How to find out if your clients can afford your home- check out the Affordable House Price Calculator
May 4, 2012 by Coach Rick
Here’s a great tool I found on NAHB’s website your salespeople can use with your prospects.
Your prospects want to know how much they can afford to pay for a home and a mortgage calculator only tells them what their payment would be- not if they can afford it. Instead of waiting to get them to your loan officer, which could take days or weeks, now the salesperson can calculate the answer immediately.
Two versions of the calculator are available, depending on the assumption you prefer to specify:
Given the income/mortgage assumptions, the spreadsheet can calculate the maximum affordable house price with a single combined key stroke: ctrl+shift+A.
Personally, I believe this House Price Calculator is incredibly useful especially for first time home buyers.
Here are some examples of how you can use it:
Affordable House Price Calculator specifying down payment in dollars.
Affordable House Price Calculator specifying loan-to-value ratio.
What do you think? Is there something it can’t do yet that you would like it to?
Leave your comment below.
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My True Story.. How It All Started
April 30, 2012 by Coach Rick
If you’re like most semi-custom and custom small volume home builders the one question you ask yourself everyday is ‘how do I get more leads and sales?’ I bet you’re an expert builder but what about marketing?
Most home builders have a step-by-step process they use to get everything from the foundation in to the finish work done but when it comes to the marketing they only have a vague idea of what needs to be done to help prospects become buyers.
Creating a simple marketing and sales process for home builders is the reason I started my business. I saw home builders struggling without one and knew that there was a better way to sell more homes.
I started my career in 1988 as a framer working on an apartment building. The day after my high school senior year classes ended I found myself lifted up in the air 30 feet and putting sheathing on a gable roofend.
As I looked down on all the carpenters, plumbers, electricians and HVAC people I had a real eye opening experience. Each company was doing their own thing and no two companies were working together. I saw a dumpster full of wasted materials and wondered to myself, “isn’t there a betterway?”
Years later when I transitioned into selling new homes I had the same thought: “Isn’t there a better way to sell more homes with less wasted time and effort?”
After graduating college and hanging up my nail apron (my back still thanks me!), my builder introduced me to “See” sales training. I’m sure many of you have had the same training or have used the “See” techniques with your own sales people. My builder told me “See your model key? See your model? When am I going to See some sales?”
That was it. That was the entire sales process my builder had. It was like pointing to a cement truck, a pile of lumber and a hole in the ground and saying “when am I going to see this home done?”
My builder had no sales plan or process and it was no surprise sales were limp. I took this as a challenge and went to work creating a simple plan for builders to sell more homes.
What I discovered over the years is home builders are so busy keeping track of the production aspects of construction they don’t have enough time to find out what really works for marketing and selling new homes.
The bottom line is I have spent the last 20+ years in new home sales training with homebuilders to help them sell more homes in all sorts of markets.
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What do YOU Want Your Visitor to Do?
April 28, 2012 by Coach Rick
…Click? Call? Come by? Build Value?
Are your website strategies working?
Are you looking to grow a larger and more relevant Website following?
These videos will show you some actionable steps you can take to improve your Website experience.
Most of us have made the mistake of reaching out to a web designer to help us design our new site.
That’s actually the SECOND person you want to talk to. The first is an internet marketer.
Don’t know an internet marketer? No problem! Play the videos below to learn how to do it yourself.
Now that you’ve figured out how to make your web visitors click, find out the 3 things you need to accomplish to get them to call, email you back or stop by. Play the video below to find out how to take a one way internet conversation and turn it into a sale.
Now It’s Your Turn!
What do you think? What tips, tools or tactics have you been using to build your own website? Share something in the comments box below!
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3 Wickedly Effective Lead Management Tactics Webinar for Builders is Thursday April 26th- You’re Invited!
April 25, 2012 by coach
This Thursday April 26th at 11 PST, 12 MST, 1 CST, 2 EST I’ll be sharing some ideas about improving the way you’re managing your leads- ideas that will dramatically help you sell more homes or remodeling services.
We’ll be covering…
- How to increase a new home or remodeling salesperson effectiveness by 20 fold
- How it’s now possible to increase new lead opportunities by 90%- without spending any more money in advertising
- How to remove the “blind spot” when managing your prospects
- The process of following up with personal, relevant information every time you call or email a lead
…and some REALLY cool technology designed exclusively for home builders and remodelers that’s never been seen before
As of Tuesday the 24th we have about 12 spots still available. Don’t miss your chance for a front row seat!
3 Wickedly Effective Lead Management Tactics: How to Maximize Your Sales with Less Effort
What: Webinar
When: Thursday April 26th at 11 PST, 12 MST, 1 CST, 2 EST
Cost: $0
Register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/839481602
See you Thursday!
~Rick
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How to Maximize Your New Home and Remodeling Sales with Less Effort
April 20, 2012 by coach
On Thursday April 26th Rick Storlie of New Home Sales Coach will be sharing some cutting edge ideas on how to better identify the home builder leads and remodeler leads 
most likely to buy from you.
120. It’s a nice round number and one that’s insignificant to most home builders and remodelers. Yet for Rick Storlie of New Home Sales Coach, a firm that specializes helping home builders and remodelers reach their sales goals, it’s been a number that has haunted him for years.
“120 leads was my limit. There just wasn’t enough hours in the day for me to actively manage more than that,” Storlie recently commented.
When Storlie was actively selling new homes and remodeling services he would manage his leads by categorizing them three ways. An “A” lead was someone who would buy in six months. A “B” would buy in six to twelve months and a “C” was more than one year out.
“I created a paper newsletter called the Home of the Month. Every month I’d mail one of our floor plans along with a list of the homes we were currently building to all my leads,” said Storlie. “Twice a year I’d stick a pink postcard in the envelope that people could mail back to me if they didn’t want to get my newsletter. That was my ‘unsubscribe’ method!”
Since Storlie was actively selling in the mid 1990′s, before the advent of the internet and email, he would also use the phone to manage his leads.
“I’d call A leads a minimum of once per week. It’s still a method I advocate today,” mentioned Storlie. “B leads I called monthly and C leads were quarterly. My goal was always the same. I wanted to know who was moving up and who was moving out (not going to buy one of Storlie’s homes).”
The reason Storlie was so intent on connecting regularly was twofold. First, he needed to stay top of mind. Second, he had to clear out the old, bad leads so he could replenish them with newer, better ones.
Storlie is the first to tell you he had no formal new home sales training and was self taught through trial and error. But he had an edge over other salespeople.
“I was really good at sorting through leads that weren’t going to buy from me. I had a lot of room to improve as a salesperson, but my conversion rates were great because I focused my energy on high quality leads,” said Storlie.
Today, as a mentor to design/build home builders and remodelers, Storlie is releasing a system where a single new home or remodeling salesperson can manage thousands of leads and systematically identify and sell those leads most likely to buy.
On April 26th, 2012 Storlie will be sharing his ideas in a webinar. More information is below.
What: 3 Wickedly Effective Lead Management Tactics for Builders: How to Maximize Your Sales with Less Effort
When: Thursday April 26th at 11 PST, 12 MST, 1 CST, 2 EST
Register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/839481602
Cost: $0 but limited to 100 attendees
Storlie has created a sales and marketing Scorecard that will tell any home builder or remodeler how well they’re tapping into today’s market. The Scorecard takes 2 minutes, builders will get an immediate score and see how they compare to their builder peers. Home builders can get their Scorecard by clicking here. Remodelers can get their Scorecard by clicking here.
About Rick Storlie: Rick Storlie of New Home Sales Coach has been helping home builders and remodelers reach their sales goals since 1992. Visit NHSalesCoach.com to access Rick’s free Sales and Marketing Tutorial Library full of tips from generating new leads, Realtor strategies, sales techniques and sales management secrets. Storlie can be reached at 952-895-5566 or Solutions@NHSalesCoach.com.
