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What did your realtor give you as a housewarming gift?

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Dee*Jay

Dee*Jay

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As a realtor I''m always looking for great gifts to give people when they buy a new home. I try to give them something personal (e.g., once the hanging pot rack in the kitchen became a BIG point of negotiation so I gave the buyer a nice set of pots for a closing gift). And when I can''t think of anything else I give Tiffany keyrings.

But I need some new good ideas!
 
I want you to be my Realtor! We''ve bought 4 houses, and are just about to list the last one for sale...and I''ve never gotten anything from Tiffanys!!
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Date: 4/30/2006 10:14:06 PM
Author:Dee*Jay
As a realtor I''m always looking for great gifts to give people when they buy a new home. I try to give them something personal (e.g., once the hanging pot rack in the kitchen became a BIG point of negotiation so I gave the buyer a nice set of pots for a closing gift). And when I can''t think of anything else I give Tiffany keyrings.

But I need some new good ideas!
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I think the key rings are an awesome idea...at closing you can put their new key on it and wrap it up. I think ours gave us a lovely Orrefors bowl or vase...something nice. I guess you could decide based on the people and their interests, tastes...but something for the home is always nice!
 
Tawn, I''m afraid you might not be alone! I can''t tell you how many people are suprised when I give them a gift at closing. I also send small holiday gifts (has to be something relatively flat and light enough to send through the mail). Last year I did Mikasa crystal snowflakes; for this year I got the cutest embrordered (sp?) dishtowels with candy canes and gingerbread men. (Yes, I am one of THOSE people in the stores on Dec. 26 buying things for the next season!). Baby gifts are another big one -- all my clients how have babies get some cute thing!

But I want to make sure my gifts don''t get "stale" so I''m always looking for novel ideas.
 
our agent got us books on shade gardening......then i cut down trees!

our mortgage banker, yes, our mortgage banker got us a years subscription to sunset magazine.

movie zombie
 
The agent gave us and the vendor a bottle of wine - the label on the wine was a photo of the house. Cute.

I''ve heard of an agent around town that provides catering services for the day you move in. It''s a great idea. Who wants to cook and clean when you''re tired from having to unpack all the boxes. Much better than takeway!!
 
Date: 4/30/2006 10:26:32 PM
Author: tawn
I want you to be my Realtor! We''ve bought 4 houses, and are just about to list the last one for sale...and I''ve never gotten anything from Tiffanys!!
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Ditto to this except we''ve never received anything at all!!
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Mind you, I did sell our last house on my own.

Tawn, we have our house for sale right now too and what a PITA it is!

Dee*Jay - I thought of gift certificates for a nice restaurant - not a personal gift, but when you are in the process of moving, the last thing you want to think about is cooking!
 
I''m in marketing and I always recommend people give gifts that come more than once because each time the receiver gets a new package they are reminded of the giver. I also like gifts that come as a surprise later (many people expect gifts at closing now) rather than at closing (who needs more stuff when moving!). Here''s a few ideas:

If the people are new to the area, a 6 month subscription to the local newspaper.

Fresh flowers of the month club so they arrive monthly for 3-6 months

Gourmet food or fresh fruit of the month club

Omaha steaks (make sure not vegetarian of course)

Restaurant gift certificates...but do a cheaper restaurant and mail 1 2 weeks after closing, then another around 90 days after closing...

Of course the best gifts are personal and relate to the individual so you can always adapt as you learn about your customers...


Good luck, let us know what you decide to do.
 
Dee*Jay, the biggest gift I give my clients is 20% of my commission . . . off the top. They get it as a credit against their closing costs, or as a check after COE. On a $500,000 home, that''s $2,500 to $3,000 depending on the commission offered to the buyer''s broker. . . more often tending to 3% commissions the way the market is going. If I''m the listing agent, I tell my clients they must offer a full commission to the buyer''s broker, but I will shave my commission to save them money.

At COE I always give a nice note to my clients, spelling out the dollar amount I have credited them from my commission. However, I give a gift too. Because I give them so much money, the gift is limited to a $50 value or so. I give:

*Home Depot or Lowes gift certificicates when I know they are going to be painting or fixing.
*Gift certificates to a nice restaurant so they don''t have to worry about food on moving day.
*If they have children, I give the kids memberships at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park (I do this for up to two children) -- parents have to buy their own membership!
*The Sunset magazine subscription is nice because they have a realtor program, and every month''s issue is printed on the front with "A gift from Dee*Jay"
*Women usually like something from PartyLite candles.
*For asian clients, a big bag of rice (the big bag from Costco) is supposed to be good luck.

One of my clients was in the great surfing movie, "Step into Liquid." That started me going to the beach (well I do live in a beach town), getting big, smooth, beach rocks, and using rub-on letters to put ''Welcome'' on the rock, sometimes they get one stone with welcome and one with their names, and I have the beach stones sitting on the front porch when escrow closes and they come to the home for the first time. My clients love that, it''s cheap, and fun to do. You just wash and dry the rock, rub on the letters, and paint a clear sealer over the rock.

My company has key rings with our name on them (they are cheesy) but I use them anyway. Also, my company automatically sends our clients return address labels.
 
A gift is a great marketing tool as referrals are such a big thing in real estate. I love the idea of a key chain. You will always be on the forefront thought. Front door mat? Wind Chime? Bird house?
 
Thanks for all the great ideas! I especially like the repetative concept.

F&I - I used to give personalized doormats printed with the client's last name but one woman said it creeped her out that the people walking by would know who she was, so I put an end to that!
 
Oh, by the way, at the holiday season I also send all my clients two movie tickets in. They are discounted at the local association, it doesn''t cost me too much, and the clients love getting the tickets.
 
Ours had a local artist draw a picture of our new house and front lawn (3/4 view) in ink. He then framed it and gave it to us. I was very surprised and still love it.
 
Our first house, our agent gave us a nice plant and a basket of goodies for the kids. VERY nice.

Our second house, our agent gave us nothing, squat, nothing. I was really surprised becuase I know its very customary.

I thought it was kind of rude because she made a TON of money off the sale.

I live in a wealthy suburb and bought a 4,000 square foot very expensive home. And she works for remax which is NOT a discount brokerage. But even without that, her service was awful ,just awful. I would not use her or recomend her again. When she was showing me houses, she spend ever second of her time on her cell phone with her daughter. Unfortunately I could not fire her because we were relocating and she was the wife of one of my husbands future partners. Talk about a conflict of interest!
 
we got a gift card to Home Depot. Our agent asked us beforehand which store we wanted... it was a nice gesture. She was the best!!
 
We received a set of steak knives. I really like the idea of the Tiffany key chains!!!
 
We got $150 worth of gift cards to Crate & Barrel for new furniture, which they knew we needed moving from our tiny apartment!!! I didnt know we would get a gift, so i was really awe-struck when we got them! In the DC/VA/MD housing scene, we were not a super-huge commission.

We gave our mortgage guy a $100 gift card to a local upscale restaurant. Not only did he hold my hand through everything with the mortgage (first house), he recommended our agent AND found the house (happened to be friends with the listing agent!).
 
We got some fairly expensive champagne. I would have preferred the Tiffany keychain LOL!
 
That''s so sweet of you! THe first gift I got was inexpensive, but I really liked it! It was a personalized stamp with my new address on it. It was great when I was paying my bills and it was really exciting to see my name with my new address (first new home after college).

I''ve also received gift certificate, which the realtor asked me which store, and cold hard cash, which is always lovely in my book!
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Wind Chime for our first house. the second house we bought, using the same realtor, was a victorian so he bought us a coffee table book of Victorian homes.
 
We have been with our realtor for our last 3 homes in San Francisco. We have also referred him on to several other people as well (and so on....). He paid for 2,500 square feet of hardwood floors for our downstairs. We were speechless. We love our realtor.
 
Wow -- 2,500 sf of hardwood floors -- now that''s some housewarming gift!

I just got back from a closing and fortunately my buyers were happy with the Tiffany keyrings and a good bottle of wine!
 
Date: 5/1/2006 9:53:33 AM
Author: Dee*Jay
Thanks for all the great ideas! I especially like the repetative concept.


F&I - I used to give personalized doormats printed with the client''s last name but one woman said it creeped her out that the people walking by would know who she was, so I put an end to that!
Click to expand...

How about a doormat with the first initial of the last name?
 
we were first time homebuyers and the place needed some TLC so our realtor gave us a $200 Home Depot gift card!!! I couldn''t beleive it
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but, it really really came in handy. and was better for us than a key chain.. although anything from Tiffany''s is amazing. The fact that you are looking for ideas to gift your clients is really awesome.
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I do give gift cards a lot too. E.g., I have a client closing on Wednesday who is a budding music producer and I know he buys a lot of CDs at Borders, so he''s getting a $100 gift card from there, along with a bottle of "House Wine." I found this wine at a local store that has a white paper label [so it''s easy to write on] with black letters that just says "House Wine" with a simple sketch of the front of a house. I write "new" in front of "House Wine" and put the address of the property above the front door. I used to try to put stick figures of the people in the windows too but my artistic talents are pretty sad... I also sign it and put my phone # on there too. I''ve been to people''s houses a year later and they still have the wine because they think it''s cute. (Have to be honest, the wine is not that fabulous, but no one seems to mind!)
 
When we bought our first home, it was about a month before Christmas. Our realtor gave us a Reed and Barton silver bell ornament with "Our First Home" and the date on it. We hung it on the tree and still use it every year. Our second realtor was HORRIBLE but I won''t go into it. Needless to say the thought of buying us a housewarming gift never even occured to him I''m sure. The sellers of our second home bought us some Baldwin brass candlesticks as a nice gift, but the realtor-- zip!
 
Mine gave me a gift card to PF Changs (which was just down the street from my new -first- home).
 
the only thing we got from our realtor was a headache. But he does come by every 6 months or so to see if we want to sell...to which my husband says hell no! (not to you!)

LOL!

You are very nice to do that for your clients..wish you had been my realtor! (ours was mean mean mean)
 
My realator gave us a 50$ Gift card from Lowes and mounted a flag holder on the house.
 
Our realtor gave us note cards with our house done in ink on the front of them. I loved it and thought it was a nice touch.
 
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