Selling homes for fun and profit

Walk into many real estate offices around the country you may find that there are agents who "specialize" in some form of real estate or another. Some are big in land sales, others in showing vintage homes, selling high end homes, aiding first time buyers, taking listings only, or becoming household words in certain "farm" areas or parts of town. You name it and there's a niche for every facet of real estate sales. Diversity is indeed what made this country great. Real estate or the sale of it is no exception to that rule.

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   How, then, does one become a specialist at representing buyers for new homes? These are the homes with model home parks and smiling on-site sales consultants, advertised with slick weekend newspaper spreads, complemented by billboards along freeways leading to suburban areas. Homebuyers are known to "map out" entire tours for themselves when looking for new homes, without the aid of a real estate agents, bouncing from builder to builder like the steel balls in a pinball game. Some are more sophisticated than others, having bought several homes before, and some are totally clueless as to what to look for in a new home purchase. But whether they are knowledgeable about what they are seeing or not, many buyers could use the skills of a good agent representing their interests when making a purchase as large as this. For now, I won't delve into how to procure a clientele for this purpose. Rather, I will discuss how to become an expert at builder/buyer relations.

   Many agents shy away from new home tours with their clients, resorting to them only when they have admitted defeat in the resale market. What does this stem from? Perhaps the lessened dollar amount in cooperating referral fees paid by new home builders is a factor (some do not pay referral fees at all), but one would like to think that money is not the overriding factor in providing for their clients' needs. Another may be fear of the unknown; what advice can they impart their buyers? How much do they already know about the builder, his product, his inventory and the neighborhood? The third may be time factors, with new home escrows taking up to six months to close and produce an income for the agent.

   What an agent representing buyers to builders may consider is that there is generally safety in numbers (many subdivisions have several hundred homes in their future), providing a ready source of homes and potential income as well. Cashing in on this area of agent representation, however, can truly become an art form.

  How do I know this? Having been a builder agent for thirteen years before turning to marketing and then full time real estate journalism, I can attest to the beauty of the partnership between the Realtor and the builder salesperson, one I call a win-win-win situation. The real estate agent wins by successfully matching buyer with product, thereby ensuring their own income due to their efforts. http://www.rhnws.com.au/contactus.php