Selling without a physical sales centre: a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary’s bet

When a small builder bets on selling without a sales centre, it is an anecdote. When a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary does it, it is a signal about where the market is going.

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Who is doing it

BIMaire is part of Clayton Homes, a Berkshire Hathaway group company. According to Unreal Engine’s feature on the sector, they are offering virtual sales based on pixel streaming — the project runs on a server and the buyer receives interactive video — with an explicit goal: to remove entirely the need for in-person visits and physical sales centres.

There is a second detail that is easy to miss and is the most interesting commercially: the platform lets ten builders coexist under one digital roof. It is not one virtual room per project; it is shared infrastructure.

The benefit is not only commercial

What BIMaire reports does not stop at selling more. By removing uncertainty about what is being bought, they say approvals speed up, stakeholders align faster and engineering teams see the value immediately.

That describes a change in nature. The virtual sales room stops being a sales department tool and becomes the way everyone — sales, engineering, partners, whoever approves — looks at the same project.

The arithmetic in Colombia

Here the argument stands on its own. Camacol estimates that around 60% of new housing in the country is sold off-plan. For months, the only thing the buyer can see is whatever you show them.

And the physical sales centre costs money. The show apartment costs more: it is built, furnished, maintained and finally dismantled. It is a large investment that only serves buyers who can get there, during office hours, in that city.

We are not saying close the sales centre. We are saying that if 60% of your sales happen off-plan, it is worth asking how much of that investment is doing work a model does just as well or better — around the clock, from any city.

We compare it with numbers in show apartment versus virtual sales room, and what we build is described in the virtual sales room.

Sources

Unreal Engine — Long live the decision engine: how UE is powering the future of home building (February 2026) · Camacol — Colombian construction sector statistics