by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
While Internet new home consultants haven’t been officially acknowledged in the past, this year two of them received their dues,
Catherine Peterson and Tim Wolgemoth, both of Lennar Homes, won individual Laurel Awards within the Million Dollar Circle section for the “Internet New Home Consultant for Broker” category.
The new category was added to this year’s awards, thanks to Peterson’s determination for the field to be recognized.
“I talked to Amber Williams of the Northeast Florida Builders Association and asked her why there was not an Internet category,” said Peterson. “We wondered why we weren’t getting recognized. We are out there working just as hard. We are pushing people out into the communities, we are getting them pre-qualified and we are getting them information. We are selling them to the point that they want to get out to the communities.”
As Wolgemoth explains, they are customers’ individual Realtor within Lennar Homes.
“Eighty-seven percent of people looked for new homes online before they even went anywhere,” said Wolgemoth. “We are trying to get to those people the first place they are, which is on the Internet.”
Peterson said their job really has two parts.
“Our job is to push customers who go online and give them enough information so that they want to get out to the community and look,” said Peterson. “The other part is to work with Realtors, basically like their personal assistant. They don’t have to call 16 Lennar communities. They can call one of us. We know all the details, inventory, pricing and incentives for both buyers and Realtors. We save them a lot of time.”
When contacted, the two help customers filter through available inventory so that prospects don’t spend time sifting through what they don’t want or need.
Consultants also have the ability to pursue live chats with potential buyers as they look on the website or contact interested parties if they register for information.
“Ultimately, we will be setting appointments with the site agents in the communities once we find out where they want to be in price ranges and product,” said Wolgemoth. “We will narrow it down to one or two choices and set an appointment with the person who is in the community and they take it from there.”
Instead of buyers driving around all the different Lennar communities, they can contact either Wolgemoth or Peterson who will narrow their search to a specific community and its individual available homes.
With the job, Peterson and Wolgemoth are tied to their smartphones and computers.
“Our goal is to try to get them as soon as they hit that ‘register’ button, to reply back instantly,” said Peterson. “Our time frame is 15 minutes because if they are still online they can then start chatting with us.”
If neither happen to be available, they get updates on their phones and computers telling them that while they were gone someone tried to contact them.
“It’s not always live, (but) we try to be as live as possible,” said Peterson. “We have these Blackberrys that really never leave our side. I can tell you if any leads came in and what time it came in. If they are interested in a specific community, I’ll shoot them an email with information on that community or call them depending on their area code.”
Peterson and Wolgemoth said they deal a lot with overseas customers who are military relocations. Such clients tend to look well in advance of their actual relocation.
Wolgemoth won the Laurel for logging more than $5 million in volume in Internet new home sales. Peterson won her Laurel for logging more than $13 million in volume in Internet new home sales.
Not bad numbers considering they can work online in their pajamas – if the want. But, the majority of the time they don’t.
In addition to their Internet-heavy position, they also man models for Lennar when site agents are off. Peterson is at Eagle Landing and Wolgemoth is at Coventry at OakLeaf Plantation.
“While we are out there, we are still trying to work our leads online,” said Peterson. “We are wearing two hats right now so it is a little difficult.”
If an Internet new home consultant sends a sale to a site agent, the site agent gets credit for the sale as the site agent and the Internet new home consultant gets credit as the cooperating Internet agent.
Lennar recently opened six new communities. When the market turned for the worse, the company took its hits early and have now positioned themselves to be able to open new communities as the market improves. Being online helps them to get a jump on buyers looking now for a new home in Northeast Florida.
Peterson has worked as an Internet new home consultant for five years. She was at Beazer Homes doing online sales for three years and joined Lennar in 2008.
Wolgemoth joined Lennar as a site agent in 2007 and went online with Peterson in 2009.