WASHINGTON – Jan. 29, 2013 – U.S. homebuilders plan to deliver a simple message to buyers and even real estate agents: A new home is better than a used, scratch-and-dent home.

The new multimillion-dollar marketing campaign – “Start Fresh, Buy New” – slated for full rollout in March is not an attempt to create an old-versus-new fight, however. Builders understand that agents and brokers control the flow of homebuyers, and they hope the campaign will entice agents to bring more clients to the front door of newly built houses.

An agent-friendly campaign is a nod to the power of real estate agents. A recent study found that brokers and agents control about 84% of buyers, a stat that Jonathan Smoke with Hanley Wood says builders “can’t ignore.” Builders must entice agents to explain the value of new construction to their clients.

For most agents, however, a new home sale presents a different set of challenges. The most basic – commission level – can cause dissention. Builders believe agents bring a buyer to the door and then the developer’s sales staff to close the deal and complete the paperwork. Why pay a full commission for that?

On the flip side, agents feel they lose control of a transaction when it’s a new home sale.

“Realtors want to sell new homes; Realtors want to have a better relationship with builders,” says Smoke. “The relationship doesn’t have to be adversarial.”

The campaign is backed by 32 large builders, though the tech marketing firm, Builders Homesite Inc. of Austin, Texas, also represents about 1,000 builders nationwide, according to real estate writer Lew Sichelman.

Builders currently handle about 7 percent of sales; historically, they see 15 to 20 percent.

“It’s not that people aren’t buying, it’s that they’re buying existing homes,” says Builders Homesite Inc.’s Chief Executive Tim Costello. “It’s not a demand problem, it’s a marketing and messaging problem. Other builders aren’t the competition, it’s existing houses.”

The builders have a Facebook page dedicated to the new campaign as a lead-up to a full launch.

Source: Lew Sichelman, Inman News

© 2013 Florida Realtors®