5 Little Things You Can Do as a Real Estate Agent to Make a Big Difference

If you want to be a successful real estate agent, then it’s important to — of course — be competent in your field. Not just getting your certification and staying up-to-date on the latest regulations and news impacting the real estate industry, but perfecting your personal skills as much as your marketing skills in order to attract clients. 

Along with this, you have to be willing to bring something new to the table to keep your current clients interested. These days, not only is it difficult to stand out from the competition, it’s also very easy to lose clients to other agents or even to iBuying websites.

Whether this means accepting phone calls or answering text messages after hours or going out of your way to make a hesitant client feel more comfortable going forward with their home-buying decision, often it’s the little things that can make all the difference in the eyes of your client. Best of all, there’s no need to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars or even hours of your time that you simply don’t have. These little techniques can go a long way when it comes to inviting in more clients and keeping the ones you have happy.

1) Have Materials to Send Home

One thing you can do to set yourself apart from other real estate agents is to compile materials that you can send home with your clients to review for themselves. This booklet can answer the basic FAQs that clients may have regarding the process, definitions of key terms and an outline of paperwork that will need to be done, homes that are currently on the market, a bit about how payment works, and even a small section about you experience as an agent and why you are the one qualified to work with these people. 

You can also create a similar brochure as part of your marketing tools for leads who are curious about what working with a real estate agent will involve. Giving as much value as you can upfront for free is a great way to advertise yourself new clients, and save time on answering more general questions down the road.

If you’re having trouble deciding how to format your materials, consider hiring a graphic designer or a content writer to help you find the imagery and the words across in an approachable yet authoritative manner. 

2) Get to Know Your Clients and Let Them Get to Know You

As bedside manner is important for doctors to have, interpersonal skills are also essential to a real estate professional’s portfolio. But, whereas a doctor’s bedside manner can be ignored if it’s a matter of life and death, it’s not quite the same with an agent. Your personality is the first thing your clients will see, and many times it does not matter how many “lives you’ve saved” or rather how many homes you sold, but whether or not you are kind, friendly, patient, communicative, and easy to work with. 

One way to demonstrate this to people is to get to know your clients and to let them get to know you. You don’t need to talk all business all the time. And — as a matter of fact — the more you can be yourself around your clients and they can be themselves around you, the more rapport you’ll establish. This will naturally make business easier in the long run.

That being said, you should always try to gauge your clients’ personality as well. While some are up for chatter, others just want to get down to business. So, let them steer the conversation and see where it goes from there!

3) Stick to Their Needs and Wants

Some prospective clients will come to you with a budget and the type of house in mind. Others may have already seen the house they want, and are contacting you because you’re the listing agent. While there are situations when potential homebuyers come to an agent without any idea of what they want, most do. And, they’re usually not very willing to stray from that. 

Therefore, while you can certainly introduce your clients to the idea of looking at homes outside their budget or in a slightly different location, never overstep your boundaries and waste their time. One sure-fire way to send your clients running into the arms of another real estate agent is by taking them on a tour to see homes that are too big, too small, or at prices and in locations that they’re not interested in.Sticking to their needs and wants is gesture that can mean a lot. 

4) Check-In Regularly

There’s a big difference between being the agent that’s constantly messaging a lead that’s not quite ready to buy a home and checking in regularly on a client that’s already searching for homes with your help. If your clients are in the midst of looking for a home, chances are they are also busy with work and life, and they simply don’t have enough time in the day to check the status of their paperwork or if their offer was accepted. 

This is, after all, why they hired you in the first place. It’s up to you to send them notifications in a way that won’t add stress to their day, but will, on the contrary, make their day easier to get through. Make the process of buying a home an exciting one, and if you have bad news to deliver at some point, always try to sugar it up with an optimistic tone. For instance, if you have to break the news that the house they wanted went to another buyer, let them know at an appropriate time of day and that there will be other amazing homes to look at. As an agent, it can be easy to fall into the “kill the messenger” trap, so be the most positive messenger you can be!

5) Show Your Gratitude

Last but not least, another small thing you can do that will go a long way is to show your gratitude to your clients. This could be anything from inviting them out to grab a coffee when the buying process is getting stressful, or ordering pizza to the office (after asking their dietary restrictions, of course!) on a long night going through paperwork. Finally, when all is said and done, don’t forget to send a housewarming/closing gift to your clients, as this will make you feel great, them feel great, and hopefully, lead to more clients later on from a generous recommendation!

The list of little ways to be loved by your clients can go on and on. Maybe you can provide them with connections to make the process of buying a home more efficient. Or, perhaps you are very accommodating with showing your client homes even if it’s inconvenient for your schedule. 

What little things do you do to set yourself apart from other real estate agents? Let us know in the comments below!