If the mood ever strikes you, as it struck me a few months ago, venture to the NAHB National Association of Homebuilders website and peruse their education offerings. You'll find lots of great classes being offered there all across this great nation of ours.
One course in particular that has been revamped for 2008 and recently rolled out in Birmingham, Alabama on March 5-6th is House Construction as a Selling Tool, instructed by Nancy Gainer, of Gainer Consulting fame. Nancy, by her own confession, has sawdust in her veins. Seems her father was a builder and had her schlepping around job sites before she even got to junior high (circa 1950's). Some forty or so years later she's shifted gears, but is still schlepping a little on her own job site in addition to crisscrossing the nation as a consultant for builders and developers and as an adjunct for the NAHB University of Housing. You can catch up with her next in Jacksonville, Florida, but I digress.
This two day course was designed to help real estate sales people comprehend the complete process of building homes from the idea stage of the plat to the selling of the development to prospective homebuyers. Let me tell you, that's a lot to cover in two days.
Nancy's freewheelin', hoopin and hollerin' style was just the tonic needed to carry us through the material that was at times quite weighty. The class followed along with the progress of the actual development of "Dole's Crossing" in Crystal Lake, Ill, which brought the material down to earth and provided a great "page from real life" underpinning. Using the actual renderings we traced the life of the development through the Acquisition, Development, Construction and Sales phases.
Material was presented in a lecture format interspersed with Nancy's numerous anecdotes, class participation, slides, small group activities and review sections. A total bonus was the very thoughtful lineup of lenders and title companies who provided both breakfast and lunch, plus goodies. We were treated to huge bowls of fruit, bagels, rolls, pound cake, many kinds of juices and soft drinks, sandwiches, baked chicken, cookies, and much more. If anyone went hungry during our two days it was totally by choice because food was everywhere and plentiful.
Since we were all agents in attendance, Nancy made sure to center the material on sales and bring those topics into play at every opportunity. However, she availed herself of any occasion to direct us to the builder, construction crew perspective so that agents could better understand how to work with them as a team.
Some themes Nancy stressed in relation to this unit were keeping lines of communication open, following protocol, and making sure that agents shadow the builder and construction crews taking copious notes and trying not to talk too much. She urged agents to question the builders as to what their "signature" touches were, and what made their homes different or better than others. According to Nancy these facts could be great selling tools, maybe some of the best in the agent's toolbox.
Some points that Mrs. Gainer kept coming back to were that "people are moving into a product that turns into a home", and that you can "make adjustments to the product rather than price" to create perceived value. She also repeated the theme that you should "minimize the negative attributes by selling the least desirable home sites first" and that you should "sell the process before you sell the home." She also offered this controversial advice 1/30 ratio of models to lots, and limiting the product line-up to three-four styles max, which created a big buzz with the on-site agent crowd in attendance.
I had the distinction of being the only out of state agent in the bunch, but I believe also that I was the only agent who was not either an on-site agent or broker/owner trainer. I was welcomed with open arms however and was not intimidated or put off in the least bit. In fact, I felt more accommodated by this group of Birmingham agents than in my own home state CE classes!
Nancy Gainer delivered a solid performance for this retooled course and the Birmingham crowd was a lively bunch. If you have a chance to take courses in Birmingham or with Nancy Gainer I can assure you that you'll learn a lot and have a great time to boot! Three cheers to Nancy, the Birmingham agents and the Greater Birmingham Association of Homebuilders. I'll be eagerly awaiting both my certificates and the group photo which I will forever cherish, along with my memories of course!
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