A conversation last night with a neighbor reminded me that agents need to send their home buyers a reminder at the first of the year.
We were discussing property taxes - how insanely much people pay in some communities 
compared to what we pay here.
She said "Our property taxes sure went down when I found out about the homestead exemption."
I was startled - they'd been paying as if they were out of state owners for the past several years. For some reason she was talking with someone in the assessor's office who said "I notice you haven't filed a homestead exemption..."
I said "Your agent didn't tell you about that??" Her reply was that he hadn't mentioned anything about it.
If you have such an exemption in your state/county, you may have told your home buyers about it at the time of purchase. Perhaps my neighbor's agent did. But as you know, that's a busy, emotional time, and people forget.
Sending your 2019 home buyers a note or making a phone call to be sure they've filed the proper papers is a good reason to connect this month - and if you happen to save them money, it will endear you to them.
Another good way to connect:
Send both your buyers and sellers a copy of their closing statement to pass along to their tax preparer. Sure - they have that in their paperwork, but if you send them a copy they won't have to take time to dig out those files to make a copy themselves.
It's simply a nice gesture - one that shows they mean more to you than a commission check.
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