How and When to Talk to Your Clients About Building Custom
Suspecting that your clients’ dream home doesn’t exist yet? Talk to them about building!
As a realtor, your knowledge and expertise when it comes to your local area is unparalleled — which means it’s easy for you to spot when a hopeful home buyer has search criteria that will be tough for them to find or afford in your city.
Here are a few signs that it’s time to talk to your clients about building custom, and a few tips for broaching the subject.
Specific criteria
Knowing exactly what you want can be a blessing and a curse, especially when it comes to home buying. Some buyers come into the buying process with a laundry list of criteria they know they want in their next home. This is great because it can eliminate some of the back-and-forth and uncertainty that’s sometimes involved with house hunting.
On the other hand, some sets of criteria are difficult to find all in one house. For example, many people are looking for open floor plans or layouts that don’t involve any extra space that feels wasted. Unfortunately, norms around how we use our homes have changed drastically in the last few decades, leaving many existing homes feeling outdated.
Rare must-haves
Along similar lines, some buyers enter their real estate journey with must-haves that are simply in short supply: wrap-around porches, basements, outdoor pools, and even dog showers have all seen a rise in popularity, and many people are understandably against the idea of buying a home that they know they’ll need to extensively remodel.
If your clients are looking for something that simply isn’t on the market, it’s time to bring up the idea of custom building instead.
Continuously outbid
In today’s market, available homes are few and far between in North Carolina. It’s increasingly difficult to purchase an existing home, regardless of your price range. In part because of the rise in popularity and in part due to investor interest in the area, homes are selling for much more than they’re listed for, making it all too common for hopeful buyers to lose bid after bid in their search for a home.
While custom building isn’t always a more affordable option, working with the right builder does allow you to prioritize the details of your home to stay within your budget — without competing at every turn. Any clients growing frustrated with the competitive market should learn more about building their own home.
So, what’s the best way to talk with clients about the idea of building instead of buying?
Be up front
No matter how frustrated they may be about being outbid, or how hopeless they may feel about a lack of options that fit their criteria, it’s important for clients to know that homebuilding isn’t necessarily the best solution for everyone.
Be up front with your clients about expected timelines, which in some cases are longer than the amount of time it would take to purchase an existing home (although if you lose on offer after offer, it may come out pretty close!). Talk with them about what they could realistically build with their budget.
Present the whole picture
Talk with your clients about what the process of building a custom home looks like, and touch on how the process has changed in the last few years. While building custom might have felt like a full-time job a few years ago, that’s not quite the case now. With builders like Atmos, clients can build their dream home online with the help of their trusted realtor and an Atmos project manager.
Ready to partner with Atmos to build your clients their dream home? Get in touch today!
