How Roomsketcher-Powered Designer Courtney Willis Gave a Homebuilding Firm the Edge to Succeed
Taking people’s home ideas from dream, to plan, to reality is what Interior Designer Courtney Willis does day in and day out at Miles Builders LLC, a custom homebuilding firm based in West Michigan.
Developing these ideas into designs that clients can see and compare is no simple task. We had a chat with Courtney where she explained how she works, and how RoomSketcher gave her team the edge to stand out from competitors early on, cementing a lead, building clients, and enabling them to visualize their future homes.
Starting Out in Interior Design
While Courtney’s been an Interior Designer for seven years, working with RoomSketcher for six of them, interior design wasn’t something she knew she wanted from the get-go. While chatting with us, she recounted the moment she recognized that interior design was her calling.
Inspiration struck while she was working at a gift shop in Grand Teton National Park, where she was studying hospitality and tourism management at the time.
“One day, these two designers came in as I was working at the gift shop, and they were going to redesign the shop. They were picking out flooring and talking through redesigning the space.”
She thought to herself, “I want to do that.”
“That one interaction with two designers that came in for an hour is what stuck with me. I just needed to do it.”
Looking back since then, things that Courtney used to like as a child made sense. “As a little kid, my favorite stores were home goods stores. I loved going to TJ or Michaels. I would love redecorating my bedroom, rearranging furniture, and small things like that.”
An associate’s degree later and a few scouting calls later, Courtney joined Miles Builders as an interior designer and has been designing with RoomSketcher ever since!
The Challenges
Before Miles Builders hired Courtney as their interior designer, client meetings often required the involvement of a subcontracted architect. This slowed down the process since “It just gets hard to coordinate with an architect who isn’t in-house.”
When planning out their custom property, “a lot of people don’t even know what they want when they come in. You end up paying an architect a lot of money for small changes.”
“A lot of times, they'll make the change, and then they realize they don't even like it. They just wanted to make it so they could see it as an option.”
The RoomSketcher Advantage
Armed with RoomSketcher, Courtney could now step in and help visualize options quickly. She creates a floor plan and calculates the building’s square footage and wall dimensions, all within RoomSketcher, providing clients with a much quicker sense of the build.
“If they go, ‘hey, can you try changing this or that little thing?’ I can do it in 2 seconds. It’s that, versus sending it to an architect who they're going to pay $90 an hour to move one wall.”
“It saves the architect’s time and cuts it almost in half. That’s a lot of time and money we’re able to save.” Clients appreciate the reduced costs, while Courtney and Miles Builders appreciate the smooth workflow.
Step-by-Step Process
Her workflow starts with creating a draft floor plan, placing the doors, walls, and windows in approximate locations. This allows for an initial review with clients where the basics are tweaked and adjusted until they feel right.
Once in place, Courtney meets with the clients at Miles Builders’ showroom to select the different flooring, paint, and finishing options.
“And then, I’ll go in and change everything in RoomSketcher to match what was physically picked out,” she said, noting how RoomSketcher’s extensive materials and finishes library allows for close matches to 95% her clients’ choices.
RoomSketcher’s library offers thousands of different furniture options, too, which Courtney focuses on next. She selects the cabinetry, furniture, appliances, and decor, making sure they're both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
The clients are then called into Courtney's offices for the big reveal. “I’d have RoomSketcher on our TV here, so they can see it on a large scale.”
She conducts a virtual tour of the house, noting her clients’ reactions and comments for further adjustments to the space. “What are you thinking of it? Do you feel like making a change now that you've seen it? Many times, something looks really good in a sample sheet, but then when you see it in the space with all the other selections, it’s the wrong option.”
With RoomSketcher’s Levels feature, Courtney can create multiple floors and variations for a single project, allowing her clients to compare and contrast options. “I don’t necessarily have to redraw the entire thing; I can just copy and paste, move the wall, and have options 1 and 2. It’s great.”
Once the design is refined, it can be handed over to the architect for structural review and finalization before the construction phase begins. So far, the architect has been minimally involved, thanks to Courtney’s rapid and flexible RoomSketcher design process.
Reactions
Courtney’s clients love seeing tons of options before making their final decision, and she doesn’t mind providing them given how quick edits could be done. “Clients have a hard time envisioning things but for me, if it’s one click of a button then I don’t care if I’m asked for 500 different options.”
She’s even trained a half dozen colleagues to use the software who have all “had really good success with it.” Courtney feels more confident, creative and professional with RoomSketcher as her sidekick.
Through RoomSketcher, Courtney and Miles Builders were able to establish themselves as local leaders in custom homebuilding early-on.
“When we first started using RoomSketcher, a lot of builders didn’t even have designers on staff. A big selling feature was ‘hey we have an in-house designer who can show you what you whole entire home is going to look like in digital form’”
While competitors have since caught up, RoomSketcher’s visuals were a key differentiator early on. “A lot of people ended up going with us over a different builder because of that.”
Spend Less Time Explaining and More Time Creating
Hearing how Courtney works, it’s easy to see why her clients trust her. When they can see their future home, everything clicks. That’s exactly what RoomSketcher is built for: helping you spend less time explaining and more time creating.
Start with a free account to see how easy it is to draw professional Floor Plans, then upgrade anytime as your projects grow.
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