Increasing the Value of Real Estate Professionals One Offer at a Time

The purchase of a new home is a milestone in anyone's life. Whether it's your first home or your fifth, the excitement never fades. Neither does the cost of moving. A study by the National Association of REALTORS® found that movers spend, on average, $9,000 on goods and services during their move.

While expenses increase, brand loyalty decreases. Epsilon's 2012 Movers Report shows that movers are twice as likely to switch brands as non-movers. The categories with the highest rate of change are home internet, followed by television and insurance. In the middle of a move, people are looking for the best deal possible, especially since they're likely to rack up $9,000 in additional expenses. A company that offers a discount on the same product or service as a mover's current supplier is more likely to make the sale during the moving process.

In the real estate business, these buyer behaviors are great to know. It's the real estate professionals that recognize the needs of their clients beyond just the purchase or sale of their home that have seen a payback in their own business.

Home buyers and sellers are in contact with their real estate agent more than anyone else during their move, affording agents a unique opportunity to deliver value in the eyes of their clients. What brokers should be looking for today is a way to tie their agents' value to the needs of buyers and sellers.

"Consumers on the move spend more money in a 180-day window than they will in any other time in their life," says Scott Oakley, Vice President of Lone Wolf Real Estate Technologies' WOLFmedia Division. "Brokers who empower their agents with tools, such as coupons and discounts for their clients on products and services they need most during their move, increase the value of the brokerage and the brand."

Oakley has seen the benefit of this offering through a program he runs at Lone Wolf, called movingWOLF. The program auto-generates emails on behalf of the agent, branded to the brokerage. Each email delivers money-saving offers relevant to where the home buyer or seller is in the moving process. Offers range from discounts on moving trucks, boxes and supplies, home services set-up and more.

"We are delighted to have this marketing benefit added at no charge to our brokerage," says Judy Pool Homan, broker/owner at Master Realty Team in Keller, Texas and member of the movingWOLF program. "Anything extra like this that will give our clients a great feeling and a smile on their faces during the stress of moving is a real value-add to them and to us."

Real estate agents are valuable assets for buyers and sellers beyond just the purchase or sale of their home. Their wealth of information regarding property marketing, the transaction process, market conditions, neighborhood information and more, proves that they are more than just a signature on a contract.

Brokerage and agent success often comes from the power of referrals. Providing resources that clients can't get elsewhere gives the brokerage an advantage over the competition; in turn clients will share their money-saving experience with friends and family. The result – the brokerage and agents are recognized for their commitment to their clients at all stages of the process, well beyond the commission check.

Currently, 14 national vendors across North America, as well as numerous local vendors, are taking advantage of the increased value, customer loyalty and sales generated from the movingWOLF program.

To learn more, visit movingWOLF.com.