Partner Spotlight: How Verity Homes Turned an Open House Into a Community Event

Hosting an open house is one thing. Getting families to show up, stay a while, and remember your community is another. That's exactly what builder partner Verity Homes pulled off this spring with their first-ever Golden Egg Home Hunt. This family event in Bismarck-Mandan, North Dakota, paired a kids' egg hunt with a full model home tour, drawing 130 attendees and 30 completed registration cards along the way.

As part of New Home Star's Builder Solutions Group, our team works alongside Verity Homes on sales training and marketing support. This event was a strong example of that partnership at work. Here's a look at how it came together, what made it effective, and what other builders can take from it.

1. Start Planning Weeks in Advance

The Golden Egg Home Hunt wasn't pulled together overnight. Starting about five weeks out, our team dedicated time during each weekly one-on-one with Verity Homes' sales agents, walking through the event in stages:

• Weeks 1–2: Event creation, Target Consumer Profile (TCP), and strategies for maximizing attendance and lead capture.
• Weeks 3–4: Marketing materials, target audiences, and local business partnerships to help extend the event's reach.
• Final week: Event operations - parking logistics, sales agent responsibilities, and day-of readiness.

That steady, week-by-week cadence meant nothing was left to the last minute, and agents walked into the event with a clear plan for every role and responsibility on the day.

2. Pair the Activity With the Product

On March 28th from 12:00–2:00 PM, Verity Homes opened its model home and design studio and invited local families to do two things at once: hunt for eggs and tour a real home.

• Kids searched the home for hidden eggs, each one holding a prize.
• While the kids hunted, parents had a low-pressure reason to walk the full model home, taking in the layout, finishes, and design details Verity builds into every home.
• On top of the prizes hidden in the eggs, like free upgrades and closing cost credits, there was a drawing for a $100 Target gift card that gave families an added reason to attend. The lucky participant who found the golden egg won the $10,000 grand prize incentive toward the purchase of a new home.

This pairing mattered: The egg hunt got families through the door, and the model home did the rest of the work, turning foot traffic into genuine product exposure.

3. Build Buzz Before the Event

The Golden Egg Home Hunt didn't rely on day-of attendance alone. In the weeks leading up to it, Verity Homes ran a multi-post social campaign that:

• Announced the event details (date, time, and location) early and repeated them across multiple posts.
• Teased the experience itself: "Hidden surprises throughout the home," prizes inside every egg, and a chance to explore the model home—this built anticipation rather than just awareness.
• Tied the fun, lighthearted egg hunt concept back to the brand's core message: It's the small, thoughtful details that make a house feel like home.

4. Use Simple Mechanics to Capture Engagement

To extend reach and create a bonus incentive, Verity Homes offered extra entries into the grand prize drawing for two specific actions: RSVPing on the event's Facebook page, or commenting "Egg Hunt" on the promotional posts.

This kind of mechanic does double duty; it rewards engagement that helps the algorithm boost the post's reach, and it gives the builder a rough read on interest and turnout ahead of the event itself.

5. Let the Numbers Back It Up

The turnout made the case on its own: 130 total attendees came out for the Golden Egg Home Hunt, and 30 registration cards were filled out on-site. This was a strong indicator that the event drew not just curious families, but genuinely interested prospects for Verity Homes' sales team to follow up with.

6. Let the Community Response Speak for Itself

Following the event, Verity Homes shared a thank-you post reflecting on a day filled with smiling kids, genuine conversations, and new connections with families across the Bismarck-Mandan area. That kind of organic, after-the-fact recap reinforces the brand's community presence long after the event wraps while also setting up anticipation for what's next, with Verity Homes teasing "more coming" for future events.

Conclusion

The Golden Egg Home Hunt worked because it didn't separate the fun from the sell. To recap what made it effective:

• Start planning weeks out, using regular one-on-ones to move from strategy to logistics in stages.
• Pair a family-friendly activity with a genuine product tour, so attendees engage with the home naturally.
• Build anticipation in the weeks before the event through consistent, detail-forward social content.
• Use simple, low-friction engagement mechanics (RSVPs, comments) to extend reach and gauge interest.
• Track real outcomes: 130 attendees and 30 completed registration cards show this was a true lead-generation event, not just a fun afternoon.
• Close the loop with a heartfelt recap that reinforces community ties and sets up the next event.

A big thank-you to Verity Homes for being a great partner to plan and execute this with and for showing what's possible when event strategy and local relationships come together. If you're a builder looking for support with event marketing or sales training and performance coaching, learn more about New Home Star's Builder Solutions.