Budget Season 2026: Fix Your #1 Survey Complaint

Every fall, builders sharpen their pencils and lock in the budgets that will shape the next year. Line items get debated down to the dollar. One of the biggest costs almost never shows up in the spreadsheet: the cost of poor communication.

Across thousands of buyer surveys, communication during the build is consistently ranked as a top frustration. Buyers do not just want a quality home. They want to know what is happening, when it is happening, and who is listening. When that breaks down, it creates friction everywhere else in your business:

• Field team headaches. Sales agents and superintendents spend hours chasing updates, answering repetitive questions, and putting out fires that start with misaligned expectations.

• Referral loss. “I received updates without having to ask” is the #1 driver of whether someone refers their builder. Every missed update erodes future pipeline.

• Warranty costs. Confused buyers are anxious buyers. Anxious buyers are more likely to escalate small issues and call warranty teams for reassurance.

Because it is hard to assign a dollar figure, communication rarely makes the budget. Meanwhile, the costs are hiding in plain sight:

• Time lost by field staff answering the same questions instead of focusing on the build

• Outdated print materials that need to be reissued when information changes

• Risk exposure when communication is not trackable

• Missed opportunities when leads are not captured or prospects do not receive timely updates

NoviHome was built to change that. It is not just progress photos. It is a branded buyer experience that centralizes updates, photos, videos, and chat tied into your CRM and ERP so your team spends less time chasing and more time building. Builders using NoviHome see 10–20% increases in lead registrations, measurable drops in print costs, fewer inbound calls to field teams, and fewer unannounced site visits.

How Builders Are Turning Communication Into a Budgeted Investment

You do not have to add a brand new line item from scratch. Builders are funding NoviHome in different ways that fit their existing structures:

1. Quantify and reallocate hidden costs
   Calculate the hours your field team spends answering buyer questions per week × their loaded hourly rate. Add in the annual cost of printed materials, warranty call backs, and lost leads. These are already dollars you are spending. By reframing them as “buyer communication,” you can justify a clean line item in your 2026 budget.

2. Use your “Innovation” bucket to fund it
   Do You Convert recommends 0.5–1.0% of revenue for marketing budget, with 1% of that the “Innovation” slice. Instead of a one off experiment, builders are using that category to test proven platforms like NoviHome for buyer communication and on site registration. Repurpose your innovation dollars into something that pays back.

3. Split the cost between departments
   Buyer communication benefits far more than just marketing. Operations teams save hours every week. Customer care teams see fewer warranty escalations. Many builders spread the cost across marketing, operations, and customer experience so no single department bears the full weight.

4. Partner with your preferred lenders
   Your lenders also benefit from NoviHome. Several of our builder partners have their preferred lenders contribute toward NoviHome, which lowers the builder’s out of pocket cost and makes budgeting easier.

Bonus tip: Walk into your budgeting meeting with a single slide that just says “Scared money don’t make money” and drop the mic.

Ask Yourself

• What is the cost of your field super spending two hours a day on the phone instead of on site ensuring jobs are on schedule and on budget?

• What is the cost of one unhappy customer leaving a negative review instead of referring three friends?

• What is the cost of letting a third party brand own your buyer communication

Those are real dollars even if they do not have a clean line item in your spreadsheet.

Communication is no longer a “soft” investment. It is one of the highest leverage decisions you can make for 2026. Builders who lock in a buyer communication strategy now will see the returns all year long in fewer headaches, happier teams, and more homes sold.

Ready to fix your #1 survey complaint before 2026 starts?
Let us talk about how NoviHome can make communication your next line item that actually pays you back.