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In recent weeks, the real estate industry has been buzzing about the landmark settlement from the National Association of Realtors and major brokerage firms across the country. This has led to the spread of misinformation and increased industry uncertainty.
However, the untapped potential for buyers’ representation and new development sales remains an overlooked opportunity. This is an emerging market that offers real estate agents new inventory, great opportunities, and full compensation.
Mapping the future of buyer’s agency
The real estate industry will continue to experience significant changes in every aspect of the business – whether you represent a buyer or a seller. While real estate professionals grapple with changing practices, it is critical to identify untapped potential and opportunities in all areas of the business.
The future of buyer’s agency, particularly the sale of new developments, looks promising. As developers continue to support buyer agents through competitive commissions, the value of buyer-agent collaboration remains a key factor in the success of new development marketing and sales plans.
Sam Brown
“Buyers’ agents have always been paid a 3% commission, and we plan to continue paying these commissions for the foreseeable future. We value the relationships we build with the residential brokerage community,” said Sam Brown, Ascaya Vice President of Real Estate Assets. Ascaya is a luxury new home community in Henderson, Nevada offering custom homes and private residences.
Offensive strategies in secret agent training
In response to the legal upheaval, brokerage firms have launched various training programs to help their agents stand out by using actionable strategies to highlight their unique value. Brokers are primarily focused on technology and buyer representation agreements and are therefore forced to prepare defense cases to ensure the short-term sustainability of buyer representation.
However, there is a flaw in these training initiatives—a lack of emphasis on offensive strategies for long-term growth. These often overlooked businesses offer fruitful opportunities among buyers of new development sales. Multi-unit developers are committed to offering commissions to buyers’ agents, acknowledging their important role in driving sales.
Chris Meaney
Chris Meany, managing partner at Wilson Meany, is also yerba buena islandSan Francisco’s top-selling residential development, agrees, “We are happy to pay co-op commissions to buyer’s agents. Our experience is that people purchasing high-priced homes consult with a professional real estate agent.
“We want to make this process as easy as possible for our potential buyers because the more expertise there is in the search, the higher the Yerba Buena Island ticket price will be. It’s hard to imagine an agent steering a buyer Purchase items without commission.”
Strategic initiatives to work with developers
As the spring sales season begins, the urgency for agents and team leaders to diversify agent opportunities becomes clear.
Expand agents’ sales experience with new development deals, equipping them with a broader skill set. It opens them up to a wider range of opportunities, improves their ability to deal with the complexities of new construction and improves proactive marketing skills.
Most, if not all, new developments offer dozens or hundreds of homes for sale within any given community, continuing to provide real estate commissions to outside agents who represent new buyers. Brown added: “If real estate agents continued to bring buyers and developers stopped paying buyer’s commissions, I would be surprised if that didn’t impact their sales velocity. “
Yerba Buena Island Homes.Photo: Hayes Davidson
The higher the budget, the more likely these buyers are to use a buyer’s agent to advise them through the market research, negotiation and sales process.
“Some innovators will use technology to streamline the sales process; however, technology-centric efforts to eliminate middlemen are best suited for commodity supply. We see mature buyers willing to pay for quality and higher levels of service,” Mi Ni said.
“I suspect developers who offer homes to more discerning buyers will continue to make it easier for those buyers to get expert advice and offer commissions to buyers’ agents.”
grab the chance
Elevating agent training programs to include diverse growth opportunities is critical. Introducing additional revenue streams into these programs through new development sales is a simple and effective method. Here’s how to apply it to your business:
Stay on top of your market’s new development inventory
Learn about new developments and new residential communities in your market by visiting the sales gallery or making an appointment to preview their offerings. Make friends with the sales team and ask about the sales process, partnership programs, and white label marketing assets so you can personally market to your network of customers.
Articulate the value proposition to buyers
New projects often offer a variety of home types, floor plans, and a variety of services and amenities that appeal to different buyers and their unique lifestyles. Become familiar with the project in order to effectively communicate its benefits to potential buyers and highlight key elements that resonate with the client’s wishes and needs.
Strive to represent the buyer’s best interests
New development transactions often require different sales processes and purchasing documents; ask your sales team to assist you in identifying the key differences. Whether it’s a financing need or complex HOA guidelines, understand the technical details so you can confidently guide your customers through the buying process.
Communicate proactively and stay in touch with buyers
Given that many new projects don’t publicly list all available inventory, building a rapport with a project sales team can give you and your customers early access to upcoming inventory and exclusive buyer incentives before they become available to the public.
Customize your outreach to provide your customers with timely, relevant updates that match their search criteria.
Register your clients and secure your commissions
Most new development communities require pre-registration of brokers and clients. Registering your clients into their system early on solidifies your relationship with them and confirms your eligibility for buyer’s agent commissions in that community. This also gives you access to exclusive project updates, events, and potential buyer incentives.
“Broker collaboration is critical to the overall success of new developments and the ethos of our business model,” said Brian Krueger, senior vice president of exclusive representative sales for Coldwell Banker Premier Realty. cello tower at origina new development community in Symphony Park in Las Vegas.
“We believe in the value of agents bringing qualified buyers to our developments and we are pleased to pay commissions for their efforts.”
There is a huge opportunity for buyers’ agents to expand their service offerings and position themselves as key enablers of new development sales. This proactive approach allows the buyer’s agent to not only provide services to buyers, but also build another layer of relationships that establishes a reputation in the market with future buyers and developers.
Riding the wave of demand for new homes
New home sales during the peak of the pandemic in August 2020 highlighted the potential of this segment, with more than 940,000 new home sales reported. Son of the Wind It was reported last month that “the strength in the new home market stems from a sluggish resale market. Inventory is up 15% year over year, but is still down 40% from pre-pandemic levels. To address this shortage, new home builders are stepping up construction, with 80% of builders planning to increase the pace of construction in 2024.”
There are more than 12,000 private homebuilders and home developers in the United States, and 51% of them reported raising home prices last February, including 718,098 new homes Sold same month at seasonally adjusted APR.
Opportunities exist across the industry as brokerage firms shift toward providing specialized training to enhance the future of buyer agents. By embracing the challenges and opportunities presented by this new landscape, real estate professionals can play an important role in guiding the industry toward a lucrative future characterized by smart choices, strategic partnerships and continued growth.
Leverage your connections, resources and online training programs Learn more about new development marketing and sales. Seize the opportunity that awaits and become a leader in your market.
scented tea Already part of more than $4 billion in new development in the Americas.Contact Cha on Instagram and LinkedIn.
