by Ben Caballero, CMP, MIRM, Broker
CEO – HomesUSA.com | HomesUSA Alliance
Tired of losing out in multiple offers situations? Maybe it is time to expand your horizon and discover the benefits of selling new homes. If a builder doesn’t have the inventory, they can build it. Selling new can dramatically increase your bottom line, but there are a few differences between selling new vs. pre-owned homes that an agent must know. Here are six tips on how buyers’ agents can work successfully with builders.
1. Builders are business people who share your goal of selling homes. They are not emotional sellers with life memories attached to the home. You will find that builders have the same goals as you: to sell a home and close the transaction expeditiously and without the drama, delays, or emotions.
2. Builders’ contracts are different for a reason. The standard forms created by Realtor Associations or state bar associations, are not designed for volume builders. Builders use their own money to build homes and can suffer a significant loss if the buyer doesn’t close the sale. In addition, they construct different types of homes in different municipal areas, their contracts must comply with constraints imposed by local building codes, lenders, insurance companies, city inspectors, developers and others.
3. Specific closing dates are not always possible. Unlike an existing home’s closing date, completion of new homes depend on variables over which builders have no control. Weather, inspections, vandalism, lenders, accidents, labor availability, and material deliveries are some of these variables.
4. Building mutual trust is essential. Your dealings with builders will go smoother if you take the time to get to know them and to understand their business. Visit builder’s sales centers and introduce yourself, get to know the builder representative, view the homes. Ask about their sales process, warranty, and if they have a preferred lender or title company. The more each of you know about each other the less potential for misunderstanding and the better job you can do for your client.
5. Builder representatives do much of the work an agent typically does. Transaction management is simpler when agents let builder representatives do their job. Let it happen, don’t impose on a new home sale the same sale process that you would use on a pre-owned transaction.
6. Builders are not adversaries. They are an asset to the sales process because they know their product, its warranty, and subdivision more than you do. If you can’t develop trust, don’t work with the builder, it will not benefit you or your client. Make every effort to avoid controversy, it will increase your client’s anxiety in a transaction that is already very emotional. If you feel there is an issue, speak privately with the builder and make every attempt to resolve it before speaking with your client. They are spending a lot of money for a place for their family. Do everything possible to make the experience a pleasant one.
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