FAQ
Questions, answered.
New Home Buddy is built for one thing: new construction. Here’s what agents, builder reps and builder leadership ask us most.
Can’t find it? Email support@newhomebuddy.com.
General
What is New Home Buddy and how does it work?
New Home Buddy is a software platform for new construction sales.
Builder sales reps and real estate agents use it to share homes, generate leads, connect with each other, and track what their buyers are doing. Every link a rep or agent shares is branded to them.
Buyers see those links and reach out. The lead goes straight to the person who shared it.
What makes New Home Buddy different from the MLS, Zillow, or NewHomeSource?
Three things:
We only list new construction. Every home and plan comes directly from the builder through a data feed or a builder upload. Nothing is stale, and nothing is resale.
We show fields nobody else shows. Agent commission, agent bonus, builder-paid closing costs, interest rate, current incentives, the ability to filter by build status, etc. We also have special logic in place so only Agents see commission and BTSA. Buyers never do.
We connect agents to specific builder reps. That is the part no other platform does. See the next question.
What is a Builder Connection?
A Connection is a direct link between a real estate agent and a builder sales rep they like working with.
Once an agent connects with a rep, that rep replaces the default builder contact on the homes they’re authorized to sell. When that agent’s buyer shows interest in one of those homes, the rep gets notified right away. The lead doesn’t disappear into a builder’s general online sales queue.
Only agents can start a Connection. Reps can share their Personal Link and ask an agent to connect, but they can’t add agents themselves. That’s deliberate, and it’s what makes the feature work.
The buyer’s contact information is never shared with the builder. The rep sees the agent’s name, the agent’s contact info, and which home the buyer engaged with. The agent’s lead stays protected.
What information do you show that other sites don’t?
Agents and builder reps see:
- Agent commission (%)
- Agent bonus ($)
- Builder-paid closing costs ($)
- Interest rate offers (%)
- Tax rate and additional taxation
- Current builder incentives
Buyers never see commission or bonus fields. They only see the home details and the agent or rep who shared the link.
Who can use New Home Buddy?
Licensed real estate agents and verified builder sales reps create accounts.
Home buyers don’t create accounts on their own. They reach New Home Buddy through a link an agent or rep shares with them.
You must be 18 or older to use New Home Buddy.
Can home buyers use New Home Buddy on their own?
No, and that’s on purpose.
Buyers can’t browse our full inventory, build their own filtered searches, or sort results. They see the homes an agent or rep sent them. Inside a shared link, buyers can search by address only.
This keeps the agent or rep at the center of the relationship instead of turning buyers loose on a portal.
Do you list resale homes?
No. Every listing on New Home Buddy is a brand-new inventory home or a floor plan from a builder.
Where is New Home Buddy available?
We’re live in five Texas markets:
- Austin
- Corpus Christi
- Dallas & Fort Worth
- Houston
- San Antonio
Are you a builder who wants to be on the platform? Start with our Get Listed page.
What problem does New Home Buddy solve?
Builders lean on flyers, outdated MLS entries, and manual outreach. They rarely see how agents behave or where buyer interest is building.
Agents struggle to find current inventory, accurate plan data, and a reliable way to reach new clients.
Buyers get pushed to generic platforms with old listings and no guidance.
New Home Buddy connects all three groups in one place, with live builder data and tools that keep the agent or rep in front of the buyer.
Who created New Home Buddy?
New Home Buddy was founded by industry professionals with deep experience in new construction real estate, software, and product development.
The three owners are Christopher Marti, Christopher Waterbury, and Jonathan Richter. We’re an independent company based in Texas.
How does New Home Buddy make money?
Builders pay for platform access. Builder leadership teams can also subscribe to NHB Sales Portal Pro for advanced market and predictive analytics.
Real estate agents and builder sales reps use the core platform for free. Agents can add optional Branding Pro and Lead Gen Pro plans for their own branding and AI lead tools, and builder reps get Lead Gen Pro when their division subscribes to NHB Sales Portal Pro. We don’t sell agent data, buyer data, or leads. Ever.
What’s your long-term vision?
To become the most agent-empowering platform in new construction sales in the United States, while helping builders modernize how they sell and market homes.
How do I schedule a demo or training?
Visit our Training page to book a live walkthrough, or schedule a call with our team.
You can also browse our blog or email support@newhomebuddy.com.
Real Estate Agents
Is New Home Buddy free for real estate agents?
Yes. Agents create an account and use the core platform at no cost: every home and plan, your Personal Link, Lead Gen and Client Searches, Builder Connections, Buyer Needs Requests, lead capture and activity tracking.
Want more? Optional Branding Pro and Lead Gen Pro plans add your own branding, CRM integrations and AI search tools. Nothing that’s free today becomes paid.
How do I create an agent account?
- Agent Portal Sign Up (Create a free Account)
- Agent Portal Login
Signup takes about two minutes. You’ll pick your role, confirm it’s your first account, and enter your license number.
Can I use New Home Buddy if I’m not with a specific brokerage?
Yes. Any licensed agent can sign up, no matter which brokerage you’re with. You just need your license number.
Will New Home Buddy replace my role in the transaction?
No. The platform exists to make your job easier, not to compete with you.
Buyers who click your links see your name, your photo, and your contact information. You stay in front of the deal.
Do buyers contact New Home Buddy directly?
No. Buyers reach the platform through links you share, and every inquiry routes back to you.
Can I control which homes my clients see?
Yes. You build the list, and your client sees only that list.
Filter by price, location, builder, schools, incentives, and dozens of other fields. Or use Pick Homes to hand-select up to 100 specific homes and send a curated shortlist. Your client can’t filter or sort their way to homes you didn’t include.
What’s the difference between a Personal Link, a Lead Gen Search, and a Client Search?
| Link type | Best for |
|---|---|
| Personal Link | Your permanent branded URL. Put it in your Instagram bio, email signature, flyers, and QR codes. |
| Lead Gen Search | A public filtered list built to attract new buyers. Post it anywhere. |
| Client Search | A private list for one specific buyer you already know. |
| Individual Home Link | One home, one link. Great for social posts and text follow-ups. |
All four are branded to you. All four capture leads.
How does a browser turn into a lead?
Anyone can open your link without logging in. Three things prompt them to register:
- Time on site. After 90 seconds of browsing, a popup asks them to register. With Lead Gen Pro you can make it instant, change the delay, or turn it off.
- Favoriting a home. Clicking the heart prompts registration so they can save it. Homes they favorited before registering carry over automatically.
- Submitting an inquiry. A tour request or info request prompts registration.
Once they register, three things happen instantly. They become a New Lead in your portal. The system creates a saved search for them. You get an email.
Find new leads under Clients, then toggle to New Leads.
How do I connect with a builder sales rep?
Two ways.
From your Agent Portal, go to Builder Connections, search the rep by name, and click Connect. Both of you get an email.
Or click a rep’s Personal Link. If you’re signed in, the link opens inside your own portal with a Connect button in the header and a handshake icon on every home.
Each rep’s card shows how many agents they’re connected with, so you can spot the reps who respond.
What is a Buyer Needs Request?
It replaces posting your buyer’s criteria in a Facebook group and hoping the right rep sees it.
Go to Buyer Requests, pick your markets, choose which builders to notify, and describe what your buyer needs. Hit send.
Your request goes to the builder’s default division contact, unless you’re connected with a rep there. Then your rep gets it instead. Read the full guide.
Can I see what my clients are doing?
Yes, in three places:
Activity tab. Every click, favorite, view, and Personal Link visit, grouped by day. Each event links straight to the client, home, or search.
Search analytics. Every Lead Gen Search and Client Search shows views, home clicks, favorites, and total leads captured. You’ll learn which filters actually convert.
Recent Activity email. We batch activity and email you a summary on a rolling 30-minute cycle. No activity, no email.
Can I send my leads to my CRM?
Yes, with Branding Pro or Lead Gen Pro. Both include the Follow Up Boss integration for agents, so every new lead lands where you already work. Zapier is in beta: accept the invite in Integrations to connect.
On the free plan, every lead lands in your Agent Portal under Clients, and you get an email the moment it’s created.
What happens if I change brokerages?
Contact support@newhomebuddy.com and we’ll migrate your account.
Migration keeps your clients, your lead history, your Builder Connections, and your custom Personal Link. Create a brand-new account instead and you’ll lose all of it.
Is there any downside to sharing homes this way?
Only if you don’t want more clients! Every link you send keeps working after you hit send.
Builder Sales Reps
Is the Builder Portal free for sales reps?
Yes. If your builder is on New Home Buddy, you can create a free Builder Portal account. Reps can’t buy a plan: Lead Gen Pro is included for every rep when your division subscribes to NHB Sales Portal Pro, with your builder’s logo and brand color applied to your links for you.
How do I get agents connected to me?
Share your Personal Link with agents you already work with and ask them to click Connect.
Use it at mixers, happy hours, broker events, and in your email signature. Download your QR code from the portal and drop it on flyers, sign-in sheets, and business cards.
Reps can’t add agents. Only agents can connect, so agents always choose who they work with.
Which homes show me as the contact?
The homes your builder authorizes you to sell.
Most builders limit reps to their assigned communities for plans, and let reps cross-sell all inventory homes in the division. Under that rule you’ll still appear on most of the division’s homes.
Some builders restrict reps to their assigned communities for both plans and inventory. If you work for one of those builders and haven’t set your communities in your profile, you won’t replace the default contact anywhere. Set your communities.
Do I see the buyer’s contact information?
Not when the lead comes through an agent. You see the agent’s name and contact info, plus which home the buyer engaged with.
When a buyer submits a form from your own shared link, you receive the full lead.
Do I receive Buyer Needs Requests?
Yes, if you’re connected. When an agent you’re connected with sends a Buyer Needs Request to your builder, it comes to you instead of the default division contact.
Cross-sell rules don’t apply here. A Buyer Needs Request is about the buyer, not one specific home, so your connected agents always reach you.
Can I see which agents are looking at my homes?
Yes. When a signed-in agent opens your Personal Link or one of your searches, you’ll see their name and contact information in your Activity tab and in your Recent Activity email.
You can reach out. They still have to click Connect.
Builder Leadership & Marketing
Why should builders use New Home Buddy?
We drive agent traffic to your inventory, strengthen the relationships between your reps and the agent community, and give your leadership team real visibility into what’s happening.
Your listings stay accurate because they come straight from your feed. Your reps stop competing with an anonymous online sales queue. Your division sees which homes, reps, and agents are actually producing.
Is New Home Buddy a brokerage?
No. We’re an independent technology company. We don’t hold licenses, represent buyers, or take a cut of transactions.
How do we get our homes on the platform?
Two paths, and the difference comes down to one thing: do you have a data feed?
Free listing tier — if you have a BDX or XML feed. We plug into your feed and get you listed at no cost, usually within days. The feed syncs your communities, plans, and inventory automatically, so nobody updates anything by hand. You get branded sharing tools for your whole sales team, agent connections, real-time buyer alerts, incentive display, and Sales Portal access.
Builder Accelerator Program — if you don’t. Built for boutique and small-volume builders. Our team builds and maintains your community and plan listings and keeps your incentives current. You send us inventory sheets on a regular basis so your available homes stay accurate. You get everything free-tier builders get, plus NHB Sales Portal Pro and hands-on onboarding, for $1,000 per month per division.
Not sure which fits? Apply on our Get Listed page and we’ll tell you honestly. Most builders go live within days.
Do you support SFTP uploads?
Not yet. The free tier currently supports BDX and XML feeds. SFTP support is planned for 2027.
If your team updates through SFTP today, the Builder Accelerator Program is the right fit. Our team handles listing maintenance directly.
What data do you need from us?
Either a data feed or a spreadsheet.
Data feed: an XML feed in BDX format, or a custom XML or JSON feed built with our team. We poll community feeds every 4 hours, division feeds every 6 hours and national feeds every 24 hours.
Spreadsheet (Builder Accelerator Program): CSV, XLS or XLSX, by email or direct upload. Required fields are community name, plan name, home address, square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms and price. You can also include garage bays, stories, completion date, agent commission and bonus, tax rate, interest rate, incentives, builder-paid closing costs and stage.
Questions about your data? Email jonathan@newhomebuddy.com.
Do we need to be in the MLS?
No. Several of our builder partners don’t list in the MLS at all.
We work directly from your feed or your uploads, so the MLS never enters the process.
How are leads handled and delivered?
When a buyer submits a form through a builder rep’s link, that rep receives the full lead.
When a buyer submits through an agent’s link, the connected rep (or your default division contact) is notified that an agent has an interested buyer. The rep sees the agent’s contact info, not the buyer’s.
Every lead is delivered two ways. Your team gets an email, and we post the lead to a URL you give us. That second path is how leads reach your CRM in real time.
We send an HTTP POST with a JSON body the moment the lead is created. Custom headers are supported. See Which CRMs do you integrate with? below.
Which CRMs do you integrate with?
Two setup paths, both documented on our Integrations page.
Salesforce — the most direct option. We post straight into your org, no third-party tool and no monthly fee. Your Salesforce admin builds an endpoint that receives us, usually an Apex REST class exposed through a Site.
Zapier — for Lasso and any CRM that needs a webhook translated. No developer required, about 30 minutes to set up. Zapier sits between us and your CRM and maps the fields.
Not sure which fits? If your team has Salesforce dev resources, go direct. If not, use Zapier. Email support@newhomebuddy.com and we’ll help you pick, configure your delivery URL, and fire test leads.
Can we control what agents see?
Yes, in two ways:
Field visibility. Agent commission and agent bonus appear only to logged-in agents and reps. Buyers never see them.
Cross-sell rules. You tell us how your reps are allowed to sell, and we enforce it. A connected rep replaces the default contact only on the homes your rules allow. Reps stop appearing as the contact on homes they can’t actually sell.
Do you support multiple markets and divisions?
Yes. Each division gets its own branding, routing, reps, and analytics.
We’re also the first platform to support custom cross-sell business logic per builder. Your reps can generate a personalized cross-sell list and share it with agents, buyers, or on the web.
What analytics do we get?
Your leadership team gets the Sales Portal at sales.newhomebuddy.com. It sits above the Builder Portal and gives Admins, Managers, and Portal Viewers a three-tab dashboard.
My Division — your traffic, your leads, your rep performance, and how your homes compare to the market.
NHB Market Data — what actually went pending or sold, so you can price and incentivize with real numbers.
NHB Predictive Trends — live buyer and agent signals showing which of your homes are most likely to sell next, and which agents are most likely to sell one with you.
Free with Sales Portal access: Traffic Charts, Leads, Builder Rep Performance, the Homes tab, User Management, and the events calendar.
You can also check our public Top 10 Agent Leaderboard and Top 10 Builder Sales Rep Leaderboard.
What does the Sales Portal cost?
Sales Portal access is included for our builder partners. Free features cover leads, traffic, and rep performance.
NHB Sales Portal Pro is $1,000 per month per division and unlocks market data, predictive trends, per-home market comparisons, event submission, and Lead Gen Pro for every rep in the division. It’s billed monthly with no long-term contract, and Admins or Managers can cancel anytime. Learn how to subscribe.
Can we promote our events?
Yes, with Sales Portal Pro. Submit a grand opening, model tour, broker breakfast, CE class, or realtor preview from the Events tab.
We review submissions in about one business day. Approved events get promoted four ways: on the Agent and Builder Portals, on our public events calendar, in our weekly agent newsletter, and across our Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Your event, our megaphone.
Events are industry-facing only. Buyers browsing shared links never see them.
How do we get started?
- Fill out our Get Listed form.
- Send us your data feed URL or a sample spreadsheet, plus your community info sheets.
- E-sign our Marketing and Access agreement.
We handle testing, verification, and go-live from there. Questions about integration go to jonathan@newhomebuddy.com.
No questions match that. Try another word, or email us.
Get started
Still have questions?
Our team is happy to walk you through it.
Or email support@newhomebuddy.com