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Dallison Veach went far beyond the call of duty for her client, who was making a temporary long-distance move. Veach, ABR®, CRS, broker-owner of Veach Realty Group in Springfield, Va., and her children helped pack up the client’s belongings into their Sprinter van, and they moved the client from Virginia to her temporary home in Tennessee in a 24-hour period.
“For clients like Mckenzie Cockayne, you build a very tight relationship with them for all the months that you work with them,” Veach says. “You have periods that you talk to them every day—sometimes several times in a day. It morphs from a professional relationship to friendship.”
Real estate professionals are homed in on demonstrating their value to consumers after industry practice changes took effect Aug. 17. There are many tips to help you put your best foot forward at facts.realtor, where you can also find the latest information regarding the National Association of REALTORS® proposed settlement agreement. Aside from these tips, though, you need to show your value through action. Here’s how two practitioners are doing it.
Solving a Loan Crisis
Veach helped Cockayne and her ex-husband buy a home in 2010. Since they first met almost 15 years ago, Veach has become Cockayne’s mentor. “She’s at the top of the food chain in my life,” Cockayne says of Veach. “She’s such a dynamic person and like the big sister I never had. I admire her. She really empowers everyone in her life.”
Veach also helped Cockayne sell her house when the marriage ended. The two women became quite close through every transaction and even began running together for exercise. Through the last few years, Veach worked to convince Cockayne that she needed to build some equity instead of renting. Earlier this year, Cockayne was ready, but she didn’t have much money to spare. She found a condo in Alexandria, Va., close to her work at the National Guard Bureau, where she has been employed for several years.
“It’s the first home I purchased by myself, and I pulled the trigger on April 5,” Cockayne says. “Dallison showed me value consistently and constantly.”
What did that value look like? For instance, one of Veach’s top lenders was able to get Cockayne approved for a VA loan since she is a military veteran. However, three weeks before the closing, the lender said Cockayne didn’t meet the criteria because she had been medically discharged for a hardship 28 days before her enlistment period was up.
“Dallison pivoted and told me not to worry about it. But I kept saying, ‘It’s not meant to be.’ But one of the great qualities about her is that she’s vigilant,” Cockayne says.
Veach got all the paperwork squared away for an FHA loan for her client, but the condo association had reached its limit for FHA loans and wouldn’t accept another. In less than 24 hours of that rejection, Veach got one of her top loan officers to find a conventional loan that Cockayne could afford—and Veach filled out all the paperwork for Cockayne to receive a $15,000 grant from Virginia Housing, the state’s development authority, for closing costs.
“I learned early on that knowing what loans are out there and having strong relationships with multiple lenders—that’s one of the best values you can bring to your buyers,” Veach says. “The key is communication. You have to meet people where they are and get to know their personality.”
Avoiding Repair Disasters
Home buyer Patrick Key admits he was naive about the real estate process after having been a renter for seven years. “I felt embarrassed that I didn’t know what I was doing,” says Key, a pharmacist in Charleston, S.C.
But his agent, David Kent, ABR®, CIPS, broker-owner and president of Charleston Home in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., was ready to help. Kent had an entry point to demonstrate his value as a real estate professional through education. From that moment on, Kent became Key’s real estate teacher during their nine-month journey together to find Key the right home. Key and his fiancé wanted to start their life as newlyweds in a new house by the time of their wedding last September.
“David was such a joy to work with,” Key says. “When we viewed houses—way over 50 of them—he would talk in a low, soft voice and point to stuff that might be a problem.”
Kent showed the couple how healthy HVAC units should operate and identified the warning signs of roofs and foundations in disrepair, helping them to decide their threshold for tolerating needed fixes to a home. These are things they wouldn’t have noticed on their own, Key says.
Kent, who has a degree in construction management and previously owned a homebuilding company, became an exclusive buyer’s agent in 1995 and began serving sellers only in the last year. His deep experience with buyers comes in handy as the real estate industry prepares for a major shift. “My job is to make it less complicated and lay out and explain the contract and potential liabilities,” Kent says.
These days, with such low inventory, buyers have to move quickly on their purchase. “But I want it to be a non-pressure situation. I give them a buyer’s guide, and I go through it initially. That way, they are prepared for a lot of things,” Kent says.
During client consultations, Kent emphasizes his negotiation skills, especially as they relate to property repairs. He also talks about himself as an agent and his sales track record, but that’s a secondary point. Kent aims to lean in on what he does for his clients. “Every step of the way, you talk about what’s going on and make sure their contract is structured to protect the buyer and still get the house,” Kent says.
Kent’s construction and sales knowledge helped Key avoid potential issues that could have cost him heartache and money. “We went to one house, and there was a massive rug,” Key recalls. “David pointed it out and said it was an odd location for a rug. I pulled it up, and there was a hole a foot wide that it was covering up.”
In the end, Key found a home that needed minimal work thanks to Kent’s expertise. And that’s the kind of value you want to bring to your clients, too.
