Where Brokerages Can Find Non-Traditional Revenue Streams

Yes, your broker website is where consumers can search properties and learn about your company, but it's also a tool that can support your current and past clients. Unfortunately, there are few options available to brokers that helps you supports your clients during or after the transaction with non-transaction based information.

For example, imagine you're a buyer considering a home and you want to know the logistics of moving into this home--what moving company to use, who the local cable company is, etc. As a broker, it's easy to fail that buyer as a resource for information outside your direct purview. However, as a customer service provider, you become more valuable if you offer this information or at least link out to resources that your buyers and sellers will find useful, and answering any questions that will help guide their decisions.

What's difficult is figuring out what kind of information is valuable to consumers between transactions--and that also continually reinforces your usefulness to your customers. In the offline world, it's common for homeowners to contact their agent if they need referrals for home services. Where real estate firms fall down is in providing an online resource that consumers can consult on their own time.

Some brokers will debate this, saying that they enjoy taking calls from their customers and answering these questions. However, as much as you enjoy those calls, you're limiting your communication channels to one. Most people will just search the web rather that contact you by phone.

Hunt Real Estate has taken a proactive approach to meeting this need. They offer an online directory called the Realty Club that lists vendors for flooring, roofing, house cleaning, moving, and beyond. Hunt clients gain lifetime access to the Club. When they need a specific service like, say, plumbing, they can request information and Hunt will provide a list of list of third-party vendors in that category. It's an effective part of Hunt's customer-for-life strategy.

Hunt benefits by supporting customers, local businesses, and bringing in advertising revenue. For brokerages without the impetus or resources to create and manage a similar service on their own, there are third-party solutions that can do the heavy lifting for you. Nest4Less is an example of a company that uses the "business directory" model and makes it available to small and mid-sized brokers. The results are the same, but painless. Brokers gain benefits like custom retention, improved website value, relationships with local merchants, and non-transaction based revenue from sharing Nest4Less with your clients.

For more on how Nest4Less works, read our product review. To learn more about leveraging Nest4Less as an extra revenue stream, see the video below: