Marketing New Construction Real Estate

We are excited to announce Agent Shield’s partnership with The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM).   ILHM is the premier independent authority in the training and certification of real estate agents working in the luxury market and has trained over 8,000 agents worldwide.

The Institute offers the Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist (CLHMS) designation for member agents who complete our specialized CLHMS training and have documented performance in the top 10% of their markets.

Agent Shield will provide all ILHM members with our web tools to  increase their market reach to include new construction, second and vacation homes.  We are excited to work with ILHM and their Realtors.

For more information about ILHM, please visit: http://www.luxuryhomemarketing.com

We have some awesome news to share with everyone.  Agent Shield has been selected as a Finalist for ITFlorida’s "Innovation and Entrepreneurialism Award".  Our official press release is below.  Wish us luck!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Estero, Florida – September 29, 2008 – Agent Shield, Inc. today announced it has been recognized as one of only four finalist statewide for the “Innovation and Entrepreneurialism Award” in the annual ITFlorida awards program.  The Fifth annual Awards Gala is designed to showcase the best technological achievement from across the state of Florida.  Other finalist in this category include: Aleriant, Citrix, and Scripps Florida.

“We are excited to be honored with this prestigious nomination.  The other companies in our category are all outstanding leaders in their respective industries and we are thrilled to be recognized along side of them”, said Jason Dolle, CEO of Agent Shield. 

Award winners will be announced at ITFlorida’s Gala dinner on October 6 in Orlando, Florida.  Speakers at the event include:  Sandy Baruah, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA); U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson; Florida Senate President-Designate Jeff Atwater; State CIO David Taylor; Sen. Jeremy Ring; Dr. Dale Brill, director of Gov. Charlie Crist’s office of economic development; and Terry Tamminen, former Secretary of the California EPA.

About Agent Shield, Inc.
Agent Shield provides a patent pending Web 2.0 technology that empowers real estate agents to easily and effectively market new construction properties through the use of a development’s existing website.   The core of Agent Shield’s technology involves certifying a new development or builder website to enable real estate agents to safely use the developer / builder site as a marketing tool while protecting the integrity of their leads.  The technology acts as a go-between Developers & Agents at large to maximize each parties marketing efforts with little or no technological expertise necessary. Agent Shield was founded in 2007 and is based in Estero, Florida.  More information is available at www.AgentShield.com.

About ITFlorida
ITFlorida is a public private partnership organized to assist the state of Florida’s Congressional Delegation, The Governor, The Legislature and other public policy and economic development organizations. The ITFlorida board is comprised of elected and appointed Government officials and is supplemented with leadership from CEO-level officials at both small business levels and major corporations. The focuses of ITFlorida include education, information, advocacy, conferences, programs, and promotion of regional initiatives. ITFlorida encourages Florida based industries to be a part of the technological challenges of the future. More information is available at www.itflorida.com.

We had an opportunity to meet and talk with Ginny Lee, Broker/Owner of America’s Best Real Estate.  She’s an amazing and super energetic lady.  Thank you for the great review and article about Agent Shield.  A reprint of the article is below.  Here’s a link to view the article on AgentDirectNews.com. 

Why Sell New Construction by Ginny Lee & Jason Dolle

I had the great pleasure of meeting the creators of www.agentshield.com who have created the best way to showcase new homes on your personal Realtor website and to make it easier for Realtors to sell new homes. They created a website that brings all the leads to the Realtor that signs up for Agent Shield and that agent retains all the leads so they can sell them the new home that the buyers are interested in. No more loosing the buyers if they walk in the new home sales center without you. You get the lead from your Agent Shield website, call the buyer and then register them with the new home sales office the buyer is interested in. You can even make money selling new homes that are not in your home town sometimes not even in the USA. Best of All it is FREE to all Realtors who sign up. Agent Shield™ can help you increase sales by quickly integrating a new development project that you may not have had the ability to effectively market in the past. Currently, as a real estate professional, you may be hesitant to link to any other outside websites, including any new construction sites for fear of losing valuable leads. With Agent Shield™, you can safely link to any site in the Agent Shield™ Network with confidence. When a user clicks on a link from your site to a development site, all the contact information on that site now becomes yours!  These are just a few of the benefits:

• Link to new developments’ websites without fear of losing leads.
• Increase sales by quickly adding rich new products to your site.
• Never have outdated data about a development, thus increasing your credibility and customer satisfaction.
• Maintain full control of your leads.
• Stay on the edge of your market with automatic notices of any new developments or changes to existing ones.
• Maximize your website’s effectiveness.

Below are some of the benefits of selling new homes:

• Higher commissions – On average the typical split on an existing home sale leaves the agent with 3% commission on that sale. Typically, 3% is the minimum commission these days for a new construction sale. There are all sorts of financial incentives these days for selling new construction. Some developers are offering 3% when the contract is written with an additional 2% when the property closes. Others are offering a $25,000 bonus when the contract is firm. Still others offer vacations and even new cars for selling their product. These incentives are designed to grab your attention as realtors and to entice you to learn more about their development in hopes that it will be in the forefront of your mind when dealing with a potential buyer.
• Stats on Realtors being in involved in new construction sales – Did you know that REALTORS account for over half all new construction sales nationally?  In many areas in Florida, that number can grow from 70%-90% of sale. Real estate agents as by far the biggest sales force a developer can pull from. Developers know this which is why they offer such great incentives since that money is only paid when results are produced.
• Easier sales process – Another great aspect to selling new construction is that once a prospect makes the decision to buy, the in house sales team takes over and handles the whole process. The legal and contractual responsibility falls on the developer shoulders who then takes  your buyer through the buying process.
• Newer product (warranties etc) – The definition of new construction is that it is new. Just like any other product people purchase, people love the idea of owning something new.  A never before lived in home falls into that same category and is a definite plus in buyer decision process. Also, in most cases, the builder provides a warranty on the home so, just like a car, if anything were to go wrong or isn’t up to par, the builder will fix for do charge. This again is a huge benefit and something a buyer of a resale just doesn’t receive.
• Great deals for buyers (closing incentives) – Currently, there are some great perks that developers are offering buyers. Here are a few I have seen recently:  credits to upgrade home, free golf memberships, no community dues for a year.
• Relationship building – Building relationships and networking are major parts of real estate. This is a great time to introduce yourself to developers locally and let them know you are interested learning more about that they have to offer. Not only is it good to know what products are available, but often times great realtor events that can be great to socializing and meeting others in the industry.
• International and out of state sales (referral fees) – You don’t always have to look locally for developments to market. Agents sometimes fail understand that they may be living in an area that is a feeder market for another. A current buzz word example is the “half-backers”.  South Florida has become a huge feeder market for people deciding to buy property in the mountains of Georgia, Tennessee as well as North and South Carolina.

I personally love selling new homes because it is so easy and I know that my buyer gets all the benefits above plus a new home that no one has ever lived in before. I would say that at least half of my income comes from New Home Sales and this year as never before there are some great deals for buyers and incredible commissions and benefits for Realtors! Go to www.agentshield.com now to set up your own personal FREE New Home Website.