10 minutes & a little positive persuasion lead to happy first-time home buyer

Technological innovation, market expertise, abundant energy, and a quick wit all equally contribute to Brenda Noffert’s successful 20-year run in real estate. An Associate Broker for Better Homes & Gardens Alliance, Wichita, Brenda earns her stripes as a multi-tasking, multi-functional Realtor who successfully serves clients in the residential, relocation, retail and investment property segments.

Here, Brenda shares an anecdote from the road, including how her intuition, experience and reliance on RPR are wrapped up into one real estate tour de force.

“You can ask people to come to your office and make them sign a buyer agreement, but if they’re not emotionally committed to you, it means nothing,” said Brenda, a member of the South Central Kansas Board of Directors.

“First, you need to give clients confidence that when you promise something, you deliver. That helps to create an emotional connection. And if I give them something before they ever ask for it, that spirit of service crushes the ol’ time real estate stigma that everybody’s out for money. Whether they decide to buy or not, I make sure they are taken care of.”

That commitment to relationship building recently earned Brenda a buyer’s commitment for a corporate relocation to Wichita. “Right off the bat, Celeste, a first time homebuyer, told me that her parents advised her to buy a fixer-upper, something she could gain instant equity from.”

While getting to know one another, Celeste confided in Brenda that she didn’t really enjoy fixing things up but that it was probably the best course of action, based on input from her parents. “I know I’ll have to cast a wide net to find what I need, so I’m willing to commute long distances to find the right home,” she said.

Brenda set to work, asking Celeste the right questions to determine exactly what type of home was within her price range and what she’d be willing to do to bring it to market value. She encouraged Celeste, a busy executive, to rethink what she was hearing from others and to consider purchasing a home that she could live in comfortably and still earn a profit at resale.

“Buyers, especially first-timers, sometimes underestimate what it takes to renovate a home,” said Brenda. “I encourage folks like Celeste to consider buying something they can dress up rather than fix up.”

“If you’re paying people to fix things, it eats your equity,” Brenda told the client. “But if you get something that only needs cosmetic changes, and you enjoy doing that, in three to five years you can resell at a profit. And, we have plenty of homes to choose from within that criteria.”

With support from her new client, and knowing she could use RPR to find exactly the right neighborhoods within a reasonable commute time, Brenda dug a little deeper. “Tell me where you work and how long you want to drive each day, and let me do my homework” she asked.

Brenda then turned to RPR to conduct a search for properties within Celeste’s acceptable commute time and price range. From those results, she analyzed the needs of each listing, and in less than ten minutes had emailed her new client a list of for-sale properties, and school and neighborhood reports in four different areas of Wichita—all representing homes that required a little TLC rather than a do-over, and within a short drive time to work.

The strategy worked. Within minutes, Celeste responded, “This is what makes sense for me to purchase rather than what others are telling me. Let’s meet tomorrow and go over things. Wow!”

A jubilant Brenda knows she did the right thing by turning to RPR to help identify possibilities for her client. “Now instead of saying she’ll go anywhere and over commit to a home, Celeste can choose from several homes in four different neighborhoods and won’t need to spend all of her time and money paying others to renovate a house.”

“RPR is there to help us do our homework,” said Brenda. “There’s no stone unturned. If it’s not there, it’s not anywhere. And boy does it make us look good when we can lead our clients in the right direction. I’m sold!”