Your job as a REALTOR® begins way before clients choose to work with you. And it continues long past move-in day. If you nurture them properly, it can easily become a mutually beneficial long-lasting relationship. Building those relationships is part of your marketing efforts and realtor sales skills to get new potential clients and revenue.
Being a real estate agent working on commission means you aren’t guaranteed a fixed monthly paycheck. This feast or famine type of work invites you to build strong connections with your clients so they’ll come to you with repeat business or help you reach more people through word of mouth.
Many realtors believe that the way to a client’s heart is by giving them wine bottles, fruit baskets, or a new key chain. Those are nice gestures, but they won’t cut it. They’re impersonal, and therefore, easy to forget.
There are several items of value for real estate clients that will make them truly appreciate you. Spoiler alert, these aren’t necessarily tangible.
By the end of this blog, you’ll be ready to wow your clients and get them to refer you to others organically without too much additional effort. We’ll even explain how to earn passive income for yourself and your existing clients.
Table of contents
- How do you provide value to real estate clients?
- 9 items of value to real estate clients
- Frequently asked questions about items of value for real estate clients
How do you provide value to real estate clients?
Help your clients find their dream home and nurture your ongoing relationship to get referrals and repeat business.
To increase the chances of getting referrals or repeat business, you should provide value by:
- Listening to their needs and coordinating house visits that match those expectations. For example, if they need a two-bedroom house (and it’s non-negotiable), avoid taking them to big one-bedroom condos.
- Helping them discover ways to monetize their investment. For example, using it as a vacation rental.
- Getting to know the neighborhood and providing them with interesting insights. For example, taking them to visit nearby schools for their children.
- Being knowledgeable in terms of laws and regulations and being able to answer their questions. For example, answering tax-related questions or what’s the process to request renovation permits.
- Using your unique background to wow your clients. For example, if you used to work in an architect’s studio, talk about why the floor plan in one house is better than another.
- Truly get to know them so you can customize your actions according to their preferences. Make sure you weave these topics into natural conversations:
- Do they have any dietary restrictions?
- Do they drink? Which is their favorite alcoholic beverage? Which brand?
- Do they eat chocolate?
- Do they have pets? Cats, dogs, a pet lizard?
- Do they rather be contacted through phone calls, messages, or email?
- What’s their biggest concern? (related and unrelated to house hunting)
- What do they do in their free time?
9 items of value to real estate clients
There are different ways in which you can provide value to your real estate clients. This doesn’t necessarily mean they should be material things. Here are some of the things you can do before, during, and after the move to provide added value and get them to remember you:
Before the move
This is a stressful time for you and your clients. You’ve probably visited several open houses or have coordinated many visits from potential buyers but you haven’t found the right fit. Or you might be struggling to find the perfect home for your clients. To make all the hard work count and provide value to your clients, you can:
1. Help home buyers monetize their assets or make the right offer
One of the very first things you can do as a real estate professional is to understand what they’ll use the property for. Then, you can make a plan to fulfill that goal.
If they’re buying a property as a primary home, you can help them make an offer that will get them noticed but won’t hurt their budget. If they’re buying a second property and are planning to rent it long-term, you can offer to find and screen some possible tenants (and get a commission), or hook them up with trustworthy property managers.
If your client is looking for an investment property and aims at asset appreciation, you should show them properties in up-and-coming neighborhoods, provide them with local market data, and a pre-prepared business plan.
Lastly, if they want to make it a short-term rental and get a faster cash-on-cash return on investment, you can offer to manage the property yourself using a full-service vacation rental management company like Jetstream. This isn’t time-consuming and you won’t have to learn how to do it. You’ll only need to find a reputable cleaning company and maintenance workers, and Jetstream handles all daily operations, distribution, and guest communication for you. That way, you and your client can enjoy stable, passive income—while we do all the hard work.
Managing your client’s STR with Jetstream allows you to:
- Generate monthly supplemental income for realtors
- Boost wealth and satisfaction for your clients
- Stay top-of-mind for clients to gain referrals and repeat business
- Grow their business and increase the chances of them buying more property—and your commissions
Buying or selling property comes with a great deal of paperwork, regulations, and jargon that your clients may not be familiar with, especially if they’re first-time buyers.
It can be overwhelming and stressful for them to figure it out all by themselves. As a real estate broker, it is good practice to offer them to handle their paperwork for an additional fee or assist them at every step. You can also send them a glossary of terms including all of the new words they’ll hear when applying for a loan and signing their new home.
3. Provide them with a checklist of moving-in items
Another way to provide pre-move value is by becoming their second brain and thinking ahead for them. Make detailed and actionable checklists for them to follow. Remember that you should really get to them so you can create different lists for them depending on why they’re buying the house, including:
- Service and moving-related tasks if they’re purchasing a primary home
- Vacation rental amenities and service-related tasks if they’re renting it short term
- Service-related, home appliances, and property management tasks if they’re renting the property to long-term tenants
- Sourcing and liaising with tradespeople if they’re buying a fixer-upper
4. Provide a list of recommended local services
Along with the previous checklist, share a list of contacts and addresses to complete those tasks. You should include the names and numbers of:
- Landscapers
- Contractors
- Cleaners
- Maintenance workers
- Interior designers
- Movers
- Plumbers
- Neighborhood-specific service providers
Make another list to include client-specific services like nearby kindergartens, high schools, local shops, gas stations, or co-working spaces.
During the move
Moving can feel like a never-ending task. If you’re going to participate or make an appearance during your client’s move, make sure you’re there for a reason to avoid wasting their time. Here are some ways to be present on this day without being invasive.
5. One-line personalized text message
A good idea is to send your client an early morning text message wishing them good luck with the move. Make it personal by including something they’ve mentioned in conversation before. For example, if your client was looking for the perfect kitchen and bought the property mostly because of it, reference this in your message. Or you could send a card and a relevant gift, like a nice wok or set of pans.
Make sure you let them know that there’s no need to reply and that you’re still available to help them in the future. This will allow you to “show up” for your clients without being invasive.
6. Share a list of nearby restaurants with delivery
Most realtors don’t do this, so it’s a great way to surprise your clients. It’s unlikely that someone will want to cook on the first night in their new home. They’re tired, they don’t know where the pots and utensils are, and they just want to eat and collapse into bed.
Send them a list of nearby restaurants that have delivery or, if you know what they like, buy them a gift card from one of those restaurants. The list doesn’t have to be in a physical document; you can simply text them a message that reads “It’s probably been a long day for you. Here are the three top restaurants in the neighborhood that will bring you food in 30 mins.”
This is a great way to follow up and show you aren’t being nice just because you’re on commission.
7. Help them lift some boxes or take things off of their plates
Help your clients lift some boxes and take some weight off of their hands and shoulders.
You don’t need to lift boxes to be a good realtor, but it might help to increase client retention. Ask your client if they’re okay with you helping or if they’d rather do it by themselves. Even when you truly know your client, you should always ask if they want you around. Sometimes nice things in stressful situations can be perceived as an extra burden if clients feel obliged to pay attention to you.
If you don’t want to help them move, but want to help in another way, offer to take care of some of their daily responsibilities. For example, if they have a dog, and you feel comfortable with it, offer to take it home for the day and bring it back at night after they’re all settled in.
After the move
Once your client has moved in, it’s common to be in contact less frequently. That doesn’t mean that you won’t follow up or have any connection with them. In fact, building the post-purchase relationship is what will help you stay top-of-mind. And make them recommend you to their friends and family.
These are some of the actions you can take to be remembered.
8. Keep homeowners up to date with local trends
Remember why your client bought their property and contact them later to share relevant market data. For example, if you know that they’re in the process of purchasing a new property, you can send them reports on a new up-and-coming housing market that sounds like a good investment opportunity.
You can use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to keep track of your real estate leads without much effort. If you use social media to promote your real estate business, you can use the same reports as an asset for lead generation.
9. Manage their property as a short-term rental
If your client chose to buy a property to rent as a vacation property and you’re managing it, you can use Jetstream to increase their revenue and earn a passive income stream as a real estate agent.
Jetstream distributes the property on multiple listing services like online travel agencies (OTAs). We also optimize each listing to get them to rank higher on each OTA’s search engine and increase the chances of getting it booked.
We’ll also monitor fluctuations in the vacation rental market so you’re always getting the best nightly rate. And we handle guest communication, provide detailed revenue reporting, and coordinate schedules with your cleaners and contractors.
Basically, we put our short-term rental industry tech and expertise at your disposal. So all you need to do is report back to the owner, make reliable monthly revenue, and invest your time in what you do best—real estate.
Jetstream will handle your complete vacation rental operations using top-notch technology. Wow your clients and get a new passive income stream.
Go the extra mile to provide value—enjoy the benefits
The real estate market is highly competitive and realtors don’t always have a fixed monthly paycheck. Going the extra mile and building strong connections with your clients can help boost ROI on your efforts by generating repeat business, referrals, and additional passive income.
You can have the best listings to show your clients, but if you don’t build strong connections or provide value to clients at all stages, you’re less likely to stay top-of-mind.
By nurturing the one-to-one relationship with your clients, you’re planting the seeds to make your client portfolio grow. To do so, you need to provide your real estate clients with items of value. These can be tangible like a business plan if they’re renting the property, a kitchen utensil, or actionable checklists. Or intangible like taking care of their dog on their moving day.
You can also turn one-off clients into profitable long-term ones by offering short-term rental management services—without becoming a full-time property manager! How? By using Jetstream’s property management software and services. So you can offer property management services to your clients and generate stable passive income for both of you—with little additional effort.
Frequently asked questions about items of value for real estate clients
How do you provide value to real estate clients?
To provide value to your real estate clients you need to get to know them and understand their needs. Then, you can come up with personalized touchpoints for each of them. For example:
- Help them monetize their asset or make the right offer
- Take over their paperwork
- Provide actionable and complete checklists of amenities and services
- Text them useful, personalized information
- Help them with the move
- Share a list of nearby restaurants with delivery for the moving day
- Share relevant data
- Manage their property as a short-term rental
What is some important advice for real estate clients?
The best advice you can give your clients is to be extremely clear and transparent with you about your budget and your intentions. If they want to buy a place for asset appreciation, you should know. If they can’t go one dollar over budget, they need to tell you. That way you’ll be able to properly match their needs to open listings.
What are the amenities in a house?
House amenities are essential items that everyone must have. These vary depending on each client’s inventory and what they’ll use the property for. Some examples of amenities include:
- Freezer
- Pots and pans
- Kitchen utensils
- Couch
- TV
- Mattress
If you’re renting your property to vacationers, check out this complete vacation rental amenities checklist.
How can I be a good real estate agent?
You can be a good real estate agent by providing value to your client. You’ll do that by helping them complete difficult tasks (e.g. paperwork), providing information (e.g. market data), and being there to help (e.g. carrying boxes on their moving day). Also, by helping them realize value from their assets.
