Providing Value

In a successful broker-builder relationship, both sides win. The broker expands his or her portfolio and network, while the developer gains access to new clients that might have otherwise been out of reach.

For Jacobs, the greatest benefit is putting the company’s properties in front of a much larger audience via Skurie and Baird & Warner.

“It gets our product in front of a lot more people than we could before,” Jacobs says. “Their marketing expertise and the way they put together their marketing materials – brochures for every development, the verbiage – all of that is coordinated under one roof. All of the ads are placed and everything is handled by them. When we met them, they have a 25-person marketing department. That gives us 25 more employees to run different ideas off of. It’s really well done.”

Skurie recognized Jacobs’ need for her professional expertise when another broker revealed that she hadn’t known Jacobs built one of the properties Skurie first listed.

“They [Jacobs] thought they were doing all the same things that a brokerage would be doing. Apparently, it’s just different when you have a relationship as a broker with other brokers in the community. I think people trust you more, as opposed to a builder trying to sell on his own. It’s a tougher thing to do these days.”

Icuss puts a premium on his firm’s deep involvement with the entire development process.

“They [clients] know we’re going to have answers to any technical question that they might have, as opposed to a broker who just gets hired to sell a product and point out pretty finishes,” Icuss says. “We’re involved from the time they dig the foundation to the final finishing touches on the units. Buyers get a sense of that and they know that we know our product. Other brokers know that, too.” They can feel confident, Icuss says, that they and their buyers are working with brokers who have a deep understanding of the product.