THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9606270305
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTINA PROCTOR, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: 75 lines
It's a beautiful weekend. The family decides to jump in the car and drive out to the new homes show. For some it might seem like a nice way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon - browsing through the models, sort of window shopping for homes.
For the serious shopper, window shopping can stale quickly and jumping in the car for one more weekend afternoon of fruitless searching can seem like just a waste of time.
After nine months of searching Donna Paris-Ortolano thought she and her husband, Michael Ortolano, would never find the house of their dreams.
``We were getting very frustrated,'' she said. ``The outside of the models can be very deceiving. The signs at a construction site might say houses starting at $150,000 but what you see in the models is often more expensive than that with upgrades it's more like $175,000.''
Paris-Ortolano's problems were solved when she met real estate agent Shari Bucknam, who works out of the Re/Max Central office in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake.
Bucknam is offering her clients a streamlined approach to finding new construction with a new software database program copyrighted as Buyer's Edge.
``I spent six years interviewing and surveying buyers, who were buying new construction,'' Bucknam said. ``It's a section of the marketplace that is not really being catered to by real estate agents.
``Sixty percent of buyers out there buying new construction don't have agents. They just get in their cars and go driving around. They don't have any direction. They don't have any representation and they don't realize it.''
Customers know what she's talking about.
``Shari was able to help us find what we wanted in a weekend,'' said Paris-Ortolano. ``It was amazing.'' Paris-Ortolano closed on her new house in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake May 24.
Bucknam said the primary goals of her program are to give the buyer direction, eliminate the time spent looking at unsuitable models, and arm them with the information they need to be an informed and effective consumer. Buyer's Edge covers new construction in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Suffolk. Operating since March, Bucknam said Buyer's Edge has over 40 active clients.
Bucknam said her database contains over 800 individual entries on available new construction and her assistants are in touch with site agents continuously to update the information. Bucknam said she and her assistants physically toured every single model available. The scope was more than she expected.
``I thought I might come back with 40 to 50 entries, not anything like 800,'' she said. ``A builder may have 20 plans in his repertoire but only four decorated models. The program doesn't differentiate from what is standing and what isn't. I told the builders `If you can build it, I want to know about it,' '' she said.
Bucknam said her clients go through a buyer interview, which usually take about two hours, to determine their personal criteria for purchasing a home. The criteria is entered into the database and the client is presented with a booklet containing each model that fits their needs.
The booklet includes an artist rendering of the home, the city and community it's standing in, and the builder. It also gives base prices with each individual model, and option prices for the different builders.
``Ninety percent of my clients opt to go out alone once they have the information,'' said Bucknam. ``That's the beauty of the booklet. You can take it and you're not stuck with me. When they narrow it down to one or two houses, that's when they call me and we start shopping options.''
Bucknam, an agent since 1987, said her idea was not revolutionary.
``There are a tremendous amount of people in the industry who have realized the void when it comes to new construction,'', she said, ``but it was more a matter of timing. You need the market to support this idea. The time is right and the buyers are there.''
Buyer's Edge will probably have competition but Bucknam is not worried about copies. ``Right now, this a tool that helps me do my job,'' she said. ``This is a benefit my clients have. There's enough business to go around.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Bucknam
KEYWORDS: REAL ESTATE SALES by CNB