company, they gain valuable insights into how different parts of the business are contributing to the overall strategy.

How Deep to Connect

Ultimately, your goal should be to extend the use of OKRs throughout the entire company. But how quickly should this be done? Should you rush to connect all levels within the first year, or take a more measured approach over several years?

OKRs have the potential to be a transformative tool for your business, sparking new thinking that leads to previously unimagined levels of success. To realize this potential, the framework must be embraced and utilized at all levels of the company, helping you foster fluency in a new corporate language: strategy execution. The faster you connect, the faster your employees will master this new approach, and the sooner you’ll see results.

We believe in the power of momentum and recommend moving aggressively but thoughtfully when connecting OKRs. Aggressively means connecting quickly and deeply across all levels of the company. Thoughtfully means ensuring you can answer these critical questions affirmatively before proceeding:

Do we have executive support for OKRs?
Do we have a clearly documented strategy reflected in our top-level corporate OKRs?
Are we committed to using OKRs to manage the business, regardless of the initial results?

If you can overcome these hurdles, a rapid rollout may be appropriate.

Preparing Your Groups for Connecting

Young people putting their fists together as symbol of unity and achievement, top view. Group of people fist bump assemble together over workplace. Teamwork concept, copy space in middle — _{Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock: AdobeStock_909279080}

In a previous post, we discussed the importance of a mission statement, which conveys your core purpose as an organization. Every business group that will create connected OKRs should develop a mission statement that clearly outlines why they exist and how they add value to the organization.

Armed with their mission statements, each group must then answer a fundamental question: “How do we support the organization’s mission and strategy?” This question primes groups for the task of connecting by having them enumerate in advance how they are going to support the company’s overall strategic goals.

The Key to Connecting Is Influence

The purpose of the connecting exercise is to allow all groups—even individuals—to show how they influence the overall corporate OKRs. This process begins with the top-level set of OKRs. These are the critical levers of your success, and everyone in the company must deeply understand them before you begin connecting. Let’s assume you’re starting from the corporate level. The first real connection occurs when business units study the corporate OKRs and ask, “Which of these OKRs can we influence the most, and how?”

The goal of a well-executed connection process is to provide a direct line of sight from every individual employee all the way back to the corporate OKRs.

Creating Alignment

Ensuring your people are aligned around a common purpose is the number one job for any successful corporation. Connecting OKRs provides an outstanding opportunity to drive that alignment through every job and function in your firm. There are two types of alignment you’ll be fostering during the alignment process: vertical and horizontal.

Vertical Alignment

This is the type of alignment most people think of when considering connecting goals across an enterprise. Vertical alignment creates OKRs that flow downward, eventually reaching the individual employee level. However, as we’ve previously noted, this does not mean the executive team dictates a number of obligatory goals that are forced upon lower-level groups regardless of fit or necessity. Instead, vertical alignment is facilitated when teams, departments, or individuals look to the OKRs of the group to whom they report and ask: “How can we influence those OKRs? What can we do and measure at our level to drive both our success and theirs?”

Here’s an example of driving vertical alignment: The CEO of a mid-sized company declared that customer retention was the top priority. Traditionally, customer retention had been the sole domain of the customer success team, which managed ongoing client interactions and renewals. After the CEO’s announcement, everyone assumed that the customer success team would simply work harder to drive retention while other departments would continue focusing on their current priorities. However, with OKRs in place, the company could create a culture of alignment across all teams.

The product team, for instance, had typically focused on features that would attract new customers or differentiate the company from the competition. With the new focus on customer retention, they began asking, “How does this product improvement drive customer retention?” The marketing team also shifted its outlook, taking time at their user conference to interview customers and gather valuable survey data on retention. Even the sales team adjusted its approach, now taking time to call on their installed base to ask how they could add more value and emphasize long-term relationships.

Each of these teams did something different—something relevant to their specific function—but the common denominator was identifying actions that supported the corporate strategy of increasing customer retention. That’s vertical alignment in action.

Horizontal Alignment

While most companies are familiar with the concept of vertical alignment, horizontal alignment is equally important but often overlooked. In the modern enterprise, much of the work involves disparate teams coming together to solve customer issues or create new value. When one unit can’t depend on another, damaging consequences such as duplication of effort, missed opportunities, and escalating conflicts can occur. OKRs can help fill this gap.

Creating horizontal alignment isn’t complicated. It simply requires having the discipline to hold detailed conversations with other units throughout the company to discover mutual dependencies. Both teams then create OKRs that reflect these dependencies. The resulting OKRs may be unique to each unit, or in some cases, they may decide to use “shared OKRs.” Shared OKRs are particularly useful when multiple teams work closely together to achieve a result, ensuring that everyone is aligned and contributing to the overarching goal.

Dividing line down road painted as an arrow in Autumn scene. — _{Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock: AdobeStock_894649161}

Confirming Alignment of Connected OKRs

Creating a set of corporate OKRs that improves focus on what really matters is one thing. However, the value of an OKR implementation increases exponentially when you connect, allowing all participants to announce their contribution to the bigger picture. Connecting may be the most essential part of your OKR process, so it’s critical to ensure it’s done well. Once you begin rolling out the program and having lower-level groups develop their OKRs, you can’t assume that those OKRs are aligned. You must check each set to ensure they draw a clear line of sight back to your strategic goals.

Next up… Managing Effectively with OKRs.

Bill Gelbaugh is one of our Senior Partners here at Outhouse and champions our OKR efforts.

Multigenerational Living: A New Era in Home Design

December 3, 2024
By Tabitha Warren

The landscape of American households is undergoing a significant transformation, with multigenerational living on the rise. This trend, highlighted by industry voices like Sara Gutterman of Green Builder Media, has sparked a demand for innovative housing solutions that cater to the needs of families across different generations. Lennar Homes, a leading homebuilder recognized for its commitment to sustainable and forward-thinking practices, has risen to the occasion with its NextGen® – The Home Within A Home® concept. This innovative approach revolutionizing how families live together is at the forefront of this movement. .

Lennar's NextGen Home Exterior Elevation with first level floor plan — _{Lennar’s NextGen home courtesy of Builderonline.com}

NextGen: Redefining Multigenerational Living

Lennar’s NextGen homes offer a unique solution to the challenges of multigenerational living. These homes feature a private suite with its own entrance, kitchenette, living room, bedroom, and bathroom. This design allows families to live together while maintaining privacy and independence. Lennar emphasizes the importance of flexibility in housing design, stating, “NextGen homes offer the perfect blend of togetherness and autonomy, allowing families to live in harmony while respecting individual needs.”

The Rise of Multigenerational Households

The trend towards multigenerational living, echoed by publications like Green Builder Media, is driven by a variety of factors, including economic pressures, cultural shifts, and the desire for closer family ties. Sara Gutterman notes, “Multigenerational living is not just a trend; it’s a reflection of the changing dynamics of American families. Forward thinking builders provide solutions that supports these evolving needs.”

The Benefits of Multigenerational Living

Multigenerational living offers a range of benefits for families. It can provide financial support, shared responsibilities, and emotional closeness. Sara Gutterman believes that “Multigenerational living can foster a sense of community and belonging, creating a supportive environment for all family members.” Here more about generational homes and marketing on Sara’s interview on the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast.

Green Builder Media’s Next Generation Influencer Group: Amplifying the Conversation

Green Builder Media’s commitment to understanding and shaping the future of housing extends beyond construction. Through initiatives like the Next Generation Influencer Group, the company actively engages with thought leaders and influencers like Sara Gutterman, fostering conversations about emerging trends and innovative solutions in the housing industry. You can learn more about it at their webpage: Influencing the Future.

A young man and two young women collaborating in front of a computer screen. — _{Happy business people working on computer by wavebreakmedia courtesy of CanvaPro}

The Future of Generational Housing

As the demand for multigenerational housing continues to grow, companies like Lennar Homes and Green Builder Media are committed to leading the way with innovative solutions. Sara Gutterman envisions a future where “homes are designed to adapt to the changing needs of families, fostering connection and support across generations.”

Conclusion

Lennar Homes’ NextGen concept and Green Builder Media are a few of the companies redefining multigenerational living. These companies provide innovations like flexible and supportive environment for families of all sizes, fostering connection and independence. As the landscape of American households continues to evolve, builders could learn from these smart companies and be poised to meet the needs of families with innovative and adaptable housing solutions.

_{*Floor plan image courtesy of www.lennar.com/nextgen/.}