productive real estate agent in the world,” he was a real estate broker by 21 and a home builder for 18 years. Furthermore, that $1 billion benchmark he hit for the 2017 world record was not his first billion-dollar milestone. He exceeded $1 billion in 2015 for the first time and has repeated the achievement every year since. However, he is quite adamant that “the point,” as he refers to it, is not the numbers but the overall growth for his clients and his real estate business. “I’ve always changed as the market changed and grown in my real estate business as the market has grown. To me the key is to always have focus. Specializing is key to real estate success,” Caballero said. “I’ve never said, ‘I’m a real estate broker and I’ll do whatever you need,’ to my clients. The most important thing is to focus and be willing to refine what you do to meet your clients’ needs and your business’ needs.” Caballero’s intense focus created his incredibly wide present-day reach. In 2003, Caballero already had
plenty of experience with the unique needs of home builders, but he realized something more was needed to facilitate the sales process between builder and the owner-occupant buyer. That realization led to the multiyear development process that ultimately yielded the HomesUSA. com platform, which serves as an interface between realtors and builders and streamlines the listing process for both. “I had been insuring the sale of homes for people buying new homes so builders could sell homes without contingency agreements. Essentially, a buyer would come to my company to get a committed offer from us on their home so that they could buy a new home without including a sale contingency, which most builders cannot accept,” Caballero explained. “We were, essentially, ibuyers, in 1988.” Before that stage in his business, Caballero had been a builder himself. “I have always been involved in home-building in some capacity,” he said. In 2003, however, it became clear to Caballero that Texas builders needed a
YOU MIGHT THINK SETTING A Guinness World Record for being the most productive real estate agent in the world would be the peak of any real estate professional's career, but when Ben Caballero, CEO and president of HomesUSA.com, earned the title, he was just getting started. In fact, after qualifying for the 2017 recognition by submitting his sales volumes and totals (3,556 home sales for $1.444 billion) for 2016 to Guinness, Caballero followed that up by selling 4,799 homes for $1.9 billion in 2017. “I think you can only submit every two years, so we will evaluate and make our decision about resubmitting after the close of 2018,” he said mildly. “Really, the point is more to enjoy real estate and keep moving forward. I don’t like backward.” Caballero certainly has very little familiarity with moving backward. Before becoming the certified “most
PROFILE
The HomesUSA.com team (left to right): David Cate, Lemna Parker, Wendy Copeland, Alyssa Staats, Ben Caballero, and Amy May
IBUYER: An investor or investing
Ben Caballero CEO & President of HomesUSA.com
business that uses automated valuation models (AVMs) to make instant offers on homes to clients.
Professional Achievements, Titles & Recognitions:
platform to manage their homes in MLS and market the properties to real estate agents and realtors. “I started working on the platform software in 2003, had a couple false starts, and launched it in 2007, right in the middle of the housing crash,” he recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘If I were really so smart, I wouldn’t have timed it this way.” In the two years following the launch of the HomesUSA.com platform, however, his sales volume fell by about 5 percent. By comparison, local sales volumes fell by more than 50 percent. “I felt like I was doing pretty well, even though our market was down,” Caballero
said. By the time the recession was over, he had refined the platform to perfectly suit the highly individualized needs of his very high-volume clients. “We are always refining and improving the platform. As more clients adopt it, they tell us about their needs and we continue to refine it. It is always amazing to me the details you can adjust to make things even better.”
• Named “Most Innovative Real Estate Agent” by Inman News (2013) • Presented with the Keller Williams Pinnacle Award for Real Estate Entrepreneurship (2014) • Finalist for “Most Innovative Real Estate Agent” for Inman (2016, 2018) • Recognized as an “Industry Influencer” by Inman (2017)
CONTINGENCY AGREEMENT:
A clause in a contract that defines a condition or action that must be met before a real estate contract can become binding. For example, a buyer might include a contingency clause stating they will only close on a property if they are able to sell their current home first. (Also known as a contingency clause)
PROFILING, BUT IN AGOODWAY
• Named a “Top Trendsetter” by Swanepoel (2017)
Caballero describes his platform as a series of profiles that overlap and complement each other in order
Caballero (left) confers with MLS Listing Coordinators Amy May (center) and Wendy Copeland (right).
18 | think realty magazine :: january / february 2019
thinkrealty . com | 19
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