5 Ways Real Estate Agents Can Provide Unique Value

With the emergence of iBuyers, the rise of tech-savvy millennial and Gen Z homebuyers, and the constant onslaught of real estate-related technological innovations, it can be easy to feel threatened as an agent.

Will technology replace you or push you out? Will buyers still go to you for guidance with all these other options? More importantly, is there still a place for you in the future of real estate?

The industry is changing, for sure, and these concerns are all valid. The one way to make sure you still have a place in it — tech takeover or not? Continue providing value that they can’t find anywhere else.

Here are five ways you can do just that:

1. Have an intimate knowledge of your local market. Know the best school districts, the latest developments, and where property values and taxes are highest. Be *the* source for inside-scoop details on your community and help them make more informed decisions than they ever could with just the internet alone.
2. Up your marketing game (and use tech to enhance it). Take a few advanced marketing courses, and adopt technologies that can help you better market, promote, and sell your clients’ properties. Putting a home on Zillow is just exposure. Show them that you provide actual, valuable marketing services they can’t get elsewhere.
3. Have a niche. Specialize in something — anything. It could be a specific neighborhood, a price level, or a niche of buyers (investors, relocation clients, first-timers, etc.). Get to know that audience deeply, then deliver on exactly what they need every step of the way.
4. Build a strong network. For your selling clients, a big network means more potential buyers to pull from and market to. For your homebuyers, it means a network of other agents and brokers — industry pros with a plethora of for-sale properties and inside knowledge of up-and-coming listings. You can also help by having a network of industry vendors, like home inspectors, contractors, photographers, property managers, and more. 
5. Handle the hard stuff. Make the transaction as easy as possible for your clients. Handle the communication with their lender and other vendors, set up their inspection appointment, and give them checklists and handy guides for anything they’ll need to handle solo. Take it upon yourself to keep the transaction on track and moving forward at all times. 

There’s no denying that tech has staked its claim on the real estate industry, but that doesn’t mean there’s not still a place for agents. Want to up your value for clients by having a top-notch lender to refer them to? We’d love to be that partner. Get in touch with Embrace Home Loans to learn more about us today.