How 2 agents took white-glove service to a higher level
For some agents, going above and beyond is just part of the territory — and can be the key to closing the deal.
Key points:
- To provide concierge-style service, it helps to have a network of reliable friends and contractors.
- Exceeding client expectations not only gets you to the closing table, it can lead to a windfall of referral business.
- Making the process easy for clients along the path to achieving their real estate goals is its own reward.
Real estate agents are used to juggling tasks — researching comps, showing homes, connecting clients with service providers — but those are just the basics.
Most agents can tell you that things don't always go as planned, and in those situations, it's time to roll up your sleeves and really get to work.
See how two agents went above and beyond with their clients — one who shifted into high gear with hours to spare, and one who stuck with a deal for years.
Putting out fires 2 hours before closing
Closing day was near, and Beth Kaim was extremely clear with her client: "Everything in the townhouse must be gone. Only leave things that are useful, like a shovel or ladder." Kaim even offered to assist with the movers. But the client insisted, "Oh, no. I've got it. Don't worry."
At 8 a.m., two hours before closing, the buyer's agent called Kaim and said, "It's final walkthrough, and there's furniture in the house — a couch, a desk upstairs, plants and other miscellaneous things." The buyers weren't going to close unless the house was empty.
Kaim, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, pivoted to problem-solving mode. At that time, four or five years ago, it was a buyer's market. First, she called the client, who admitted to knowing better but said, "There wasn't room in the truck, and I thought they'd want it."
"I'm sure you had every good intention," Kaim recalls saying. "But they don't want your furniture." The client started to panic. They had two hours to make it right. "Don't worry about a thing," Kaim told her. "I will handle it. We're going to close."
On the way to the house, Kaim called her friend Mike, because he had a truck and could help out in emergencies. "I need you and your truck at [this address] now," she said. Without asking any questions, he was on his way. Next, she called the attorney working on the closing. One by one, everyone showed up, including the client, her boyfriend and the attorney's assistant.
Once inside, the client remembered she wanted to swap out a new light fixture with the original one stored in her basement. But she needed an electrician. The attorney called one he knew, and the electrician showed up right away.
As Kaim, Mike and the attorney began emptying the house, the attorney's assistant, a young women living in her first apartment, decided to take the plants and anything else that could fit inside her car.
"Between all of us, we managed to close on this property," Kaim said.
Her efforts that day are still paying off: "My client loves me and refers me to everybody," Kaim said.
After a decade of sleuthing, agent brings client closer to finish line
Stephannie Wilson's secret to success is caring about people. Based on her background, it makes sense. She spent 20 years working with at-risk youth before switching to real estate — another career that involves looking after people.
In 2014, Wilson, an agent with Schuler Bauer ERA Powered in New Albany, Indiana, started working with a client to list a 41-acre property and home the client inherited from her parents. "Very quickly, I realized [access to] this land was always via an easement," Wilson said. To reach the property, the client had to use a neighbor's driveway.
"After her mother passed away, the neighbor said, 'You can no longer use the driveway.' We've been in court about it for over 10 years," Wilson said, noting that the client — a woman in her 70s who needs to sell the property in order to retire and pay off her own home — didn't have anyone else to help her.
"Originally, the farmland belonged to one person, and it was split up among families and friends years ago," Wilson said. "Even though the survey showed [my client] having access to her property, nobody could ever find the first easement that allowed it."
That is, until Wilson thought of checking with the utility companies. In doing so, she found the documents, signed in the 1940s, that show the granting of the easement — which will give her client access to the land.
"It looks like she'll get to sell the property," Wilson said, and she has a list of people who would love to purchase it. "We have one more court battle, but we have enough information to show how long that easement has been there."
Eventually Wilson will sell the property and, after all these years, be in the negative in terms of time and money spent helping the client.
But she doesn't mind. "I live off referrals," she said. "Sometimes it doesn't financially benefit you, but at the end of the day, you did the right thing."