Why Top Builders Don’t Rely on Patch-Work Tech

Summary: Production builders today face an uphill climb—rising material and labor costs, demanding homeowners, and stretched schedules. Yet, the biggest obstacle isn’t always external; it’s internal. Many teams are slowed by patch‑work tech—multiple disconnected tools for estimating, CRM, design, and warranty management that don’t communicate.

The modern builder’s balancing act 

Are you feeling more pressure than ever? Production builders across America sure are. Material and labor costs keep rising, homeowners expect transparency and quick updates, and schedules are stretched beyond stressful capacities. The challenge is having the right people, processes and technology to help you build more homes better than before. 

Many builders have learned that the real struggle is the wrong kind of tech. Teams like yours are still juggling multiple tools for estimating, design, CRM, and warranty tracking. Each works fine on its own, but together they create bottlenecks, duplicate work, and gaps that slow everything down. 

The patch‑work problem 

Builders who depend on disconnected systems describe similar pain points: 

• Information scattered across departments, making it hard to answer simple questions quickly.
• Sales, construction, and warranty teams working from different data, causing rework and delays.
• Forecasting and reporting that depend on manual spreadsheets instead of real‑time insight. Many builders struggle with accurate job costing due to disconnected systems.
• Homeowner feedback and warranty requests getting lost between emails or systems.

As Felicia Berry, online sales counselor at Viera Builders in Florida, explained, things looked very different before they centralized their tools: 

“Leads used to get lobbed out to the sales team with ‘best wishes’ attached,” she said. “We had no metrics, no follow‑up visibility, and no way to track conversions.” 

By uniting their sales and marketing systems, Felicia’s team can now track every interaction and make smarter decisions about where to spend time and budget. 

“Having the right tools and processes to help you build better and meet customer needs,” she added, “is the answer to getting where you want to go.” 

What top builders are doing differently 

If you look at the Builder 100 and Next 100 lists, a clear trend emerges. The companies moving up year after year aren’t simply increasing volume; they’re improving how their systems work together.

Over half of the top 200 builders now use connected technology across sales, construction, and service. Collectively, these builders delivered more than 300,000 homes and $133 billion in revenue last year — proving that integration is not optional anymore. It is a competitive requirement. 

These builders report measurable gains: 

• Up to 20% lower operating costs after connecting systems across departments
• Faster closings and fewer change‑order errors
• Improved customer satisfaction and referral rates 

Real builders, real impact 

Lombardo Homes, based in Michigan, has spent over six decades building communities around quality and customer experience. Vice President of Marketing Melissa Cervin credits their success to alignment between people and process. 

“What started as a husband‑and‑wife dream has grown into a nationally recognized company through hard work, grit, and a relentless drive to succeed,” she said. “We’re fortunate to have a team of smart, committed, and passionate professionals who bring their best every day.” 

 
That alignment is supported by their connected tech stack, which lets sales and marketing teams manage leads in real time and stay engaged with buyers while they’re still shopping. “Because so many of our partner sites feed directly into our CRM,” Cervin explained, “we can follow up while they’re actively shopping, not after the opportunity has passed.” 

In Oregon, Hayden Homes takes a similar approach, using technology to listen and respond to homeowners faster. Sean Bearden, the company’s customer experience director, says their focus on acting quickly on customer feedback has transformed their service.”

“Avid CX has been an essential part of our customer experience strategy,” he said. “It allows us to listen closely to our customers and act on their feedback in real time. By turning survey insights into action steps, we’ve strengthened communication, resolved issues faster, and built greater consistency in the customer journey.” 

Those results show up in their numbers too. 

 
“Our Avid CX data shows we’re consistently scoring above 4.6 out of five across our customer base,” Bearden shared. “That’s not just a number; it represents thousands of families who feel heard, supported, and happy in their new homes.” 

Why integration matters 

Builders like Lombardo, Viera, and Hayden have one thing in common: they moved away from fragmented workflows and focused on connecting their teams around shared data. 

When technology works together, it supports every part of the business: 

• Sales and marketing can see which efforts actually convert leads to buyers
• Operations can anticipate scheduling conflicts before they happen
• Finance gets accurate visibility into costs and cash flow across projects
• Customer care closes the loop quickly, protecting reputation and trust 

It’s not about adding more software. It’s about choosing tools that speak the same language so teams can work together without friction. 

The mindset behind the change 

Builders leading this shift share a few key traits: 

1. Data over assumptions
2. Collaboration over silos
3. Customer focus over complexity 

As Viera’s Berry put it, “Just building more houses faster is not the answer. Having the right tools and processes to help you build better and meet customer needs is.” 

Where the industry is headed 

Across the country, more builders are following the same playbook. Over 120 top builders have already unified their systems, connecting sales, scheduling, and warranty into one workflow. The results are clear: lower operating costs, faster builds, and happier homeowners 

As markets tighten and expectations rise, the next generation of top performers will be those who run their business like a connected ecosystem where every department, trade, and customer touchpoint speaks the same language. 

The takeaway 

By connecting systems and simplifying how work gets done, the nation’s top builders found a way to scale without chaos, reduce costs without cutting quality, and grow without losing the customer focus that built their reputation in the first place. 

As Melissa Cervin from Lombardo Homes said best, “When you put the customer first and back it up with great homes and great processes, growth will follow.” 

Recap: Production builders today face an uphill climb—rising material and labor costs, demanding homeowners, and stretched schedules. Yet, the biggest obstacle isn’t always external; it’s internal. Many teams are slowed by patch‑work tech—multiple disconnected tools for estimating, CRM, design, and warranty management that don’t communicate.