The Crandall Group: Portland’s Leading New Home Sales Team

By Sue Bronson
Reprinted with permission from Broker Agent Magazine, 2004 Issue 7

If you are familiar with the Greater Portland real estate market, you’ve probably heard of the name "The Crandall Group". Saying that the Crandall Group is Portland’s "leading new home sales team" is not just a marketing ploy or words on a logo. For builders, it is a clear solution to the process of developing, building out and selling homes in a subdivision. Mark Crandall, acquires land for builders, and is responsible for selling over 3000 lots since 1996.

The Crandall Group is a different business model. From land acquisition and planning the subdivision, to new home sales and marketing and eventually re-sales, the Crandall Group does it all. With a tight land supply in the Portland market, the advice and knowledge that Mark Crandall offers is worth everything.

Mark and his wife, Angela, moved from Los Angeles to Portland in 1994, with two children and no jobs. Intrigued with land development, Mark started contacting builders to see what their needs were, and started finding lots for them. Angela spent six months going to open houses and friends encouraged her to get her real estate license. She did, and got very interested in new construction. She liked the challenge of designing, and the challenge of coming up with a unique product.

For Mark the challenge was still matching land with builders, and showing them how to make the best use of that land. Together Mark and Angela realized they could provide a unique full service to builders; Mark seeing the process through the acquisitions and development stages and Angela taking it from there. They set up fully furnished model homes and sales offices in the subdivisions, and started managing all aspects of new home sales and marketing from signage to print advertising and various other media sources. With more and more subdivisions coming on line they needed to bring sales agents to each individual site to staff the model homes and work with buyers. Angela manages the listings and works directly with the builders, and the on-site agents work with the buyers, guiding them through the building/purchasing process.

Two years ago, they hired Chris Kincaid as their sales manager. Previously, Chris had been the sales and marketing director with another local builder and before that spent 10 years in new home sales in Seattle. Chris puts tremendous resources into in-house training for his agents in new home sales. "New home sales is very different from resale," he says. "You are selling the house from the ground up. You might be working with a buyer for five or more months, and you are making a significant impact on a family’s life by assisting them in choosing a homesite, design and upgrade selections.

Our builders and homebuyers deserve the highest level of competence and professionalism, so we constantly train in all aspects of new home sales. Our Team Members are the backbone of The Crandall Group, and have an exceptional reputation in the marketplace. These professionals are consistently regarded as some of the highest new home sales producers in the business. Chris’ overall objective is to help them succeed in being the best that they can be."

Ever open to new business models, they are now recognizing the importance of being able to offer resale services to their former clients, so they now are capitalizing on this opportunity. "Our clients have realized that they’ve had an excellent experience with our on-site agents, and are now coming back to them when they are ready to sell their house and buy another. No one knows their home and neighborhood better than our team, so this has been a natural extension of services we offer to our past buyers."

In over a dozen subdivisions, they now have fifteen Team Members, including buyers assistants and transaction coordinators. Last year Angela sold 265 listings (with combined effort from the team, a total of 406 sides). Next year they expect to do over 500 sides and increase business from $78 million to $100 million. They are still hiring. When hiring a new Team Member, Chris looks for a self-motivated high energy person who wants to continually learn.

"With more help, we can now do what we couldn’t before," Angela says. "We would only take on a builder if we knew we could provide stellar service." Now that they have an excellent system in place, they are delivering that high level of service. Mark Crandall has a successful track record in taking a small builder’s business and helping it grow. One builder he focused on initially built 25-30 houses a year, now they build 300. "Mark brings to the table, the ability to see a raw piece of land and quickly identify the ideal product and price range for that specific site," Chris says. "He can create a neighborhood, take the subdivision through the planning stages, and maximize the use of the lots." Chris and Angela take over where Mark leaves off, coming up with floor plans, the marketing plan, the furnished models, and staffing. Many of the sales happen before the house is even out of the ground, so the Team Members assist the buyers in personalizing their homes. "We completely handle all sales and marketing aspects, allowing the builder to focus on what they do best; building and production."

Our "team" approach to the builder/realtor relationship has worked very well with our largest clients, JLS Custom Homes and Riverside Homes. Both building companies are highly respected in the industry and constantly strive to deliver quality and value to the homebuyer. The Crandall Group values those relationships immensely.

The Crandall Group is under the umbrella of the Sunset Corridor office of John L. Scott. Angela says it works well for them, and gives them name recognition and numerous advantages of associating with a leading force in residential real estate. "We love our principal broker, Gary Whiting," she adds. "He’s always very supportive of our team. It’s a good relationship."

They also get tremendous assistance from their Title and Escrow Company, Pacific Northwest Title. "They go above and beyond what other companies can do," Angela says. "We often close forty houses a month. Diane Holzgraf, Victoria Garcia and Cindy Murphy, at Pacific Northwest Title bring it all together for us. Their performance is incredible, starting from the top with the president, Bill Carter, all the way to the administrative staff, PNWT is a very solid group Angela’s focus is mainly with the listings, working with the builders, being sure that the Team Members have something to sell. After working 70 + hour weeks in the beginning, a balanced lifestyle is now available to her so that she can spend time with her daughters. Mark and Angela’s oldest, Kayla, has signed to play soccer next year at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA, the defending NAIA national champions. Their twelve year old, Kelli also plays competitive soccer and competes in the hunter jumper show circuit with her horse. Mark and Angela not only attend soccer games, but Angela rides with Kelli as often as possible. Our Horses are our passion.

If she had one word of advice for new real estate sales people, it would be "balance". "You’ll burn out without it," she adds. "You must be able to balance your work and your family."

Chris has a family, too—an eight year old daughter, five year old son and a new baby girl. "I am so fortunate," he says. "My wife, Meghan, is at home and completely runs the household. She picks up the slack for me and allows me to focus on my work."
"She is pretty incredible," Angela adds.

Chris’ work is varied. He meets with builders weekly to discuss sales and marketing, and holds sales meetings and training sessions for his staff. His goal is to have the best sales and marketing team in the Pacific Northwest. "Whatever area of this business you choose to do, be the best that you can," he advises. He also advises new sales people to focus and have discipline. "And find a niche you can master," he adds. "There are a million different ways to succeed in real estate. You just have to want it."

The Crandall Group doesn’t just work together, they play together and participate in community service, too. "Birthdays are spa days," Angela says. "And at Christmas we donate gifts to JOIN, a housing assistance group that is committed to getting people off the streets and away from living in their cars, and into housing." The team has also volunteered at Oregon Community Warehouse, a social service agency which supplies all the things a family would need as they move off the street and into a home. Angela always donates to this service because all donations are given to the families. We have sorted incoming donations and helped furnish a few homes with extra model home furniture. "It’s easy to get caught up in selling and buying houses, and forget that there are people out there who don’t have a place to live," Angela says.

For Mark and Angela Crandall and Chris Kincaid, the future of The Crandall Group rests with them continually creating premier solutions for builders in the Pacific Northwest. "When a builder in Oregon thinks of new home sales, we want them to think of The Crandall Group".