The difference between selling a resale and selling new construction is more than just the condition of the property. Yet most real estate agents are trained only for resales, leaving them ill-prepared for the unique challenges of new home sales. According to Bill Gaul, CEO of Builders Update and chair of the RESO Data Dictionary New Construction Subcommittee, this gap in training is a significant issue as new construction becomes a larger share of available inventory.
In a resale, an agent shows a buyer home after home until one fits. New construction works differently. A single community may hold multiple floor plans at different stages of completion, from finished models to homes not yet built. “You go to a community, and there are twenty homes for sale, maybe three model A’s, six model B’s, eight model C’s,” says Gaul, describing how varied one development can be. An agent who treats that like a resale, showing options in ascending order and reading the buyer’s reactions along the way, is working against the format.
The stronger approach, Gaul argues, reverses the resale habit. Rather than saving the best option for last, a new construction specialist identifies the closest match and presents it early. That takes homework before the buyer ever appears. Gaul recommends agents visit every builder in their market first, learning price points, construction quality, community demographics, and selling points, so they can match a buyer quickly. It also means separating what a buyer needs from what they say they want. “Understand what they need, not only what they want, then deliver the product that best matches their needs first,” Gaul says. Homes shown after the best fit tend to meet fewer of a buyer’s criteria, which can leave a buyer fatigued rather than closer to a decision.
New construction also introduces a party resale does not: the on-site sales counselor, who knows the builder’s product in detail. The agent’s role is not to compete with that expertise but to bring the buyer to the right community and provide the trust the buyer does not yet have with the on-site team. At its best, Gaul says, the agent, buyer, and on-site counselor work as allies toward the right home, sometimes one that has not been built yet.
To address the gap, Builders Update built a training course specific to new construction. It runs six self-paced modules of about thirty minutes each. The first module is free; the remaining five cost $149, or $129 for agents affiliated with participating MLS organizations. Agents who complete it receive a certificate designating them a new home specialist, and Gaul says a more advanced tier is planned for agents who have closed a set number of new construction sales. The platform reserves its detailed listing information for licensed agents, part of what Gaul describes as an agent-centric model. “We consider our information privileged, and we only make it available to licensed real estate agents,” he says. As new construction grows as a share of available inventory in many markets, the case for training agents to handle it, he argues, only gets stronger.
