With builders across the country breaking ground on more homes than this time last year – during the first nine months of 2017, single-family starts were 9.1 percent above their year-earlier level, according to the National Association of Home Builders – finding the right sales strategy to market and sell new homes is more important than ever. But besides affecting the bottom line, a builder’s choice of sales approach can also have an impact on everything from overhead, human resources and benefits to company culture. Here are several different selling options today’s builders are using that offer a variety of benefits and advantages depending on their market:

Keeping Sales In-House
For more than 40 years, Lexington Homes, one of Chicago’s leading private builders, has employed an in-house strategy to keep sales humming. This “part of the Lexington family” approach has worked well for Lexington as the firm has built more than 40,000 homes in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.

“We’re a family-owned company, and that’s definitely reflected in our sales staff,” said Jeff Benach, principal of Lexington Homes. “We have salespeople that stay with us for many years, and some worked with us for decades. They truly become part of the Lexington family. They know not only our product, but also our homebuilding philosophy inside and out. This makes it easier for them and us when they need to transition from community to community because they know our floor plans and finishes at a very granular level.”

Lexington’s approach of employing in-house sales staff also enhances the relationships buyers have with the sales team. “Some of our communities are very large projects with multiple phases, which means we are in the area for a long time,” noted Benach. “Because of that, the on-site sales staff really gets to know buyers and their families. We’ve had salespeople who organize neighborhood block parties for buyers and birthday parties for the kids because they become part of each other’s day-to-day lives.”

Builder in the Front, Sales in the Back: Outsourcing to Specialists
There’s also the option for builders to have what looks like an in-house sales team to buyers, but is really an experienced outsourced sales force, like New Home Star.

Founded in 2009, New Home Star is the largest private seller of new homes in the U.S. Its sales agents are trained as new-home sales specialists, and are dedicated to a specific development so they essentially act as a builder’s in-house team – and appear that way to buyers and the general public through builder-brand collateral and nametags. The advantage? New Home Star equips its teams with best-in-class technology, training, and expertise while offering builders a financial model they can’t pass up.

“We provide all of these resources, betting on the fact that they work as we don’t receive compensation unless we perform,” said David Rice, founder of Chicago-based New Home Star, which has operations in 20 locations nationwide. “We get paid at closing, as a commission. Our model allows builders to pay variably. Builders can experience a $0 overhead, yet have the dedicated team they want and need.”

Tapping Local Agents for Individualized Approach
For Northbrook, Ill.-based Barnett Homes, a high-end in-fill builder that specializes in teardowns and gut renovations in some of Chicago’s most sought-after neighborhoods and suburbs, tapping into a pool of experienced and well-connected real estate agents to list its completed homes has always been key to the firm’s sales strategy.

“In the luxury market, we’ve had the most success when we work with agents with expertise in the specific neighborhoods where we build as well as in higher price points,” said Ken Fixler, president of Barnett Homes. “Because our homes are all unique, stand-alone properties, rather than being part of a large master-planned development, our agent partners’ insights and network of contacts allow us to be very targeted in how we market each individual listing.”

Fixler added that Barnett’s partnership with real estate agents is two-fold, as the firm also works with many of the same brokers when acquiring properties to develop or rehab. “We’ve cultivated great relationships with many agents over the years, and now many of them know what we look for on the acquisition side and bring opportunities to us,” he said. “In return, and as a thank you, we’ll often go back to that agent when it is time to list the completed home.”

Partnering with Brokerage Firms
And for some builders, going all-in with one brokerage firm makes sense. While it’s common for developers of condos in downtown Chicago to use outside brokerage firms for sales and marketing, it’s more rare in the suburbs, where many builders are just starting to make the transition from in-house sales to using a brokerage firm familiar with their product and already bringing in sales to their community.

This was certainly the case with Serosun Farms, an agrihood community outside Chicago, and The Jacobs Companies, a Deerfield, Ill.-based luxury homebuilder that has served the North Shore area for 82 years. Both firms tapped Baird & Warner, the largest locally-owned brokerage in Chicagoland, to take advantage of the brokerage’s network of more than 2,000 agents and sophisticated marketing tools.

“Developers want a competitive advantage in a market where inventory is low, and Baird & Warner delivers through a winning combination of access to our expansive team of Chicago-area agents, plus specialized marketing tools that position new-home listings in front of thousands of prospective buyers,” said Laura Ellis, president of residential sales and executive vice president of Baird & Warner. “Baird & Warner connects builders with sophisticated technology that meets the ever-changing demands of real estate marketing and allows builders to reach even more buyers.”

Many builders sell homes to buyers by using an experienced outsourced sales force that looks and acts like an in-house sales team, like New Home Star.