Before I became a new home salesperson, I was a realtor for 2 years. I started in real estate
right out of college in 2012 and I was fortunate to have some success early in my career. The
strategy I used to build my business was to consistently host open houses. I would hold 4 open
houses every weekend for months with the goal of building my database of contacts. I was able
to meet a lot of people and some of those folks eventually became my clients. I met a great
couple, I will call them Craig and Judy, that changed the trajectory of my career forever and
started me down the path I am on today.
I met Craig and Judy at an open house, they were a middle-aged couple, very experienced with
home buying and were gracious enough to let a young kid be their buyer’s agent. They were
local to northern Colorado and were looking for something specific. Whatever that specific
something was, I had not idea what it was. We looked at over 30 homes over the span of four
months. We saw single story homes, 2 story homes, large homes, small homes, homes all over.
It was exhausting. We put in a few offers here and there, but none were accepted. Being that I
was new, and these were some of my only clients, I felt like I had no choice but to hang on for
the ride and pray that they found something they liked. But I was losing hope.
Then, one fall afternoon after a weekend of looking at about 12 homes, Craig calls me up and
says, “we think we found the one, here is the address”. I immediately entered the address into
the MLS and what came up was a listing for ‘new construction’. The information on the page
was sparce; there was only one picture for the listing. The single line of text read, “call the sales
office for more information”. Up until that point in my young career, my experience with new
construction homes was severely limited. The search criteria I created that automatically sent
homes to Craig and Judy was strictly resale homes. I never thought that a new home was an
option. It soon dawned on me that I was neglecting an entire market of possibilities. I soon
realized the “specific something” Craig and Judy were looking for was new.
Anyway, we all pull up to address at the same time and I immediately gathered that the “home”
we were looking at was a model and the garage was the sales office. A makeshift office with
carpet laid down on the pitched garage floor, stacks of tile and wood samples leaning against
the wall, and a desk smack dab in the middle of the room was a young sales guys smirking
behind it. I suspect he was smirking because he was about to write another contract. He slid the
options over to my clients and said, “here are the options for the home, we can’t change
anything.” He slid the contract over for us to review, which was different from the Colorado
real estate contracts I was used to. Smirky said, “here is the contract, we can’t change
anything.” My clients didn’t seem to mind that they couldn’t negotiate or ask the seller for
changes (they really enjoyed haggling with the offers we submitted), they signed and handed
over a large check.
I was happy for my clients; they were finally getting the home they were looking for. However, I
was more intrigued with old Smirky behind the desk. Does he just sit there, and people come to
him? Are there really no negotiations and the buyers just accept the home? I was stunned. Here
I was, humping it every single week, dragging buyers all over town, doing open houses every
weekend, spending money for ads, praying that I could make a deal and this guy just sits here,
all his marketing paid for, and sell homes from a musty garage? I needed some of that.
Very soon after that deal closed, I began researching new home builders in the area and I found
most builders were vastly underrepresented among the real estate offices I visited. Realtors
didn’t seem to go out of their way to present new builds to their clients. Even now, as a new
home sales pro of over 10 years, I can count on one hand the number of realtors I have worked
with more than once, even though the pros to buying a new home instead of an existing home
are numerous.
I saw an opportunity to be an expert of one product in one community, instead of trying to be
an expert of an entire region visiting homes I know nothing about. I saw a chance to use the
skills I learned doing countless open houses to help shoppers see all the opportunities available,
not just with existing homes. I saw an opening to educate agents and homebuyers about the
new construction industry and how beneficial new homes can be for buyers and agents.
I started in new home sales because I saw an opportunity to stand out. Selling a new home is
unlike any other type of selling. Having longevity in a job like this takes timing, patience,
accuracy, and consistency. The skills I acquired early in my real estate career prepared me for
the role I am in now. Helping the buyers and agents understand the new home process
energizes me. I want everyone to know that considering a new home can be a wise choice, even
if they don’t work directly with me. There are a lot of great builders out there and all it takes is
a little time and research to discover great options and opportunities. Because Craig and Judy I
stumbled into a career path that I can genuinely smile, not smirk, everyday I come to work. And
my office isn’t musty.