Alarm.com Launches Homebuilder Program

Program connects dealers with growing number of buyers who want smart homes

Alarm.com, a platform for the intelligently connected property, announced a comprehensive homebuilder program that includes new hardware and service plans designed to facilitate partnerships between homebuilders and Alarm.com's service provider partners and security dealers.

According to Shawn Barry, VP of strategic sales with Alarm.com's homebuilder program, service providers can cost-effectively deploy hardware in new home builds, showcase smart home solutions to new home buyers, and activate automation-only customers with the opportunity to upgrade to a full security solution over time.

"Builder partnerships offer a strong new growth opportunity for our service provider partners," Barry said in the announcement. "We designed our builder program to give Alarm.com service providers a flexible and cost-effective pathway for working with home builders. New home buyers are highly interested in a range of smart home solutions, and we're excited about expanding the opportunity for our service providers to engage these consumers with a differentiated solution."

Barry told Security Systems News that Alarm.com has been tracking what it considers a "tremendous uptick" within new home and housing unit construction, which he said is why this new program offers such a "great opportunity" for security dealers to work closer with top homebuilders.

"We don't see any slow down over the next few years based on our conversations with many of the top 10 builders," Barry told SSN. "They are experts in the space, but we really felt like there was a need to get more aggressive in a program that is addressing consumer needs, as we have found that well over 80 percent are asking for smart home technology to be part of their new homes."

Barry pointed out that homebuilders are feeling the pressure from consumers, who are really driving the demand. "They've been talking about smart home tech for many years but it has picked up over the past few years more aggressively as we define the smart home."

He continued, "When a home has several of these ‘shiny objects' or multiple IoT devices with multiple apps, many would define that as a smart home, but with Alarm.com's single platform and app we really define what we consider to be a ‘smarter home.' We continue to do a lot of education with dealers and consumers on what the Alarm.com platform brings to the table because it is ever-changing; the system that you buy today will change drastically week-after-week because we are constantly doing over-the-air updates with new features and functionality. So it is a future-proofed system, which is essential because the IoT space is constantly evolving."

One of the great benefits of this program for dealers, Barry noted, is that they will have access to a much higher percentage of homebuyers than in the past.

"In return to offering a zero-dollar home automation solution that checks all of the boxes for the builders, a builder will assign all of the properties to a particular dealer or dealers and it is going to be 100 percent of those homes," said Barry. "And the dealers are excited because with that additional exposure to new home owners, their close rate has essentially doubled. So this provides great opportunities for Alarm.com dealers and service providers to upsell and provide an easy upgrade path to security."

Alarm.com is already working with top 10 builders including Toll Brothers.

"As the nation's leading luxury homebuilder, Toll Brothers appoints its homes with only the highest-quality products," Felicia Ratka, president of TBI Smart Home Solutions, said in the announcement. "Alarm.com delivers a smarter home security solution with exceptional smart home features that enhance the experience for our Toll Brothers homeowners. Between its scalable, reliable underlying platform, and its Business Intelligence Reports, Alarm.com stood out as the easy choice as a smart home partner for our security subsidiary."

Barry said, "You will see in the coming months some other major builders doing joint press announcements with us, and we are really excited about what is to come."