1. U.S. Air Force air transportation worker Scott Adams, 41,
considered buying a home for years. But with a decade of
overseas postings and record housing prices stateside that
dream seemed out of reach. Still, when Adams learned he
would be transferred to Burlington, N.J. in January, he
acquired the names of some New Jersey agents from the
military relocation experts and started looking for a home.
Sharon Kvist, CRS, broker-sales associate with RE/MAX
Main St. Realty in Moorestown, N.J. was one of the contacts.
“Sharon e-mailed me listings before I left England. So I
quite literally arrived in the U.S. on a Friday, and Sharon
showed me three or four places the next day,” Adams says.
After viewing the original four with Adams, Kvist took
his feedback and put it to good use. And in early March,
Adams paid $170,500 for a two-bedroom detached home in
Burlington, N.J.
“Buying a home is stressful, but Sharon made it easy,”
Adams recalls.
Record home prices have kept many first-time buyers out
of the nation’s housing market and encouraged some agents
to overlook the group in favor of seasoned buyers with
equity-rich pockets. But a tighter market is forcing many
agents to explore the niche.
“The market has changed, and agents are going to have
to come to terms with this and become more familiar with
first-time buyers and be prepared to offer their services to
this group,” Kvist says. Kvist, who has been selling homes for
25 years and closed 18 transactions in 2007, says 25 percent
of her annual clients are buying for the first time.
So who are they? Some, like Adams, are singles. But the
demographic covers a broad spectrum that includes college
graduates, twentysomethings seeking independence from the
family home, executives tired of renting in the city, single
parents and young couples with growing families.
Rediscovering
a Forgotten Buyer
Favorable interest rates,
lower prices and increased
inventory are luring first-time
home buyers back to real
estate. But do you know
what they need? And will you
be ready when they call?
14 • NEW JERSEY REALTOR®
• July 2008 • www.njar.com
By Michelle Hofmann

2. As a general rule, Dennis J. Zisa, broker-owner of Dennis J.
Zisa & Assoc., Inc. in Camden, N.J., says most of these
people have always been renters. “But we do get a significant
number of people who are able to get into
a homeownership situation directly out of
school or from living at home,” he adds.
Despite popular belief that first-time buyers
are low-end buyers, Ron MacKenzie, a
sales associate with Century 21 Abrams,
Hutchinson & Associates in Princeton,
N.J. says this group enters the market at
various price points. In fact, MacKenzie
recently sold two houses for more than
$800,000 to first-time buyers. “These are
professional people in their forties coming from rentals,”
he explains.
Nurse Miriam Coleman, 47, who lived with
her mother until getting married in 2001,
decided to buy a home last August. Like
many inexperienced buyers, she took her
time and looked at about 11 properties
with help from Thomas J. Zisa, sales
associate and office manager for Dennis J.
Zisa’s firm, before settling on a 3-bedroom,
2.5 bathroom townhouse for $181,000 in
Lindenwold, N.J.
Coleman says agents working with first-time
home buyers need to be part educator, part detective and
part caregiver. “I hadn’t even thought about Lindenwold.
And I originally wanted a single-family
home. But Tom was really working for
me and very good at pointing out the
positives and negatives for each property.
He wasn’t just trying to do a deal. He felt
more like a friend. And even though we
were looking outside his area, he would
run the comps and made a lot of good
suggestions or pointed out things about
the houses I should consider and helped
me get really comfortable with my decision,”
Coleman says.
For first-time buyers like Coleman, getting comfortable
requires walking through a lot of fear. “And the older first-
time home buyers approach the purchase with far more fear
than the younger ones,” MacKenzie notes. To calm fears,
Zisa says it’s important to educate the client about the process
and the market, and listen and respond to their needs.
“This group requires a lot of hand-holding. You really need
to be able to walk them through [the]
process because it’s all a mystery to them.
On one hand you have to help them
overcome that fear and apprehension
that’s almost universal among this group.
On the other hand, you have to build their
confidence in you as an agent,” Zisa says.
To do this, MacKenzie says, be honest and
set realistic expectations.
“Many first-time home buyers want the
best schools, the best new developments in town and have
families who tell them they should be getting all those
things. But for the most part [they] can’t afford what they
want and can be about $100,000 off in
terms of price,” MacKenzie says.
“So it’s important to encourage the client
to consider realistic tradeoffs and get at the
core of what they really want. At first, they
might tell you that the most important
thing is getting the best school. But after
you start talking with them and they have
looked at some properties that need seems
to evolve, and you find out that what they
really want is new or large,” he adds.
Betty Nugnes, a broker-sales associate with Coldwell Banker
Residential Brokerage in Rutherford, N.J., says it’s equally
important to keep this buyer very close.
“They get easily confused. So let them
know what’s happening and what’s going
to happen step by step. Don’t let them
wander all around the Internet and go
off on their own. Let them know you’re
in charge and that you have their best
interests at heart,” Nugnes says. “If you
do this, they will come to trust you and
your judgment.” To build trust, especially
with younger buyers, Nugnes, who has been selling real
estate for 24 years and says 80 percent of her clients are
buying for the first time, encourages family involvement.
“Without parent approval, no one is making a move. But again,
this helps them feel confident in my abilities,” she says.
NEW JERSEY REALTOR®
• July 2008 • www.njar.com • 15

3. When Wayne, N.J. resident and financial project manager
Lyuba Geberovich, 51, needed to find a home for her
daughter, Faina, 25, Nugnes presented options, e-mailed
listings and showed a seemingly endless array of homes
before Faina settled on a $220,000 one-bedroom in
Rutherford, N.J. last April. “We were undecided about
[what] we wanted and must have looked at 50 or 60 homes.
But Betty wasn’t pushy. She just kept sending listings
and showing us homes,” Geberovich says.
“She knows her stuff. When I needed
comparative prices in the area, I didn’t
need to ask twice. She worked well with
the attorney and the mortgage company.
She’s very thorough, helpful and informed.
And that’s what a first-time home buyer
needs,” she added.
For Nugnes, the effort paid off, and
when Geberovich needed help finding a
condominium for son Alex, 29, she turned to Nugnes. In
December 2007, Alex closed on a $429,000 two-bedroom
condominium in Edgewater, N.J. overlooking New York City
on the Hudson River. And Geberovich recently referred her
brother to Nugnes. That rich referral stream, especially with
younger buyers, say experts, is one of the benefits of working
with this group.
In 1996, Zisa helped a first-time buyer
who spoke limited English and had terrible
credit. “No one wanted to deal with him or
waste time with him,” he recalls. But Zisa
found the man a home. And 10 years later,
with the property developed and equity
built, the client asked Zisa to sell the home,
purchase a step-up property through Zisa’s
office and has referred all three of his adult
children to Zisa in the past five years. “It’s that kind of
loyalty and longevity that if you make the commitment to
the market, can help you do well with this group,” he adds.
If you don’t do your job well, you may never know it,
Zisa cautions. “You have to commit to help these people
100 percent. These individuals and young families don’t
know anything. And if you can’t make the real estate
transaction understandable, they will get turned off and
scared. Oftentimes, you won’t know they are scared.
You just won’t see them again. And the reason you won’t
see them is because they are embarrassed about something
they didn’t understand or can’t grasp certain concepts or
something you told them has to be re-explained and they
don’t want to ask about it again,” Zisa says.
In addition to educating clients and guiding them during the
transaction, Kvist says agents should carefully word print ads
and marketing materials — especially when listing homes
in the lower price range — to encourage
potential buyers to inquire about special
services or programs.
Kvist says some of her best first-time
buyer tools are the New Jersey Housing
and Mortgage Finance Agency’s (HMFA)
mortgages and Smart Start programs,
which can be combined with FHA or
VA loans. These financial vehicles allow
first-time buyers in smart growth areas
who earn less than 80 percent of HMFA’s home buyer county
income limits to accumulate funds to cover down payment
and closing costs.
“The Smart Start is a unique advantage. And if the buyer
remains in the house for seven years, the closing cost part
of the loan is forgiven, and doesn’t have to
be repaid. So it’s like a gift. In the last two
years, I have had at least six transactions
where my buyers have benefited from this
loan,” she says.
Zisa, who started selling real estate in
1989 and founded his company in 1991,
says about 50 percent of his overall
business generates from first-time buyers,
and the rest is comprised of investors.
In terms of commission dollars, Zisa, whose office closed
more than $7 million in sales in 2007, says he could probably
make a lot more money and put in a lot less work with
higher-end transactions. “But it’s very satisfying to help
families who have never been able to get out of a rental
situation get into a home. And once you get their confidence,”
he adds, “you will have a captive audience.” n
Michelle Hofmann is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist.
She can be reached at michellehofmann@earthlink.net.
16 • NEW JERSEY REALTOR®
• July 2008 • www.njar.com