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Summary
Do the little things. It makes you stand out. I am constantly frustrated as I see realtors taking the shortcuts and not doing the work necessary to make their clients happy. Some of them maybe don't even know that they're doing it. Maybe they don't know that they're not doing the things they should be doing. Maybe they don't know that they come across as lazy.
I'm constantly frustrated by the agents that are not doing the little things to make it easy for their clients and their fellow Realtors in the real estate transaction. I'm not trying to toot my horn, but I feel like the reason I've had success and how you can have success is by doing the little things, the things other agents aren't doing.
This episode has some examples that will help you. I’ll share two here with you in the show notes.
Things Realtors don't do but should
I recently was interacting with an agent on a property that we are under contract on. They got the inspection report and so they needed to have some contractors go in and price out some work. When I talked to the agent about getting it scheduled with our showing service for a showing time, she basically said, don't worry about it. I don't have time to do that. Just go to the house.
That makes it difficult for me because if I schedule it with the service, it goes right to my calendar. Her way, I have to just put a note in there to go to the house. I have to remember the lockbox rather than all of it being in the showing time instructions.
As I thought about this episode, I was driving to and from my luxury listing we've talked about. It's about an hour and 10 minutes from my house. And as I've said on some other episodes, the reason that they hired me over a handful of other agents they interviewed was because I said I'd be there for whatever they needed and I’d get the job done. I want to do the little things to make them happy with my services so that not only do they list their home with me, which they have, but they tell their friends and family what a great job I did. So as I drove there, I started thinking about the little things required to have success in this transaction and just in real estate in general.
I was on my way to their home to meet an appraiser. Now, I don't interact with the appraiser. Your best bet is leaving the appraiser alone. You don't want them thinking you are trying to influence the price or anything like that. But I drove about an hour and 10 minutes to go there and unlock the door for the appraiser because my clients were out of town.
I could have said, “No, you guys have to figure it out. The Realtor doesn't show up for that. No, I can't do that. Just give them the door code.” But that just seemed so lazy, and it seemed like a bad experience for my clients. If I did that, then they’d worry about, “Okay, who's in my house? What if somebody goes into the house while he's appraising the property?” Instead, I got in my car, drove the hour and 15 minutes, and let the appraiser in the house.
The appraiser was in the home for 15 minutes.
I drove basically two and a half hours for something that took 15 minutes. But you know what? The time doesn't really matter. What really matters is giving my clients a great experience. That does not stop when you get the home under contract.
Lessons Learned
We have to give a great experience to our clients. We have to do the little things and sometimes the things that seem so small and so insignificant to us. An hour of driving can be something big for our clients. That can be a reason they go and tell their friends and family about the work that you do as a Realtor.
Think about this in your real estate business. Are you doing the little stuff? Are you making the drives, even though you could just tell them someone else can do this or let them use the door code or mail that deposit check? Are you doing the little things to create great experiences for your clients?
Do the little things. What are the little things that you can be doing? And don't be one of those agents that shirk off the responsibility or say it's not your problem. You need to go above and beyond. If you want to retain your clients’ business, have them so thrilled and happy that they're telling everyone they know about you, then you have to be willing to do the little things that might seem like a pain in the neck but help you create great relationships and do an amazing job in the real estate transaction.
I hope that this is helpful for you guys. I hope that you can think about this in your real estate business and apply it to create more success. Thank you guys for listening. I'll see you on our next episode.
Show notes and blog posts are brought to you by HarshmanServices and RealtorEmails.
John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener.
