#behindthebuild

That’s why our people at KB Home consider you and every homeowner who walks into the sales office, as part of our family. In this series, we’ll be sharing the stories of some of our team members who help you through the process of making your house a home.

Say hello to Kate Cloud – Sales Counselor at The Estates at Somerset Meadows in Longmont, CO.

A native of Pennsylvania, Kate left her home and career in health care for her fiancé (and now husband) who relocated to Colorado for work. Kate was looking to work for a company that valued individual growth and achievement while still maintaining a cohesive team environment, so when an existing KB Home employee referred Kate, she had found exactly the role that she’d been looking for!  

Making Memories

Betsey and Bob M. were a couple that had lived in their home for over thirty years. The couple had built decades of memories into their home, but they knew that it was time to downsize. It was part of Kate’s job to not just help them find the right home but also to understand just what they were giving up in their old home. Going through an emotional process like this can be tough, but for Kate it was especially rewarding because Betsey and Bob made her their ‘unofficial’ third child. Coincidentally, Bob and Betsey are from Bethlehem, PA Kate’s hometown, so they had that “what are the odds” connection, as well. When people are in the middle of the building process, they’re onsite as often as every week, so you get to make lasting relationships with the people that are purchasing their KB home. For Kate, it’s making new friends and creating her own family at work that makes her job so rewarding.

The Life of a Sales Counselor

One of the most important aspects of Kate’s day is building and maintaining relationships. This means following up on leads with potential homebuyers from the day before; touching base with realtors to let them know what inventory is in stock; greeting walk-in buyers and guiding them through the process of purchasing a brand-new KB home.

For Kate, being an ethical sales person is what drives her personal credo. KB Home has a lot of model homes, and, Kate wants to make sure that the buyer is getting the right home for their family. In order for Kate to do that best serve homebuyers, she harnesses her ability to build meaningful relationships with homebuyers to really needs to ask the right questions and understand their needs.

Questions. Lots of Questions

Buying and building a new home is a major step, and that’s why there are people like Kate to guide, counsel and befriend them buyers through the process.

Kate’s tips for new homebuyers: visit our website www.kbhome.com to learn about the floorplans we offer, and some basic info about the community. The new home building process is different than buying a resale home, so Kate will walk potential buyers through what they should expect from the homebuilding process and from there it’s narrowing down a floor plan, a homesite and getting into the details. School district and neighborhood are also important topics that come up so, sales counselors need to be prepared to cover everything from drainage to the best schools – no pressure!

Kate says that the typical buyer at the Estates at Somerset Meadows is a knowledgeable buyer. They’re not first-time homebuyers. The buyer is sophisticated and they come prepared with information and they’ve done their research. For Kate, that means she doesn’t need to tell them where the local library is (they know and already have three books checked out), and instead it means getting the details of what model home they want sorted.

Personality is what keeps potential buyers engaged. It’s easy to let buyers walk through the model homes for a tour, but its Kate’s job to pull them back and answer their questions. By personalizing the experience for buyers, the sales team can capture their imagination so that they can  visualize what it would be like to live in the community and which home might best fit the buyer’s needs. Outside of that, prospective buyers love the high-tech touchscreens in the sales office that lets you play around with the neighborhood and design process, which gives the buyer a visual idea of what to expect when they build with us.

Loving that Fresh Mountain Air

Coloradoans are an active people that embrace an outdoor way of life, and you can’t blame them when they’re surrounded by so much natural beauty. The Estates at Somerset Meadow is located in the Southwest part of Longmont which is close to the foothills and mountains. The people that live in the area love to ski, bike and hike. The homes here are a place to lay your weary head after a long day on the slopes and trails. Garages are very important, not just to protect cars from icy windshields but because people are too busy taking advantage of the great outdoors to drive. The environment thanks them.

Besides its fantastic location and great school district (located between downtown Boulder and Longmont), Kate tells us that one of the most appealing aspect of The Estates at Somerset Meadows is its low tax-rate, which is 0.725%.