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January 30, 2026

SmartShots: Your Homebuilder Marketing Update – January 2026

Market Update

Graph describing who owns single family homes in the U.S. 80% mom and pop investors and 14% regional investors.

Federal housing policy took center stage this month with President Trump’s executive order aimed at restricting institutional investors from purchasing single family homes, plus broader affordability conversations at the World Economic Forum in Davos. These moves are designed to open more homeownership opportunities for individuals but may shift dynamics in local markets and investment strategies.

Key Takeaways for Builders & Sales Teams:

  • Executive Order: Institutional buyers face new restrictions on purchasing existing homes, however Build‑to‑Rent (BTR) and New Construction excluded.
  • Davos discussions promoted ideas like using 401(k)s for down payments and reducing mortgage costs.
  • Proposals to expand Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage‑backed securities (MBS) purchases to help push down mortgage rates.
  • Sales and marketing teams should prep to educate buyers on what these changes mean locally, financial literacy with changes, and highlight community‑specific benefits.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Two phones showing Google Ads for Austin townhomes for sale and affordable Austin homes.

With the rise of AI Overviews and Search Generative Experience (SGE), users now receive AI‑generated answers directly in search results, often eliminating the need to click. Ads are no longer confined to the top of the page, they’re being inserted within and around these AI summaries. This means your visibility now depends on how well your messaging aligns with buyer intent, not just how much you bid on a keyword. Google’s focus on Performance Max (PMax) and AI Max campaigns also signals a move away from keyword‑centric strategies, however can be costly to marketers that do not have the data or creative to maximize Google’s PMax algorithm. Meanwhile, click‑through rates are dropping for informational queries, and Google is making Responsive Search Ads the default. As the landscape becomes more automated, success will hinge on the quality of your creative assets, audience segmentation, and analytics infrastructure.

Key Changes In Google:

  • Sponsored Ads now appear within AI Overviews, not just above search results.
  • Performance Max & AI Max campaigns centralize your reach across Google platforms, however VERY WASTEFUL if not configured correctly.
  • Google prioritizes search intent over exact match keywords.
  • Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are the default which means get creative that stands out.