Why Do Real Estate Agents Need Strategic Partners?
While a career in real estate is a fully-rewarding and independent career, successfully helping your clients from the beginning of the home acquisition process until the end requires developing different partnerships with local businesses in order to best help your clients.
Many new real estate partners like yourself may not know what partnerships will benefit their careers, which is why we broke down the six types of strategic partners’ real estate agents need. While this is not an all-encompassing list, it should help get you started after passing your licensing exam.
6 Strategic Partners for Real Estate Agents
1) Contractor for Home Repairs
When selling a client’s home, you’ll need to have a contractor who can come in and properly fix items around the house for a fair price. These repair requests will usually come from the home inspector, the potential home buyer, or even yourself.
Having a contractor relationship will greatly diminish costs while providing timely repairs to your clients’ homes. While some handymen are skilled in many areas, you may need to have a specialized contractor for the following purposes: plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and outside home repairs. The better the contractor, the more you will pay. In exchange, you’ll receive better work from fewer people.
2) Home Inspector
Before a home is officially sold, you will likely have to use a home inspector to make sure the house is up to snuff. This pre-inspection expense is usually paid for by the homeowner.
Finding a reliable home inspector can be tedious. To receive the best results, ask for a recommendation from fellow real estate agents you trust. Otherwise, compare and contrast rates and ratings when Googling “home inspectors near me” or “home inspectors in (insertyour town name).”
3) Home Stager
A home staging is “the preparation of a private residence for sale in the real estate marketplace (with) the goal of making a home appealing” for sale. Home stagers are important for listing photos and open houses but are also usually necessary for helping sell the home through one-on-one tours.
4) Local Businesses
We’ve discussed the power of word-of-mouth marketing and how it can help your real estate business. By creating a quid-pro-quo relationship with other businesses like flower shops and high-end wine stores, you’re creating an altruistic situation that benefits both parties. Essentially, the partnership will be based on you consistently using them for your business (e.g. closing gifts, home decor for open houses) and referrals to your clients. In exchange, they will utilize their COI positioning and refer your services to their trusted clients.
If you are going to partner up with local businesses, make sure to have point-of-purchase marketing materials that business owners can distribute to their customers. These items could be something as simple as a business card stationed at the front desk and will help your partner share the good news about your real estate services.
List of Potential Local Partnerships:
- Wine Store
- Home Repair
- Paper and Printing
- Flower Shop
- Bookstore
- Coffee Shop
- Home Cleaning Service
5) Marketing Agency or Freelance Graphic Designer
Many brokerages offer standard marketing support for a fee. If you opt-out of this for more personalized marketing materials, look into hiring a marketing agency at a monthly rate or a freelance graphic designer. Enhance local SEO reankings with the Showcase IDX Honolulu Board Of REALTORS and HiCentral plugin. With your lead, they will be able to create all the marketing materials you will need for your business.
What You’ll Get:
- Personal Email Templates
- Social Media Expertise and Management
- Website Design
- Connections to Advertisers (Billboards, Newspaper Ads, etc.)
- Custom Business Cards
- Advertising Help with Brand Messaging
- Marketing Consultation
6) Home Mortgage Lender
Having a list of home mortgage lenders on hand will help your clients get the best rates when borrowing from a bank. There are many local and national providers, and partnering with the best mortgage specialists who understand the market trends can assist your client in to get the best 15- and 30-year mortgages. Right now, home mortgage rates are predicted to drop over the next year, which could make refinancing a strategic move that could save your clients money.
