Lead Generation with New Construction – Heather Pilcher
Nazar Kalayji [00:00:00]:
Welcome to this week. Wanted to introduce Heather here she is all the way from Cincinnati, and she’s going to be presenting today. I’m super excited about hearing her, what she has to say about new construction. You’re talking about new construction, right?
Heather Pilcher [00:00:16]:
Right. Yep.
Nazar Kalayji [00:00:17]:
Perfect.
Nazar Kalayji [00:00:17]:
Okay.
Nazar Kalayji [00:00:18]:
And you know what’s interesting I’ve realized over the years, because I’ve moved from one state to another, is that new construction works differently in every single state. You’ve got some states that are hardcore big conglomerate companies that build like 300, 400 homes at a time. They buy tons of acreages and build, and then you’ve got ones that are mama pops that build 2030 homes at a time. So I’m curious to see how it works in your neck of the woods and how things are different from place to place. So, Heather, please take it away.
Heather Pilcher [00:00:55]:
Awesome. Thanks, Nazar. So, yeah, kind of high level with the new construction. Like Nazar said, there’s going to be a whole bunch of different types of builders in your area and it’s going to be important to get to know your market. Specifically in Cincinnati, we have the track builders that build hundreds of homes a year. And then there’s the semi custom and then custom high end homes. So today I want to talk about new construction, lead generation. So a little bit on the buyer side and especially focusing on how to get to the listings because we would all love to have listings coming in that are motivated sellers ready to rock.
Heather Pilcher [00:01:30]:
And they’re buying. So they’re actually on a timeline. Right. So a little bit of introduction on me. I’m licensed in Ohio and Kentucky, right, in the Cincinnati suburbs on the Ohio river border. And if you want to follow me on Instagram, I’ve got my Instagram handle on the bottom here. And I love to connect with agents around the country. And that’s what I love about this master class is that you’re all coming from different areas.
Heather Pilcher [00:01:51]:
So please follow me on there. And if you do follow me, send me a message, because I’d love to actually connect and talk with you a little bit about me. As far as the statistics go, in 2023, my husband and I, we have a team, and between the two of us, we did 22 new construction contracts. And then those were with six different builders and immediate representation. We had six builder rep listing leads come from that. So I’m going to dive into what all of that means and being able to get listings from the builder reps. But I would just love to see in the chat box, I think there’s stats and there’s research to show that if you’re actually engaged in commenting and participating, you’re going to get more out of this. So I’d love to see in the chat box and also if you want to comment, how many of you have sold at least one new construction home? If you have, say yes in the chat box.
Heather Pilcher [00:02:49]:
Awesome.
Heather Pilcher [00:02:50]:
See Nazar, Matt Shandy, Michelle Ryan. Awesome. I’m super glad that you’ve all sold some new construction so you’ll have a decent idea of what I’m talking about when we talk about new construction. But if the average agent in the country sells eight or nine homes a year, to be able to do 22 new construction I think is super special and it’s something that we have really focused on. So I want to share with you some of the benefits. First of all, I want to hear from you guys, what are benefits of selling new construction? I put a couple of thoughts on here. Don’t have brutal inspections. The house isn’t falling apart.
Heather Pilcher [00:03:30]:
I see Sophia, Bobby, Jessica, you’ve all sold new construction. Awesome. Do you guys want to pipe in in the chat box benefits of new construction. You’re not in multiple offers. I don’t know if you guys are seeing this still, but especially during 2020 and like the COVID market, there were multiple offers on that $300 to $400,000 price point in our market. And this was a way to not get outbid doing the multiple escalation clauses and things like that. Realtor incentives. Matt, you said less calls after closing.
Heather Pilcher [00:04:05]:
Absolutely. You get to see what’s behind the walls. From the very beginning, a lot of builders are offering a builder paid interest rate buy down. So when rates were in the high sevens, builders in our area were buying the rate down for the buyers to get them into the fives. So if your clients are saying, no, I can’t buy right now because I literally can’t afford to do that high of an interest rate because they go over their debt to income. Those rate buy downs could help make it more possible for them to actually.
Nazar Kalayji [00:04:33]:
Be able to buy.
Heather Pilcher [00:04:34]:
And then one of the big benefits I loved was upgrading is a lot of times if they’re buying a new construction home, there’s a chance that that’s going to be their second home, which means they have another house to sell. And we all love to get listings and people buying. Tim, you said no emotional seller connected to the home. Absolutely. It’s just business for the builders. Right. So with that being said, there’s all of these benefits. One more point.
Heather Pilcher [00:05:00]:
I’ll say too, is knowing your different builders. They have incentives for realtors. So one of the big builders, they do the tracked homes that you can semi custom, but they do hundreds of homes a year. They will pay $750 flight voucher and they’ll give you $1,000 Ritz Carlton gift card for every two sales that you do in the time frame that you need. And another builder that we work with regularly, they do an annual trip that they pay flights and the hotel accommodations or cruise. And you get to go all paid. So you get paid your 3% commission plus maybe you got a listing out of it and you get trips. So there’s a lot of different benefits and leading into.
Heather Pilcher [00:05:39]:
Okay, that’s great. So how do I get listings out of it, and how do I get more business in new construction? So I want you to picture if you have a builder in your mind or someone that you want to work with. These builder reps are sitting in an office. They usually have their scheduled office hours and they’re waiting for walk ins to come in the door, or they’re waiting for Internet leads. So these big builders have all this lead system going online, and then the reps are going to receive these listings, sorry, receive the buyer leads. And if that person comes in and they don’t have a realtor, there’s an opportunity for you to be involved with the buy and with a listing. So there’s a lot of different scenarios. Sometimes people come in and they already have a realtor and that’s totally fine.
Heather Pilcher [00:06:24]:
If they don’t, that builder rep can introduce you. So it’s important that you are the builder rep’s favorite. If they love you and trust you, they will recommend you. So if you’re feeding them business, if you’ve sent them two or three deals in the last couple of months, they’re going to be top of mind. And when someone comes in that doesn’t have a realtor and they need a recommendation, you will come to the top of their mind. And in the chat box, I just want you guys to comment. If you say yes, how many of you would love to have a motivated seller that’s raising their hand? They’re ready to write a contract on a new construction home. They need to upgrade or downsize.
Heather Pilcher [00:07:02]:
I would say absolutely yes. We love those seller leads. So a couple of perspectives on this is if they are building a bigger home and they have a condo or a smaller house to sell, those are usually great listings because they’re at the lower price point where there’s a huge need for those listings. And if they’re downsizing from a bigger home, that’s a big house for you to be able to list. So to start off with a couple of tips is you’ve got to do your research. So first of all, you want to find partners of the builder reps who are on the leaderboards and that sell a decent amount of houses each year. Now, you don’t have to go after necessarily the top producer because they probably have a lot of people they’re working with. But find someone in the middle and find someone that matches your personality.
Heather Pilcher [00:07:45]:
And I always recommend finding two different reps per builder because personalities are all different and you need to match those up with your clients. But reason number one, I would say is if you find someone that’s up on the leaderboards, up doing a lot of production, they’re number one, going to be able to service your clients that you bring to them and do an exceptional job and create a great client experience for your people. And reason number two is that they are more likely to have leads to share with you as well. The other part of doing your research is to get familiar with new construction. If you want the builder reps to recommend you and pull you in on deals and be happy with you, you’ve got to get familiar with knowing what they offer. So some builders, they have market homes that are ready to purchase, they’re moving ready, they’re done. And then most builders have the option to build from scratch. So if you’re familiar with that process and have done your research about the basics of their communities, then you’re going to be an asset in those new construction consultations.
Heather Pilcher [00:08:45]:
And we’re going to talk more later about how to win over the reps. But just being familiar enough, you don’t have to know everything. You just need to know enough to be dangerous and be able to get your foot in the door. So knowing the game, the market, homes versus to be built and the basics of the product, again, you don’t have to know everything. The builder reps specialize in their product, but you have to know, okay, if you’re looking, your buyer is looking in this city, you got to know, okay, there’s these two different builders at their price point that might work and then you can make the introductions. The builder reps really lead it and you’re just an asset there to support the buyers through the process. So how specifically do we earn the referrals? It’s a great concept that you want to get listing leads, you want to get pulled in on deals with these buyer or the builder reps, but how do you actually demonstrate value? So I want to hear from you guys if you want to pipe in a little bit. How do you provide value to builder reps? How do you lead Gen with them? I’ll just keep going, but I’d love to hear from you guys.
Brandon Pilcher [00:09:57]:
I can chime in a little bit here. Can you guys hear me?
Heather Pilcher [00:09:59]:
Yep.
Brandon Pilcher [00:10:01]:
One of the big things that we’ve tried to do more recently, and I think I might be stealing a little bit from you. Sorry Heather, but we’ve tried really sitting down with the builder reps and having a conversation with them to build rapport and just listen, get them talking and figure out what their positive experience pain points without being nosy and asking for names, but say what goes well, what can we do to help you when we’re sitting in these meetings, when we’re doing the job, site visits and what should we avoid doing? What drives you nuts? And if you can build that open relationship of like, okay, I’ve been able to express myself to this person, build that connection and they’re going to be a positive asset to me in the sales process, then they’re far more likely to feel positive towards you, whether it’s the buy side or the sale side and therefore ideally send you more business.
Heather Pilcher [00:10:51]:
Yeah, definitely.
Heather Pilcher [00:10:55]:
Awesome.
Heather Pilcher [00:10:55]:
So I’m going to dive right into it and I do want to keep you guys engaged. Keep commenting. So a couple of ideas that Brandon, my husband and I have done to get to all these deals that we did this year was to go fishing with your reps. So go out and actually be proactive. If your builder rep is sitting in their office, but they can schedule an open house for you to host that’s in the same community and that gets out on the MLS, it syncs out to Zillow and realtor.com. Some organic traffic comes in, hits you up at the open house, you are sitting there and you get to start the conversation, introducing them to this market home and to the new construction idea. And then you can introduce them to the builder and there’s a way immediately for you to be connected with a buyer who’s looking to purchase and likely has a listing to sell. So that’s one example.
Heather Pilcher [00:11:43]:
We’re going to dive into that a little bit more. Another way to win their business and referrals is to just bring them contracts. So when you have your own contracts that are out shopping around, introduce them to the concept of this new construction and those builder Reps are going to love you. If you’ve brought them, say, six new deals in the last couple of months, they’re going to be highly incentivized to take care of you. You’re going to become one of their top realtors and they’re going to do extra things for you to help loop you into deals, help you have a great experience, and then send you those listing referrals. So be a resource to them, to your builder reps as well, and help build their business, your benefit and an asset to them. Because number one, you can help them overcome the contingency to sell that the clients are going to have. And then number two is having connections for short term or midterm rental properties.
Heather Pilcher [00:12:29]:
So oftentimes people that are going to build, they have to get their home sold first, right. And sometimes before the builder will even start the building process, those people have to sell their house. So there’s this six to eight month process sometimes where people are going to be homeless. And if you have a lender who owns a short term rental and you can help fill them with a high paying month to month contract, your lender is going to be happy. That builder rep is going to be happy because you’re able to get their home sold and get the new house process started and you’re able to leverage all these different relationships to keep the process going.
Nazar Kalayji [00:13:05]:
Heather, what percentage of these new construction people that you connect with are like the more national builders, like the Dior Hortons of the world compared to the smaller ones?
Heather Pilcher [00:13:17]:
Yeah.
Heather Pilcher [00:13:18]:
So I don’t remember the exact stats for us, but I think maybe like ten of the contracts were with Fisher homes and Fisher builds hundreds of homes a year. So a lot of these are, they do a ton of business.
Brandon Pilcher [00:13:31]:
Yeah, I can give you the stats there. Of the 22, it looks like 14 were with Fisher and three were with Dresden. Those are kind of the more national companies in our area.
Nazar Kalayji [00:13:43]:
I guess the reason I ask is because if you’re dealing with somebody that is a big builder, they usually have their own sales force. They usually going to list their own properties on their mls. If they use the MLS as a form of marketing. I wonder how you get into those opportunities where you can list, because I know some of the smaller builders, you could actually get them to use you to list one of their properties, right. They might not list all eight or ten that they have available. They might list one with you just to give them more exposure. And so I’m wondering what tactics you guys have used. And I don’t know if the big builders will have that opportunity.
Nazar Kalayji [00:14:17]:
Right? Any thoughts on that?
Heather Pilcher [00:14:19]:
Yes, that’s a really good question. I would say that’s a whole nother subject of trying to be like the listing agent for the builder specifically. So kind of this focus of today is getting just regular resale listings from builder reps that have clients who have a contingency to sell or want and need to. So Nazar, if you want to do a whole nother class on getting the actual listings for the builders, that would be a great one for sure.
Nazar Kalayji [00:14:46]:
Well, so let’s talk about. I mean, and you’ve mentioned a couple of times already, but how do you make it to where you’re delivering enough value to the rep there at the builder so that you can be the person that they loop in that has a contingent buyer?
Heather Pilcher [00:15:06]:
We’re going to dive into that. Sorry, give me 1 second to go to this next slide.
Heather Pilcher [00:15:13]:
Because I don’t think anybody here has a problem with selling new construction or they acknowledge the benefits of it. I’m just wondering what else we can do to be able to build more opportunities in either marketing for them so that we can get more people there or find ways to be able to create. I don’t know what builder would ever say, hey, you don’t have a representative. I’ve got an agent that could help you, represent you. Because they don’t want to do that. Because they’re going to save money if they don’t pay out a buyer’s agent. Right?
Nazar Kalayji [00:15:45]:
Yeah.
Brandon Pilcher [00:15:45]:
So, Nazar, I’m going to chime in there a little bit. We actually see the opposite. A lot of these deals we do get both sides on because their marketing budgets on these larger companies like Fisher and Dre’s in our area, they have that allocated for marketing. So the sales reps don’t care. They really just want to get somebody through the finish line. So if we can help, be a process of that, help them get the signatures on the purchase and help officiate the whole sales process, whether it’s contingent to sale or not. That can be a huge value add. And if you’re their number one, go to, I would suggest a third of our new construction business is from that.
Brandon Pilcher [00:16:21]:
It’s from what a rep saying, hey, help me get this to the finish line.
Heather Pilcher [00:16:27]:
Yeah.
Heather Pilcher [00:16:27]:
So they actually loop us into the deal instead of trying to cut us out. So I think that’s part of doing your research on the builders and the builder reps. Because if you know what they’re incentivized to do and how they’re paid. So like Brandon was saying, some of the builders, it’s literally part of their marketing budget. So whether there’s a realtor involved or not, it doesn’t change anything from the builder’s perspective and from those builder reps. However, there are some of the builder reps where if a realtor is involved, they get paid less. So those ones are not the best ones to try and partner up with if you’re trying to increase your business.
Heather Pilcher [00:17:01]:
Yeah, I’ve had clients before where I’ve sold them a house and then that rep has told my client behind my back, hey, the next time you want to buy in this community, if you come without your agent, we’ll save you money.
Heather Pilcher [00:17:12]:
Yeah, those are not good.
Nazar Kalayji [00:17:15]:
Yeah.
Heather Pilcher [00:17:16]:
So if you can find like we’re like with Fisher homes, they’re not incentivized to cut us out at all. And if they can actually help loop us into some of the deals, and we’ll talk more about this in a second. But say there’s a client who’s shopping resale and new construction, but they don’t have an agent. Like they want to consider the other options that Fisher rep can pull us in to help be a resource to the client, knowing that they’re ultimately going to lean toward new construction, but that helps us become part of the buyer process rather than trying to cut us out and just persuade the client to use them directly. Yeah, good question. You’ve got to get familiar with the builders and how they’re paid. And sometimes when you’re sitting down with these reps and asking them questions about how you can build their business, they might want to talk about their money and they might not. But I always say if a realtor is involved, is it going to decrease your compensation? And if they say, oh, no, it’s not at all, then, you know, that might be a good person to partner with.
Heather Pilcher [00:18:11]:
Whereas the other hand, you’re going to have to make sure and follow the due process to make sure you don’t get cut out of deals.
Matt Farnham [00:18:17]:
Heather, I think one thing noteworthy too, though, is the builders that aren’t super realtor friendly, don’t discount those because a lot of other realtors do and just go and say, hey, listen, I know your comp model. I know if somebody comes in that you do better. If I’m not involved, I’m not asking to be involved, but if they have.
Heather Pilcher [00:18:33]:
A home to sell, let me help.
Matt Farnham [00:18:35]:
You get you paid, because those are ones that don’t have very many realtors being nice to them. You know what I mean? So go butter those guys up and.
Heather Pilcher [00:18:42]:
Get the listing right. Definitely. It’s a really good point, Matt. And again, so there’s multiple different ways to make the money in the new construction, right? It’s building the new homes and listing. It might just be building and it could just be a listing. And we’ve had that in a lot of scenarios where the builder rep meets with the client and I’m not part of that new construction house at all, but I do get the listing referral. So it really is keeping an open mind and really just trying to provide value and build those relationships so that there’s multiple different income streams or resources to kind of build that pipeline.
Tammi Freund [00:19:16]:
And our team just recently started doing open houses for a new subdivision that’s open here in our area out near Houston. And we actually had four of our agents because they had several inventory homes available. So we actually have been holding all their inventory homes open and then we’re doing the marketing for it too. We’re running all the social media ads and promoting that. So we’re trying to build the relationship.
Brandon Pilcher [00:19:44]:
That way with them.
Heather Pilcher [00:19:46]:
Absolutely. Lots of different ways to do it. So kind of wrapping up this open house strategy, the open house has really helped us a lot because like we had said that the builder schedules the open house in the MLS. It syncs out to zillowandrealtor.com, and then there’s a lot of that walk in traffic. Now there have been times where people walk into the open house that the agent that we’re doing, and they do have a realtor, but that’s totally fine because if you can tell them a little bit about that builder and about the specific house you’re in or the community, and then point them to that builder rep, the builder rep is still going to get that business and they’re going to remember that you helped be a lead source for that traffic because maybe they don’t know. They need to schedule an appointment with the builder rep to get started, but they do know how to shop open houses on Zillow. So the next one is to share social media posts that the builder rep is making. Now keep in mind, I feel like real estate agents are trying to figure out how to use social media and builder reps frequently are even worse at it than realtors are.
Heather Pilcher [00:20:50]:
So help educate them, meet with them and talk about what’s working for you, what you learned at your last class. But what I found is that clients really like to know about interest rate promotions. So if you can say, hey, the going rates right now are 7%, but the builder can get you in for 5.75 with a minimum down payment. That’s something worth sharing if there’s huge price reduction. So if it’s at a higher price point and you can say, hey, there was just a $50,000 price reduction on this home, you just share that builder rep’s post and it’s a way to get some publicity, but also to make that builder rep feel like you’re promoting them and their business. Another thing that has been really interesting is there’s a lot more multigenerational floor plans coming out. So there will be a nice big footprint and then off connected to the house. But an extension is like a mother in law suite or something that they could use for an office space.
Heather Pilcher [00:21:41]:
So having multiple kind of primary suites on the first floor and upstairs separately is how you can have grandma live with you still, but still have your own space. So promoting some of those doing video walkthroughs with the builder rep to help promote the floor plans, what they’re doing. Any other ideas you guys want to share for some ideas for social media posts?
Heather Pilcher [00:22:03]:
I think if you do like the social media posts, especially if they’ve got standing inventory where the home is done, where it looks nicer than a construction site, and you share with them everything that the home has to offer the community, everything else, and then say, hey, and if you come here and if you mention my name, then you get x and it could be something that they don’t offer, but you offer so that they loop you in. Right. Obviously if you have that deal worked out with the thing, whatever. Some builders don’t offer appliance packages. Some do. You can say, hey, if you use me, then you get an extended home warranty, right? A lot of our home warranty companies out there will have a new construction, new builder home warranty. That piggybacks what the new builders offer. And if they buy through you and you give them an additional four years of fit and finish warranty, there might be an incentive enough for them to be able to say, hey, yeah, I came here because Heather told me about this community.
Heather Pilcher [00:22:59]:
And as long as that builder is going to be okay with you not being there physically with them, that might give you.
Nazar Kalayji [00:23:07]:
You know, one of the.
Tammi Freund [00:23:08]:
Things too that we have on our books plan with the same builder which know a pretty big builder in our area is we have an agreement. We’re going to start shooting some videos there at their sales office in the homes that are inventory and shoot them with involving the builder in some of those and some interviews and things like that. So trying to build that relationship.
Nazar Kalayji [00:23:32]:
Just a thought. Yeah, I love it.
Heather Pilcher [00:23:36]:
Trying to read some of the comments, Rochelle said, how do we get listings from the builder when they are closing out a neighborhood and have standing inventory? Anybody want to share a thought on that? If there’s standing inventory, how to turn those into listings? I think, again, every builder is different, and so being familiar with the ways that they operate is super helpful. I think one thing that we have done is to do really good video walkthroughs. So taking a gimbal and have someone follow you and you kind of show it off. So you’re actually walking through the house and presenting it. And if the builders see that you’re hustling out there and promoting their listings already, that’s a great way to get tied in of these guys are doing a great job. Why wouldn’t I just hire them to sell it for me?
Brandon Pilcher [00:24:22]:
One little inside trader secret, too, is as these builders build out neighborhoods, often their financing is in bundles. So they’ll be able to fund, say, 20 construction projects at a time in any given neighborhood. So as they get to the end of that bundle, whether it’s the end of a street, usually they chunk it out in streets. The last house or two on a street often will come with a price drop or an extra kick. So if you know about those at the end of a neighborhood, build out at the end of a street, and you can proactively ask about reps like, hey, are there any deals coming up? People love off market deals or inside knowledge. That secret is the social currency. So if you can be on top of some of that, that can help you and them both go find more of those buyers, and hopefully those buyers have listings.
Nazar Kalayji [00:25:11]:
Absolutely.
Heather Pilcher [00:25:12]:
All right, we’re going to keep moving. So how do I build business relationships again? Send them business. If you’re actually attracting the business and sending it to them, making it kind of warm, hot leads to get to a contract, they love that. And then when you’re showing interest in their business, just sit down. Like, schedule a lunch, schedule coffee, go to their office, make it easy on them, and just ask them questions, how can I support you? And then actually listen and then collaborate and present ideas. Like, what we’re doing here is trying to collaborate and figure out how to do better business. Right? So a couple of questions that you could ask them is, what do your favorite realtors do that you work with? How do we best support you in the process. And what are your pet peeves about working with realtors? A lot of times these builder reps will say realtors are trying to insert themselves as the experts and they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Heather Pilcher [00:26:01]:
So don’t be an obnoxious realtor, but ask them what their pet peeves are so that you can avoid those things. Oftentimes they’re going to say be part of the poll process. Don’t just get the contract and then disappear. Go help. Take pictures of the clients on site. Help the builder be able to get a good review as well as yourself. Right? Be there for the whole process. If it’s a market home, it’s a really quick 30 day turnaround.
Heather Pilcher [00:26:22]:
But just sit down, ask them how you can support.
Nazar Kalayji [00:26:27]:
I got to add real quick, what’s.
Heather Pilcher [00:26:30]:
Also nice to do for them is to buy them some drinks. I’m not saying bring vodka, whatever, but bring us a Jamba juice or Starbucks or something that you know that they like. Because a lot of times they’re stuck there. They’re stuck there for 8 hours or however long they’re there, they don’t even have chance to be able to really leave for a minute. So getting them something, just stopping by and making that a regular thing that you do, bringing them some donuts or something to eat could really help them, especially if it’s like a busy day and they’re really stuck there, right?
Nazar Kalayji [00:27:05]:
Yeah.
Heather Pilcher [00:27:06]:
And to that point of figuring out what they need, like bringing their favorite snacks, what I found the builder reps love is to be able to have events planned for them. So if you’re active in your real estate community and you are friends with a bunch of the top realtors in the area and an event, and bring all your favorite realtor friends and then ask that builder rep who you know is going to provide your friends value to share the recent incentives, what’s on the market, to educate on new communities, just to provide value to your agent friends. And then it’s a win win. The builder rep gets to be in front of a bunch of top realtors and get more business. And you might worry that those other realtors are going to steal business from you or something. But I think that’s a very scarcity mindseted thing because in reality the builder rep, if you make that introduction to ten or 20 other realtors, they’re going to remember that really all the business that comes from them could lead back to you in that relationship. So get them in front of people, you could do a home buying seminar and get it out to your sphere. There’s a lot of different ways you could do this.
Heather Pilcher [00:28:10]:
So I would also add that competition creates priority. If you’re going to send a bunch of business to one rep, they could become complacent. So something that we have found is we had a really great realtor that started to get. Not a realtor, a builder rep that started to get a little bit more Shalon with us. So if you let them know, like, hey, I am going to host another event with this rep because they’re introducing me to their sphere, then it does create a little bit more of that competition. So they’re going to be more hungry to keep you happy and send you referrals to earn your business and support your business as well. So I know we’re kind of getting to the end of our half hour, so I just want to give you a couple of quick examples of how this has really worked out well for us. So we had been doing a lot of business with this same builder rep, and I think we had probably sent five or six deals in a month.
Heather Pilcher [00:29:00]:
So it was a really good month. And this builder rep sends me an email one day, just randomly, that says, hey, clients, please meet Heather Pilter. She’s an awesome realtor in your area. And I replied instantly, set a listing appointment for that next day and secured a listing on the spot. And it was a great two story home with a finished basement, beautiful landscaping, great listing, but I was able to get almost a guaranteed listing because I was prepared for it. But it was such a warm lead and they were motivated that that turned into a listing. And then another example, if a client wants to explore different options, right, like they are shopping new construction and the resale options, if that builder rep could introduce you and know you’re going to keep their best interest in mind. So at the end of the day, the client’s going to be happy regardless of what they end up buying.
Heather Pilcher [00:29:52]:
But if they are leaning toward new construction, you’re going to bring that business back to that builder rep. So that’s a great way of, we’ve had the builder reps contact us and say, hey, this buyer is shopping. And then if they do have a house to sell, we end up getting looped in on a purchase and a listing, which we absolutely love those. Brandon, do you want to pipe in on one more example, maybe the builder rep that was asking for advice on.
Brandon Pilcher [00:30:19]:
Yeah, actually, I was going to add a little bit to the last slide. Heather, if you don’t mind, jumping back on the competition situation. So this is something that we had a rep. It was the one that we were using for almost everything, honestly, for a good six months, doing great. And then, like Heather was saying, the response time kind of slowed down just a little bit, and we weren’t getting any reciprocity as far as business. And what we figured is, from the sales reps, if they know that you’re going to be loyal to them and continue to use them virtually exclusively, then why would they send their nuggets to you? They’re going to send it to other agents so they can try and win other agent loyalty. So there’s a balance between, you don’t want to make enemies, but you also want to be fair and have an open discussion of, I want to earn your business, I want you to earn my business. I want this partnership to grow.
Brandon Pilcher [00:31:14]:
And the idea that you are working with multiple agents and multiple builders and being transparent about that keeps you much more top of mind and keeps a lot sharper. So we’ve been able to maintain a very good relationship with that, but we just kind of had this aha. Of you feel too secure in a relationship and you stop investing into it. So that was kind of a big finding of us recently, this year.
Nazar Kalayji [00:31:42]:
Yep.
Heather Pilcher [00:31:42]:
Thanks, Brandon. So again, one last example to wrap up on is that Brandon had been having a good relationship with this builder rep and helps them kind of be able to house hack their own property that they built. But the builder rep couldn’t loop him in on the deal, otherwise he would lose his own discount as an employee. So we didn’t get to be part of that purchase, even though Brandon had invested a lot of time on it. However, a couple of weeks later, we get two listing leads that we also were able to represent on the buy side because of how it was set up. So it’s a really healthy way to keep your pipeline full. And we talked about all the benefits of new construction earlier, that the new construction deals are often easier to navigate. You don’t have brutal inspections and negotiations back and forth with emotional sellers, so your clients are super happy with a new construction purchase.
Heather Pilcher [00:32:29]:
And on the listing side, we all love more listings. And one final point I’ll make is when you’re partnered up with builder reps or with lenders, in this scenario, a builder rep, there’s not a referral fee, so you’re not paying a 25% referral fee to an agent. And it’s organic business. That’s a really good relationship. So I just want to open it up. What questions or thoughts do you guys have?
Nazar Kalayji [00:32:53]:
What?
Heather Pilcher [00:32:53]:
Aha.
Heather Pilcher [00:32:59]:
I think personally, it’s one of those things where when you have this type of topic and you’re like, dang it, I should invest more energy and time into this. But we all don’t, or we’re not strategic about it. Right. If you’re not spending time and strategically looking this as a lead pillar, because you might say, well, I don’t have a buyer that wants to buy in that community. Well, you’re right, you may not. But if you do these things, like hold an open house or do these things, and you might go there once and be like, hey, how’s it going? Here’s a Starbucks, and here’s this. And they’re like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t know who you are.
Heather Pilcher [00:33:28]:
What are you doing here? And if you don’t get that warm reception that you hoped for, don’t let that discourage you from continuing to go back.
Nazar Kalayji [00:33:35]:
Right.
Nazar Kalayji [00:33:35]:
Ask those questions, be curious, and go look at every single floor plan that they have, what’s coming to market. Just know every single thing about that community as much as you possibly can, and so you can deliver value. And instead of being a shark there, work with them instead of trying to, like, because a lot of times, I think a lot of agents have a lot of animosity towards these new construction because we’ve all been burned where we’ve had a client go there without us, and because they didn’t go there the first time with us, they’re like, no, screw you. We’re not paying you anything. We’ve all had that experience. And so there’s a lot of this frustrating experience with them. And because we all know that most of those builder reps couldn’t make it as a real agent, and so that’s why they’re working there. And so there’s that mindset that most of us have.
Nazar Kalayji [00:34:23]:
And so there’s a little bit of frustration. But I think that those relationships can be built, and if it can, it can create those opportunities. Like Brendan, Heather, you guys are saying so I appreciate that a lot.
Heather Pilcher [00:34:33]:
Absolutely.
Nazar Kalayji [00:34:35]:
Any other thoughts that people have? You guys didn’t talk about the small builders, some of these smaller builders, they don’t have in house marketing, in house stuff, right. They might be themselves an agent, and so they’re listing their own properties, but beyond that, they don’t have that. And so I’ve been able to secure lots of listings of new construction because I was trying to represent a buyer to buy one of their homes. And they saw the value that I brought to the table and it was just me asking, saying, hey, listen, would you guys be open minded to listing at least one of your homes with me? And it just gets that foot in the door and it creates that opportunity for you to be able to build that relationship with them as well. And then same thing with the custom home builder. If you get in it with them early on and they have this home that they’re building, that could be a great way for you to be able to start proactively doing stuff. And you might get burned, right? You might do work and then nothing pans out. But at the end of the day, just like you’re saying, if you put stuff in the universe, you might not get paid from that specific thing, but it’ll come around, you’ll be benefited from another way or somehow.
Heather Pilcher [00:35:49]:
Right. So don’t think about the exact thing you’re doing and how that’s going to benefit you immediately from that specific transaction.
Nazar Kalayji [00:35:57]:
Definitely.
Heather Pilcher [00:35:57]:
One more tip I’ll add, too, is if you’re focusing on a community, like, there’s one luxury community that you really love the most and you want to become the listing agent there, that’s preferred. I mean, try to find the buyers. If you’re finding six buyers a year for them, they’re going to say, dude, they’re not even our listing agent, and they’re finding all these buyers. So a couple of things you can do is go to the communities, do the videos. I mean, post things on YouTube when you’re posting on Instagram or on the Google, tag that actual community. Because then when buyers or people are shopping on the Internet, looking up that community, they’re going to see you on repeat and they’re going to reach out to you because you’re the expert, even if you’re not the listing agent, technically.
Nazar Kalayji [00:36:33]:
And there’s some builders right now, they’re offering like 4%, 5% broker co op. And I remember when the market was softened back in 2004, five, six, something like that. I remember this lady. She would go and literally sell a whole street to her investors. And obviously, that rep and that builder loved her because she literally would just sell all of them. So, yeah, there’s lots of opportunity to be able to build those connections.
Matt Farnham [00:37:08]:
Nazar, I’ll add a couple of to this is actually convicting to me because I used to put so much effort into building relationships and I just haven’t as of late. But, yeah, I used to get a ton of referrals from new home builders. It’s a huge opportunity, guys, if you’re not leveraging it. So a couple of suggestions I’d have is, number one, act as if just go in there like you are their partner. I used to send Christmas baskets to their whole teams. I would show up with a big tray of Starbucks with just a variety of drinks and be like, not sure what your favorite is. Here you go. Until you know their favorite, then you bring it.
Matt Farnham [00:37:41]:
Bring resale stats to their neighborhood, like, help them understand what their competition is so they can help have an angle to sell more homes. Just bring value to them. I used to do a standing meeting with some different new home agents where we’d have coffee in the neighborhood of where their community was 30 minutes or an hour before. They would start at like 10:00 a.m.. Usually. And we would just talk about, what am I seeing in the marketplace? What are the objections I’m getting? I would literally kind of coach them on how I do resale business to make them better on new homes. I literally treated them just like a client that you follow up with, and I could keep going. There’s so many things that you guys can do.
Matt Farnham [00:38:21]:
Bring your marketing plan, like show them how you market homes so they can show. I used to get contingencies accepted from builders that weren’t doing contingencies because they’re like, well, if Matt’s listing the home, it’ll be okay. So there’s so many things you can do to get that extra one or two home sales bolted onto your business this year.
Nazar Kalayji [00:38:41]:
Speaking of that, there are companies out there that will do contingent sales, right? Like, I know in California we have that. I think they’re in a couple other states as well. So if you’ve got a contingent buyer that wants to buy in the community and that builder won’t accept a contingent buyer, you can bring someone to the table that will buy their home so that they can then be a non contingent buyer for that property, and then you could then help them sell that home so you can create that type of an opportunity so that you’re going to be their little saving grace, if you will, so that the buyer gets the property that they want, the seller gets to sell a house without having a contingent buyer, and then you get to have a listing opportunity come up because of that. All right, well, thank you so much, Heather, for sending today. Hopefully this gives you guys that are listening an opportunity to be able to say, you know what, I’ve done that well in the past, or I have never done this before, and here’s an opportunity for me to do that, or if you are currently doing it, maybe some tips that helped you level up your game and maybe take it to the next step and give them more opportunity to be able to serve them and hopefully make more money. Thank you so much, Heather. You guys have an awesome week. We’ll talk to you guys next Thursday.
Nazar Kalayji [00:39:54]:
Bye.
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