Residential Real Estate
Guide to Understanding Residential Real Estate Industry Players in a B2B Context
This guide addresses the following questions about residential real estate service providers:
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What types of businesses operate in the residential real estate sector?
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What are the roles of appraisers, builders, inspectors, lenders, and brokers?
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How do these professionals differ from each other?
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Who are the major companies in each category?
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How can B2B professionals engage with residential real estate companies
One broad category of real estate, other than commercial real estate, is residential. Residential is a classification that covers any property that’s being used as someone’s residence. This, naturally, covers single- and multi-family homes. But it also includes apartments, condos, townhouses, and other properties where people reside.
Multi-family residential (5+ units) often overlaps with commercial real estate, especially from a lending and operational standpoint. Also, zoning laws and financing structures help delineate residential real estate from CRE.
What Are B2B Residential Real Estate Companies and What Do They Do?
Under the residential real estate umbrella, there are five main types of companies. These companies are all part of the residential real estate industry from development to the eventual transaction. As a brief overview:
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Property appraisers: They assess the current market value of a residential real estate asset independently of the buyer/seller.
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Residential builders and developers: The builder is the construction company responsible for designing and building the property, while the developer oversees the entire project lifecycle, especially for planned residential communities.
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Home inspectors: This individual or organization inspects the condition of a property, which relates to its overall value.
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Mortgage lenders: These companies loan money to individuals for buying residential properties in return for repayment with interest.
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Real estate brokers: This organization or individual brokers the transaction of a real estate property between the buyer and seller.
Again, many of these roles overlap with residential real estate and commercial real estate, but with differing licensing, scale and regulations.
What do property appraisers do?
Property appraisers are third party entities that are responsible for evaluating residential real estate. It’s important that these businesses are impartial, as the value of a property helps to ensure a fair exchange between buyer and seller. A property appraiser can be employed by either the buyer or seller. The property owner may also employ an appraiser to refinance their home or for a specific tax purpose.
The key difference between residential appraisals and CRE appraisals is that residential appraisers rely on sales comparisons, while commercial appraisers use income and cost approaches as well.
Key functions of real estate appraisers
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Assess market value for purchase, sale, or investment purposes
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Work with lenders, investors, or government bodies
Real estate appraiser job titles
Within a real estate appraisal business, there are a few key job titles that each have different functions and responsibilities.
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Chief appraiser: Oversees the appraisal process, usually at a larger scale (such as with a county or local government)
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Appraisal manager: The manager of an appraisal organization that typically works with lenders (banks, investors, etc.) to assess the value of a property.
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Certified appraiser: The agent responsible for going to a property and conducting an inspection for value analysis.
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Director of valuation services: The senior analyst who analyzes the inspection data of a property for valuation.
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Appraisal coordinator: The professional who organizes the logistics of appraising and valuing a real estate property.
Why connect with real estate appraisers
The real estate appraisal process includes collecting data about properties and storing them for eventual analysis. At scale, they’re potentially responsible for assessing hundreds of properties in the larger context of a ZIP code. They also usually account for historical data. This means that appraisal companies require robust data storage solutions to store photographs and documents. This process is also usually assisted with appraisal-specific software.
With so much data and logistics into scheduling, transporting, and recording property information, there are many opportunities for providing services to real estate appraisers.
What do home builders do?
Home builders construct and renovate residential properties on behalf of investors, owners, and sellers. While builders and developers aren’t always the same entity, both can be responsible for planning, designing and managing the construction process of single-family and multifamily developments. A home builder will usually connect with a network of subcontractors to develop properties and handle specific infrastructure requirements.
Land acquisition and entitlement are often handled by developers, especially for large residential property development projects; however, in smaller or regional areas, the home builder may handle this.
Key functions of home builders
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Manage ground-up construction, land acquisition, and project delivery
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Assist with design and architectural planning
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Often act as developers in smaller firms
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Assist with property permits and approvals
Home builder job titles
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President / CEO: Oversees planning, financing, and eventual management of a real estate construction project.
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VP or director of construction: The overseer responsible for planning, budgeting, and monitoring a construction project’s financing.
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Construction manager / superintendent: The individual on-site who ensures projects are being completed safely and within the projected budget.
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Project manager: Handles logistics of a construction/development project and coordinates with subcontractors and employees.
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Purchasing manager: Responsible for procuring a service or specific supplies from a vendor. Unlike the project manager, who handles the logistics, purchasing managers assess and negotiate the best value for purchases.
Why connect with home builders
Residential property construction represents the intersection of many materials, specialties, and technologies that a single home builder might not handle all on their own. Subcontractors and material suppliers are a necessity for residential builders. Unique services like HVAC or plumbing are also a necessity for homes, so it’s important to know a home builder’s current project and its status to know when an opportunity may arise.
Biscred can put you in touch with more than 46,000 home builders in the U.S. Schedule a demo. A snapshot of our database shows one way our clients can slice and dice the contacts. The largest number of residential builders are headquartered in California, followed by Florida, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania.
What do home inspectors do?
A home inspector is a third-party business or professional that inspects residential properties from the perspective of infrastructure. Home inspection services are essential to assess the condition and safety of a property; however they do not certify code compliance (that’d done at the municipal level, and requirements vary from locality to locality). Home inspectors are usually employed by buyers during a sale and by sellers prior to a sale, as the condition of a home directly relates to its value.
Key roles of home inspectors
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Identify issues pre-sale or post-renovation
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Ensure compliance with codes and safety standards
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Answers questions to the client about the status of the property
Home inspection firm job titles
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Owner / principal inspector: The owner or principal inspector is responsible for planning the operations of a home inspector business. They also, themselves, may be an inspector.
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Certified home inspector: The employee who offers an impartial assessment of a property.
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Lead inspector / inspection manager: May inspect homes or evaluate inspections performed on homes to create a comprehensive analysis.
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Operations manager: Oversees scheduling inspectors, contacts clients, and performs other operational duties that a home inspector business may have.
Why connect with home inspectors
Home inspectors are impartial and cannot recommend third-party contractors for repairing issues due to a conflict of interest. This does make it tricky to do business with them. However, there is an opportunity if your business supports the inspection process (proptech, for example), or if you’re in compliance or property management, to do business with home inspectors.
What do mortgage lenders do?
Mortgage lenders offer loans to individuals and families as borrowers so they can purchase, renovate, or build a residential property. Mortgage lenders receive repayment on their loan with interest depending on the loan amount, term, and interest rate. A mortgage lender is usually a bank, but can be a credit union or other lender.
Key roles of mortgage lenders
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Provide financing for purchases, construction, or refinancing
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Range from large banks to regional credit unions and private money lenders
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Assess borrowers for creditworthiness and loan eligibility
Job titles at mortgage lenders
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Loan officer / mortgage loan originator: Loan officers work with potential borrowers to assess their credit and give them potential loan options.
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Branch manager / lending manager: This is an administrative role that includes training and managing loan officers. Branch managers ensure that the bank’s goals align with lending policies.
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VP or director of mortgage lending: A higher-level position that may encompass an entire financial institution. Concerned with high-level business objectives and term goals for mortgages.
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Loan processor / processing manager: Receive incoming loan applications and screen credit reports to prepare a loan option. Documents loans and ensures compliance with the law.
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Underwriter: Prepares the mortgage and determines its terms & conditions. Responsible for researching a property and the client.
Why connect with mortgage lenders
If your business offers tools that help with researching properties, borrowers, or other data related to residential properties, a partnership with a mortgage lender could be lucrative. Underwriting software and other loan origination tools are also commonly used by mortgage lenders. Relationships between real estate brokers and agents are very important to mortgage lenders.
What do real estate brokers do?
A residential real estate broker facilitates a transaction between the buyer and the seller of a property. A real estate broker is not necessarily a real estate agent; brokers oversee the logistics of a transaction that a real estate agent makes. In fact, real estate agents will often work on behalf of a broker. A broker’s responsibilities include preparing paperwork, recording the transactions, and taking other actions necessary to ensure the real estate transaction is legal.
Key roles of real estate brokers
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Connect buyers, sellers, and renters with the right residential opportunities
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Operate independently or under large national firms
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Ensure transactions comply with local and state laws
Job titles at residential real estate brokerage firms
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Broker / managing broker: A broker or managing broker holds a broker’s license and facilitates residential real estate transactions. The main difference is that a managing broker may not handle specific transactions but rather manage/train the team of brokers or real estate agents.
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Real estate agent / Realtor: A licensed agent employed by a broker who works with clients to list and sell properties.
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Team leader / sales manager: Another job title that encompasses managing and training both real estate agents and brokers.
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Broker/owner: The broker who negotiates and facilitates real estate transactions and holds a broker’s license. May be part of a company or an independent entity.
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Director of marketing: This manager acts as the bridge between digital marketing and real estate agents. They’re responsible for promoting and advertising properties that are currently for sale.
Why connect with residential real estate brokers
There are a lot of opportunities to work with real estate brokers as a B2B business. Brokers handle the logistics of buying and selling properties as well as facilitate the actual transaction. Larger brokerages and Because there’s an overlap with marketing, if your business offers CRM tools, digital marketing solutions, or other marketing automation, they may be interested in a partnership. For businesses that offer property-related services, making a home more attractive to buyers doesn’t necessarily fall under a broker’s jurisdiction. However, a real estate agent employed by a brokerage may be a worthwhile connection.
Common Questions About Residential Real Estate Companies
How do builders and developers differ?
Developers have more management and planning expertise than a property builder. A developer may help obtain the necessary permits and draft plans for the building. Some firms may take on both roles, especially in larger markets. You can learn more about developer responsibilities here.
How do we tailor B2B marketing strategies to residential real estate companies?
Understanding the needs and priorities of residential real estate companies and meeting these concerns with your business is the first step. However, there are a lot of other strategies for finding, generating, and engaging leads in residential real estate. You can learn more about specific marketing strategies by looking through Biscred’s eBooks on the topics.
How do lead generation tactics differ when working with residential real estate vs CRE?
The commercial real estate industry does share some similarities with the residential real estate industry. For example, developing and building both types of properties needs similar expertise. However, the business development priorities for residential real estate and CRE are different, which leads to completely different lead generation strategies when connecting buyers with sellers. In the context of Biscred, however, we’re connecting businesses with one another; lead generation and nurture tactics are quite similar. Learn more about generating demand in CRE.
How do I find decision makers at these residential real estate companies?
We’ve highlighted a few key roles and their responsibilities in this article. Having a database like Biscred that allows you to search for firms in a region relevant to your business is an excellent starting point. You can narrow your search down to the specific professionals by job title within an organization relevant to your business’s expertise. By taking advantage of all of Biscred’s search filters, you’ll be connected with the residential real estate companies most likely to do business with you.
How Biscred Helps You Connect With Residential Real Estate Companies
Biscred’s database houses details about more than 500,000 companies and 4.5 million professionals working in CRE.
Use the Industries filters to select Residential, and further filter by Home Appraisers, Home Builders, Home Inspectors, Mortgage Lenders and Residential Brokers. In this example, we found 121,218 companies and 853,870 people.
Further narrow your searches to relevant geographical regions, company size, company revenue, asset experience, and more.
Use Biscred’s people filters to target decision influencers and decision makers. Filter by seniority levels, such as:
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Executive (CEO, COO, etc.)
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Senior (senior VP, managing director)
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Mid-level (director, manager)
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Junior (assistant, specialist)
With so many data points, Biscred makes it possible to target the most relevant firms likely to want to do business with you. Ready to see how it works? Schedule a demo.
Major Residential Real Estate Companies in the Biscred Database
The following is a sample of the types of companies you’ll find in Biscred’s database, ranging from local firms to global enterprises.
Taylor Morrison: In 2023, Taylor Morrison celebrated the milestone of 100,000 home closings since they went public in 2013. They’ve built homes in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Georgia and more (total of 12 states).
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HQ: Scottsdale, Arizona
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Market: 20 markets in 12 states
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Real estate investment firm (REIF), developer and residential home builder
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Number of contacts in Biscred: 1,500+
eXp Realty: This Bellingham, Washington-based firm bills itself as one of the “world’s fastest growing cloud-based brokerages,” with presence in 24 countries. Here in the U.S.:
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HQ: Baltimore, Maryland
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Market: Nationwide and global
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Residential broker, residential home appraisals, residential home builder and property management
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Number of contacts in Biscred: 11,697
Great Midwest Bank: This Wisconsin lender
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HQ: Brookfield, Wisconsin
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Market: Wisconsin, specifically southwest
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Bank and residential mortgage lender
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Number of contacts in Biscred: 11
More Residential Real Estate Resources
Residential housing reports
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