In the first post about adding value, I talked about an interview I saw of a lender who listed the three ways he adds value (here’s the link to my first Adding Value post). None of them were any different from what every other loan officer could claim. A value-add is something that isn’t offered as a normal course of doing business. Offering great service isn’t a value-added proposition. Even if your competitors all provide terrible service, the fact that you provide great service still doesn’t make it a value-add – it just means that you are good at what you do.
Whether you are a plumber, attorney, waitress, doctor, Realtor, manager, CPA, or musician (or anything else for that matter), clients will have certain minimum expectations about what they think you should provide. Clients are likely to expect a Realtor to have access to show them every home on the MLS as well as to educate them about the current market. The will probably also expect the Realtor they choose to understand the contract and addendums inside and out. Additionally, they will likely expect the Realtor to be a good / creative negotiator and to be able to get them a great deal (this, of course, is subjective /relative). It’s almost a guarantee that the client will expect his Realtor to stay on top of the transaction and make sure that it runs smoothly and closes on time with minimal hassle. Certainly if there are any problems along the way with the home inspection or appraisal, the expectation will be that the Realtor will get these issues handled with as little inconvenience / cost to the buyer as possible. If a Realtor does all of these things, they are likely to have a happy client who may or may not give them a good review (lots of people don’t want to be hassled with doing them) and could possibly refer people to that Realtor in the future but did that Realtor add value? NO.
My question to you is this: what do you do to add value? This can be a rhetorical question but it doesn’t have to be; if you want to comment on this post or send me an email (jed.wunderli@noblehomeloans.com) I’d love to hear what you do for your client that the average Realtor doesn’t do. Over my 24+ years as a loan officer I have worked with LOTS of Realtors and some of them definitely did some creative things that added value to their clients (and ultimately their business). Dare to do more than what is expected in a way that can be defined before you do the transaction with your new clients – it can, and likely will, help you earn business you may not have gotten otherwise. I’m happy to discuss strategies that I use to add value to our mutual clients (which will be attributed to you by association) and how we can implement all of these strategies to earn more business for us. You can contact me at 702-812-1214, 801-893-1737 or jed.wunderli@noblehomeloans.com.
