The new home market is just beginning to pick up here in Ocala. When the market crashed in 2007 prices for resales fell so far below the cost to build new homes most building came to a stop. Only now, 8 years later, are builders having the confidence to start building again.

The reasons to have a Realtor work with you on a new home sale are many.

1) You want to see newer resales as well as new homes. Many newer resales still offer better prices or more upgrades or a premium lot. Many new home buyers want to see resales to be sure that they aren’t over paying for their new home.

2) You realize that the new home sales people are employees of the builder. A Realtor especially one that specializes in buyers has no allegiance to anyone but the buyer and will show you multiple communities telling you the pluses and negatives of each.

3) You want to see comparable sales before making an offer on your new home. Builders sales people won’t help you here. They would also like to pretend that resales in their same community don’t count.

4) You don’t feel comfortable negotiating. A Realtor negotiates for a living. Although builders don’t like to drop the price because it creates a low comp on their new home sales they do negotiate upgrades.

WARNING: builders are notorious for harvesting your contact info. If you call them, email them, request a brochure, you are added to their data base. Forever! That means they will not want to pay a Realtor a commission. Among ourselves, Realtors think who ever writes the offer gets the commission even if you talked to the listing agent previously. Builders operate by a different set of rules.