Hey guys, Ron here and welcome to blog number four in our series of seven, that's right, seven big issues that home buyers have when it comes to building a house. Big problems that really make that process from their standpoint pretty much broken and how you can step into that process as a Realtor and really begin to add some value and explode your business in residential new construction.
Listen, there are so many opportunities but we have to step up our game.
Today I want to share with you probably one of the most controversial of any of these ideas that we're talking about because there is a wide view of what we're about to discuss here.
In the first blog, I talked about how homebuyers can’t find a lot of the neighborhoods. About half of the neighborhoods are not find-able. That's not too controversial. Every place we go, people are like, yep, that happens here too. We're changing it by the way. I'll talk to you about that at the end.
You also can't find many of the builders. Today, I was on the phone with builders in different parts of the country, the same story doesn't matter how long they've been in the business. A lot of people don't know what they're doing, what they're building and they’re fine builders! These are really big opportunities for you to step into this and provide value.
The third problem that we talked about is the homebuyers can't find you. There are so few Realtors who actually specialize in new construction. That it is very frustrating from a buyer standpoint to find somebody who really is knowledgeable and passionate about home building. But we're changing that too.
So blog number four is the one that I call Realtor R&R, for lack of a better name. And no, I am not talking about the fact of your much-needed rest and relaxation. I'm not talking about rinse and repeat either. That's not the R&R. The R and R that I'm talking about are Realtors registering a buyer with a builder, putting them on the schedule and then retreating or running away and making yourself so scarce that maybe you don't show up until the closing day or a couple of days before. Hey, good to see you, Mr. & Mrs. Jones. Good to see you John the builder. Let's get this thing done. And that's not really the right way to do it.
The interesting thing is there is such a wide variety of ways that we should handle and opinions about it.
There are some trainers out there that will tell you, that is exactly what you should do. You hand off your client to the builder, now it's their client and you just go away and show up at the closing table to get your check.
There are builders and really big production builders that prefer that too sometimes. Just make yourself scarce and we'll see you at the closing table to collect your check. But I don't believe that's the right thing to do.
You have responsibility until closing and you want to make data relationships with the buyer. You are a fiduciary to the buyer. Yes, now you're representing a builder and the buyer and your goal is to become an intermediary and to create a win, win, win. And I do mean all three of those. I mean the win on the buyer's side, the win on the builder side and the win on your side. All three of you count as part of this process and you need to recognize that.
It's interesting because you do have people that are saying, “Hey, just make yourself scarce”.
Now on the other side of it, you've got Realtors that try to make themselves so involved that they're kind of jamming up the process. You don't want to do that either. You don't want to get to where you're clogging up the process or you're creating problems, creating issues, bringing up questions when there's really not a question on the buyer's mind. They're just happy with getting the home built and they're okay with those cabinets or that carpet or whatever.
It's kind of a fine line that you need to walk here. What's the answer to this?
Number one, you are representing the buyer and you are representing the builder. Now, this is going to vary from builder to builder to builder, depending on the size of the builder. A smaller builder wants your help. They need your help and they want you to be there and be a part of that process and make sure that it's a smooth process for everybody.
As you get bigger builders/developers, they have marketing people, salespeople or somebody that's managing their model home. They've got a bigger team, but you still need to stay involved. When you get to the big production builders, they've got a whole team and would like it sometimes if you would just make yourself scarce and again show up at the closing table. What's the answer here on how involved you should be through that process, once you’ve introduced the buyer to the builder? I don't know that I've got a perfect answer for this because it does vary case by case by case.
But here are three things to keep in mind and a way to pretty much wipe out all the problems or nearly all the problems before they ever occur:
Number one, the buyer is still your client. You are a fiduciary. I would write that down and remember that you are a fiduciary to that buyer. You want to maintain that relationship with them all the way through the transaction of course, and way afterward because you want the referrals, you want to build a relationship and you want them to be a part of your sphere of influence. Stay an intermediary.
Secondly, you want to create a mutual win. I've already talked about that, but it needs to be a win, not just for them but also for the builder. Sometimes there are Realtors that try to negotiate so heavily, so strong on behalf of the buyer that they're about to kill the builder. And the builder? They’re ready to walk off the job. I've seen it happen. A lot of times where the builder is just like, “I don't know how to deal with this. You know the buyers are really cool. I like them, but the Realtor is trying to strong-arm this situation so much that it's making it untenable.” You don't want to be untenable, right? You want to be an intermediary.
The third thing is don't create complexity where there's not already. If it's not an issue, if it's not a problem on the part of the buyer, don't make it a problem. And also if the buyer is being unrealistic on their expectations, just like with anybody else, you have to take charge of that and let them know, “Hey, that's not really the way this works. That can't happen.” Sometimes they think they're going to save so much money or you're going to negotiate so much off of this house for them. Sometimes they have expectations that aren't realistic. So you want to set their expectations appropriately early in the process.
Now, one of the big things that you can do is early in the process, what I call pre-framing, is establish your relationships with the builders and the various people on their team early before anything ever gets started. The way to do that is now. Right before you ever walk in with the buyer, get to know them, get to know the builder, get to know the salespeople, get to know their marketing if you can. In sales and marketing, become an outsourced extension of their program, of their team. Now when you do this, it eliminates so many problems that ever occur because they realize and know if you're establishing a rapport and relationship with them, that you're on their side too.
You're not just on the buyer's side, you're on their side. You are there to create a smooth transaction, to be an intermediary, to create a win-win. Really what we're doing is we're replacing the register and runaway or register and retreat with relationship and rapport, relate and rapport. Get to know them. And I'm telling you when you do this, you eliminate nearly all problems. Now, problems always come up when you're building a house or any real estate transaction. You eliminate so many problems. If you set the expectations with the buyers and you build rapport with the builder and their team, the dividends that you will experience from that are massive. I'm not kidding. I mean, they're massive. We can't even go into all of them, but the stories that I hear from other Realtors around the country when they go out and really begin to build the rapport that they need to be building with the builder and get this relationship in place before they ever start bringing in the buyers, massive, massive wins.
You'll end up with more listings. You'll end up with more buyers. You'll end up with more leads, you'll end up with more referrals. There are a lot of ways that you can win by becoming an extension of their program. Does that mean you throw the buyer off the bridge, throw him under the bus and say "Hey, I'm just here to make sure that the builder wins?" No. You're an intermediary that is creating communication and you're there to learn and you're there to complete the process.
So learn, communicate and complete.
That is all I have for you on this blog. Now, if you have ideas on this, or experience with it, I would love to have you chime in and get your thoughts on it. It's an important topic because a lot of times buyers feel like they're not being represented when they're just dropped off.
I'm the founder of a company called Hoodle that is a web platform for the home building process across the United States. We're bringing together all of the professionals, market-by-market that the buyers need to be able to make the right choices, find their options and get a home built. We're streamlining the process of building a new home for the buyer and we're involving the builders, the land developers, the neighborhoods, the Realtors, mortgage and others.
I'm telling you, it is cool and it is massively powerful. We're getting stories back from builders, Realtors, and different people who are members of the Hoodle website saying, “Hey, this allowed me to go get a listing and build this relationship.” I want you to be a part of it. And the only reason I bring it up is that somebody said, you know, you really should tell people about Hoodle.
You ought to download the FREE e-book, “7 Ways Home Building Is Broken For Buyers... And How Realtors Are Exploding Their Business Because Of It!” You can find that at http://www.newhomenicheblueprint.com./
You can also find out about a class that we just recently launched. I've had a lot of people that are going through the class saying, "Hey, this is gold. " I hope it is because I really put my heart into it. We study, study, study, and we want to present you guys with really helpful information. I would love for you to check that out, get value from it and ultimately become part of the Hoodle community as an Affiliate Realtor because that's where the action is happening.
This is Ron and thank you so much for reading this blog. God bless you guys. I hope you have a fantastic week and I look forward to talking to you again. Take care.
Download our FREE e-book at http://www.newhomenicheblueprint.com.
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