Insights from Suburban Jungle Founder & President Alison Bernstein
When I first launched this company, the idea came to me primarily because I wasn’t able to get the answers I needed. There were tons of brokerage firms and thousands of agents all telling me they were the best, yet all the firms and agents were indistinguishable.
It doesn’t mean these firms or agents were doing a bad job of branding or marketing…it’s not that at all! Simply put, that was the problem. It was marketing and branding…not the service I was looking for. I truly didn’t know where to look or how to find the right agent. I didn’t want to be “sold.”
In time, Zillow, Realtor.com and others came on the scene charging agents to market their services and get client “leads,” and Compass touted their technology and better way of real estate. Yet, it was always back to the basics…who can tell me where to look to find the right town, and who to really work with, OBJECTIVELY.
Why Suburban Jungle was created was precisely this reason. We don’t market agents. We don’t create “leads.” We personally chat with you, get to know you and STRATEGIZE with you, all BEFORE you even talk to an agent. We DON’T transfer you to a call center or send your information out to whoever pays the most to get it. We strategize with you and only then do we understand who the right agent is for you. What we do is curate a specialized team for you.
Why do we select the agents we do out of the THOUSANDS that apply? We want to make sure they spend the time with you touring the town, not just selling you homes. We also want to make sure they are the BEST agents for this phase in your search and buying process… as you will need lots of love, attention and time!!
Just to reiterate why we pick the agents we do, a client recently commented about their experience:
“One thing my husband loved about your agent that no other agent did was how she approached the entire tour and situation. She never once asked us our budget (even though she knew it) or never once did she ask if we have pre-approval. She literally spent three hours with us just educating us on the towns, the surroundings and why she loved living there and being a member of that community. He thought it was humbling and genuine how she wanted to ‘teach us about the town’ rather than ‘sell us’ or make it about our money or physically buying a house. We felt her approach to the tour was the most genuine and perhaps that is one of the reasons we now love and are interested in this town! Kudos to her!”
Being an amazing agent is great, but not enough to cut it here at Suburban Jungle. You also need to be in the know, meaning having knowledge of inventory that MIGHT come up BEFORE it hits the market. Just earlier today, one of our Strategists commented to our partner agent,
“Love how you were able to get the client a house that wasn’t even listed or going to be on the market for a year because of your personal connections and being a local agent. Love the creative thinking!”
As you can see, finding an agent is not about the number of transactions, or who pays the most for marketing. There is so much more to it! Often, as people start working with us, they let us know that they are already working with an agent, and is that OK? What we always reply is that if you are calling us — it’s clear you need more insight, information and service than you are currently getting…otherwise, we wouldn’t be on this call together!
There are hundreds of towns to choose from. How do you figure it all out? You simply don’t, without getting a Suburban Jungle Strategist to help you through it all. Schedule here for your strategy session with our innovative suburbs strategy team. All services are completely free.