REAL ESTATE : Relocation Expert Finds a Market and Proceeds to Build It
The way Premier Relocation Services President Darlene Firestone figures it, she is in the business of helping people buy and sell homes anyhow, so why not use the expertise developed as a corporate relocation specialist to help the Southland’s beleaguered home builders solve one of their most pressing problems.
The problem is that about 50% of all new homes sales are contingent on the buyers being able to sell their existing homes. A lot of those contingent purchases fall through.
Armed with a list of corporate clients looking for homes in which to put transferred executives, Firestone went looking for a builder willing to hire her.
She found John Laing Homes, a big California builder with projects in Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, most selling in the $130,000 to $220,000 range.
Firestone believes that many home buyers would consider help in selling their existing homes more quickly and at a decent price to be as much a bonus as cash rebates or free landscaping from the builders of their new homes.
Laing pays Premier’s fee, and the Irvine-based relocation company goes to work for the prospective new home buyer. Premier performs a market analysis to price the old house as competitively as possible and works with area realtors and its own corporate relocation clients to locate a buyer.
