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Referring a client out of state? Trust your Relocation Department.

By
Real Estate Agent with Alain Pinel BRE 01367196

Attention, Referring Agents: Want to refer a friend to another agent out of state?

 

Then trust the Relocation Department that your brokerage finds who can help your referral.

 

I was given a referral from an out of state brokerage. The referral said to call the agent first, and so I did. The referring agent was referring her friends who were unsuccessful in finding a place in San Francisco.  The friends’ budget is $700,000. Note that San Francisco’s median price range is now at $1,000,000. So yes, they were priced out of the market.

 

The friends decided, on their own, to look in the East Bay, and found a property in a small community called Maxwell Park in Oakland.

 

Locals only, no other agent need to apply.

 

Upon talking with the agent, she insisted that she wants an agent who not only lives IN Oakland, but also lives IN Maxwell Park where her friends found this one listing that they went to see during an open house.

 

Had she looked just a little bit, she would have seen that Maxwell Park is a very small community with a population of 11,500 people in a half a square mile.

 

By insisting on having an agent who lives IN Maxwell Park, she has limited the possibilities of her friends finding other homes in other areas that may be suitable to them in Oakland. Worse, she has also shut out any possibilities that the friends can find a home in better areas in the East Bay, within a reasonable commute to San Francisco, including Alameda where I live.

 

Maxwell Park.jpg

 

Bottom line: Companies who have a developed a robust relocation arm of the business have abundant resources to help relocating clients.

 

Our Alain Pinel Relocation Department staff is amazing! The staff attends conferences, meets other relocation managers from all over the country, holds training classes and seminars for our agents, screens referrals, screens agents and brokerages, and more.  Our Relocation Department has received outstanding awards and excellent reviews because our Relocation people are the real deal.

 

Relocation Departments do an excellent job reviewing client requirements, and screening agents to whom they will refer potential clients received from other Relocation Departments.

 

So if you, as an agent, are referring someone to an area that you don’t know, trust your relocation department to find the right agent who can help.



 

Comments(4)

Lisa Friedman
Great American Dream Realty - Essex, VT
35 Years of Real Estate Experience!

When referring a buyer out of state, the referring agent should trust the advice and expertise of the receiving agent.

Jul 13, 2015 04:28 AM
Pacita Dimacali
Alain Pinel - Oakland, CA
Alameda/Contra Costa Counties CA

Lisa Friedman ---  totally agree!

 

Jul 13, 2015 04:32 AM
Stefan Winter
Real Estate in IL & NV | Owner of Real Estate Web Tech | Daily Vlogger - Las Vegas, NV
Owner - Winter Group & Real Estate Web Tech

I kind of like finding agents on my own, see how their online marketing is can tell you a lot about an agent. Once you find an agent that is good though, let them take the lead, they know the local market, areas etc.

Jul 13, 2015 04:44 AM
Pacita Dimacali
Alain Pinel - Oakland, CA
Alameda/Contra Costa Counties CA

Stefan Winter --- that's also an option. Fortunately, we have a wonderful Relocation Department that does all that for us. I can speak to the agents they find for me, but I have since learned that I couldn't do any better. Besides, I can also check out the profile of the agents they find and say yay or nay, too.

Jul 13, 2015 04:48 AM