9 Ways Real Estate Agents Can Give Back to Their Community

9 ways real estate agents can give back

Real estate agents have a unique set of skills and experience that can benefit the community. As an agent, you can use your skills to help out with local events, volunteer at schools and organizations, and clean up your streets.

And what better time to think about ways to give back to your community than the season for giving. Not only is giving back good for the soul, but in all honesty, it’s also a great marketing technique.

9 ideas for how real estate agents can give back to the community

Use these suggestions to get started, but real estate agents should also consider donations to a charity. At the end of the day, anything you can do to help your community is worthwhile.

1. Sponsor a community sports team

If you have a local area in mind, a great way to get your name out there is to sponsor a local sports team. This can take many forms, including:

  • Sponsor a Little League team
  • Volunteer to coach a Little League team
  • Donate equipment for a Little League team

In this case, your time or financial support will help kids of all economic levels participate in a healthy afterschool activity. However, as an added bonus, it’s an efficient way to market yourself to parents who most likely want to stay within the school district boundaries.

As far as how to be a sponsor, most of the time, this job involves paying for a few uniforms (that are emblazoned with your company’s logo) and some sports equipment. You might also have to cover some field use fees. Not to mention that it’s also a good idea to host a pizza and ice cream party for your team at the end of the season.

Getting involved is usually as simple as talking to the youth organizers in your community. If you have a community center or local YMCA, that is a good place to start. If not, try schools and or local religious organizations to see if they’ve started any youth teams.

2. Partner with a local animal rescue

While volunteering at animal shelters is a great way to give back to the community, it can also be an important part of your job as a real estate agent.

If you’re looking for a way to help out with your community and support the local animal rescue organizations, consider these options:

  • Volunteer at local shelters
  • Become an active member of your local animal welfare association
  • Donate money to your favorite shelter or rescue organization
  • Organize fundraising events for an organization near and dear to your heart

3. Support the local arts

You can get involved with the arts in several ways.

You can support local artists by buying their work, sponsoring an art show, providing business cards for the event, or donating money to a local museum or theater group.

4. Host a booth at a local walk/run

Next, consider hosting a booth at a local walk/run event if you like to be active. In this case, you support other community members as they raise funds for a charitable cause. However, at the same time, you’ll be putting your brand out there.

Typically, sponsoring one of these events involves paying an entry fee to have a booth. Then, once you get your booth set up, you’ll also want to give out a decent amount of swag. Usually, the swag will have something to do with the event — it could be hats, water bottles, or t-shirts.

But that said, you also want to ensure that your name and contact information are prominently displayed on these items.

5. Lend a hand building houses

As a real estate agent, it makes all the sense in the world to do something charitable that involves housing. In this case, many organizations work toward the goal of building houses for those who are less fortunate. While Habitat for Humanity is the most famous, it is not the only option.

Here, the return is all about the opportunity to network with your fellow volunteers. While you may spend a few hours on Saturday hammering nails and putting up framing, you also have the chance to network with other service-oriented people in your community. You never know when one of the people who you are working with will require a real estate professional.

6. Adopt a family for the holidays

With the holidays around the corner, now is the perfect time to adopt a family in your community. Here, “adoption” can mean different things to different people. Still, it usually involves either sending them a holiday meal or buying gifts for any children in the family to open during their holiday celebration.

While you may only want to host one or two families yourself, you can make a bigger impact by coordinating the assignment of families among those who work in your office.

Typically, this event works best if you partner with a charitable organization in your community. While you might want to work with someone organic to your community, in general, Toys for Tots, Lutheran Social Services, and the Salvation Army all host yearly programs.

7. Volunteer at a local school

Volunteering at a local school is a great way to give back to your community. Here are some of the ways you can do it:

  • Helping with after-school programs, helping teach kids how to read, or helping with fundraising initiatives.
  • Helping out the teachers by giving them feedback on their lesson plans and providing constructive criticism for strategies that don’t work well in class.

8. Clean up the local streets or highways

Since people know their neighborhoods best, they know what areas need more attention than others and will be able to enlist help from their neighbors more easily when they live close by.

See if any organizations or groups already working in your area would like some extra manpower. Finally, keep the whole thing fun!

Cleaning up trash doesn’t have to feel like work—make it into a game with friends or family members so people will want to volunteer again in the future.

9. Host a clothing drive

Lastly, you could consider hosting a clothing drive. For this event, you would mainly be responsible for hosting space for people to drop off their clothing, organizing it, and transporting it to the appropriate charitable organization.

Again, this works best if you partner up with an existing charitable organization in your community that can help you coordinate the details. Planet Aid, Project Giving Kids, and Second Chances all host activities like this on the regular.

Truthfully, like all the activities on this list, doing this should come more from the goodness of your heart than from any desire for exposure. But, you can get your name out there by advertising your clothing drive in various community outlets.

The bottom line on real estate agents should give back to the community

As a real estate agent, you have the ability to make a difference in your community. Whether it’s by sponsoring a little league team or partnering with a local animal rescue, there are countless ways that you can give back.

You could also give back by supporting the arts, such as donating money to an art exhibit or sponsoring an art competition.

Giving back to the community is a great way for real estate agents to show their clients that they care about more than just selling houses. It can also help them build relationships with other community members and strengthen ties between themselves and their customers.

And who knows? Maybe one day, these relationships will lead to some referrals!

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