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Understanding a New Home Buyer - from the Resale Perspective

By
Real Estate Agent with Sutton Group Preferred Realty Inc.

When I first started in the real estate industry, it constantly amazed me the amount of turnover a newly developed neighbourhood would experience in the first 5 years. Over time I realized this is a natural occurance for many reasons. In my opinion the main reason is that a younger demographic tends to be attracted to new builds. The younger demographic tends to have more major lifestyle changing events that inspires moves.

I've worked with many sellers having a home under 5 years old - for this client it is imperitive to understand the new home buyer because they will quite often cross over into recently built resale. Below are some tips on how you can cater to new home buyers on the most important levels.

1) Bring out the list of upgrades: if you are in a position where he builder is still offering the same model or a very competitive model then you need to determine what they are offering a similarly equipped house for built new. Take a walk over and find out - it will be very valuable information.

2) Take credit for your post build improvements: decks, fences, gardens, shubs, patios, retaining walls, finished basements and more! All of these items cost extra from the builder, tally up your post build assets and hand them to your Realtor - these will help you build a case and crystal clear marketing tools.

3) Talk about the dirt: one of the downsides of building new is the dirt, muck and dust constantly present in a new development. With a recently built resale you can have all the characteristics of a new home and not live through the 2 years of dust. Make buyer's aware of the daily car washes they will need if they go the other way!

4) Sell it like it's a new home: there are distinc differences in how to effectively sell a new home versus a resale home. Undertanding this difference can be experienced by attending a couple of new home open houses hosted by builder reps. The new home buyer is interested in the small details - they want to know the breakfast bar is an upgrade, they want to hear how the 4 paint colours cost extra money... they are accustomed to this from he builder, so continue on that line of selling. On top of the new home selling techniques, layer in resale tactics and you'll have them won over in no time! Bring the details into focus by talking about quality of life, the area, the overal package of the home - help them fall in love with what is in front of them, some people find it daunting to pick all the colours and finishing themselves.

5) Work with a Realtor who knows what they are doing! If you live in the London Ontario region I have a great person! See www.londonhomebuilders.com for info!

Greg McCarvell

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