From having data gaps in niche markets to having comps nationwide
Executive Summary
Smith Douglas Homes, a leading homebuilder focused on affordable first-time homebuyer markets, enhanced their land acquisition process by implementing Locate Alpha's Comparable Market Analysis platform.
The result: streamlined decision-making, enhanced investment committee presentations, and executive-mandated use across all deals.
Key Results
Dramatic reduction in research time from hours to minutes
Executive-mandated integration into all investment presentations
Enhanced confidence in land acquisition decisions across 9+ markets
Facilitated market penetration in unfamiliar regions
Streamlined workflow, replacing multiple disparate data sources
The Challenge
As Smith Douglas Homes expanded across nine different markets, their teams already leveraged a variety of established research tools and partners. While these provided valuable insights, there were areas where additional support created efficiencies:
Geographic Coverage: Existing tools occasionally had gaps in survey coverage, which made it more challenging to maintain consistency across all regions.
Data Consolidation: Demographic and buyer profile research required pulling from multiple sources, which added extra time when preparing investment committee packages.
Consistency: Standardizing insights across markets was crucial to ensure that presentations and evaluations could be compared on an equal footing.
Investment Committee Requirements: Investment committee packages required comprehensive demographic, competitive, and market validation analysis, creating opportunities to streamline the gathering and presentation of data.
The Solution
Smith Douglas implemented Locate Alpha as their primary demographic and market analysis platform, integrating it into its core workflow.
Key Implementation Areas
1. Standardized Site Assessment Protocol
10-mile radius scorecard analysis for every potential site
Demographic profiling, including median income and population density
Market positioning analysis to determine market viability
2. Investment Committee Integration
Comprehensive demographic data inclusion in all presentation packages
Drive-time radius mapping for employment center analysis
Buyer profile analysis supporting pricing and product strategies
3. Multi-Market Research Capability
Unrestricted geographic access across all operating markets
Consistent analysis methodology regardless of location
Support for new market exploration and expansion
Results & Value Creation
Operational Efficiency Gains
Time Savings: Research that previously required extensive manual effort was reduced to only a few clicks. Employment data that once demanded hours of online searching and source vetting became instantly accessible.
Process Standardization: The scorecard feature became the foundation of every land evaluation, creating consistency across all markets and team members.
Executive Integration & Organizational Buy-In
Leadership Mandate: Leadership expects drive radius maps in every deal presentation, demonstrating complete organizational adoption.
Quality Assurance: Leadership regularly asks, "Have you checked this out on Locate Alpha?" when reviewing deals, making Locate Alpha the gold standard for market validation.
Strategic Decision-Making Enhancement
Informed Product Strategy: Demographic and buyer profile data directly inform floor plan selection and pricing strategies, ensuring alignment with local market conditions.
Risk Mitigation: Enhanced data availability supports both deal approval and rejection decisions, helping the team identify when markets may not support the product they want to build.
Market Expansion: The platform enables confident exploration of new submarkets and pioneering opportunities with data-driven validation.
Competitive Advantage
Comprehensive Market Intelligence: Integration of demographic data, employment analysis, and buyer profiling in a single platform provides 360-degree market understanding.
Rapid Response Capability: The team can quickly evaluate opportunities and respond to land acquisition leads with comprehensive market analysis.
“The CMA filled geographic gaps where existing market research tools did not offer survey coverage. Additionally, we’re able to streamline our demographics insights and buyer profile assessments into one reliable tool, saving lots of time.”
Workflow Transformation
Looking Forward
The success at Smith Douglas demonstrates how the right technology platform can transform operational efficiency while enhancing strategic decision-making capabilities in the competitive homebuilding industry.
For more information about how Locate Alpha can transform your land acquisition and market analysis processes, contact our team for a customized demonstration.
