family and dog relaxing at home

We've recently launched a website for American Heritage Homes, a Central Ohio custom home builder. And during the course of researching the industry, we've learned some things.

Not that we don't know a lot already about the process of home buying, but there's always new research being done, so you can never be too complacent when it comes to knowing all you need to know about a subject.

Here are some interesting facts for home builders for 2015: according to The National Association of Realtors, more and more people are using mobile devices for the search for new homes. (Not that this should be a surprise to those of us in the industry.) Obviously, they’re also communicating with the real estate agents and mortgage brokers on their mobile devices.

Granted, people may not be ditching their laptop and desktop computers yet, but they are moving en masse to smart phones and tablets to search for their next home or apartment.

At the 2015 LeadsCon Conference in beautiful Las Vegas, Erin Lantz, from Zillow, covered these topics relevant to all home builders:

  • 31 percent of people used either smart phones or tablets In their home search
  • 27 percent actually found their homes through a mobile app.
  • 70 percent of “impressions” for real estate ads are seen on smart phones.
  • Half of the clicks for real estate ads take place from midnight to 6 a.m.
  • A quarter of all mortgage-related searches performed on Google, are done from a mobile device.
  • Families with income of $100,000 or more, 37 percent of them completed a mortgage application online. Of families with income from $50,000 to $100,000, it's 27 percent. For those families making less-than-$50,000, 18 percent of them filled out the forms online.

So if you've ever wondered about the importance of making sure your website functions perfectly as a mobile site, wonder no more. It's critical.

So before you hire a Columbus Ohio web design firm, take a look at how the mobile versions of their websites work.

Just like all home builders not being the same, not all web designers are the same. When it comes to web design, like building a home, you definitely get what you pay for.