Real estate agents could benefit a great deal by wooing past clients for repeat business as homebuying trends shift with the spread of technology and an “always-on” mentality, a new survey released by Chase suggests.
Three out of four homebuyers don’t plan to stay in their homes long term, “suggesting that today’s consumer is always searching for the next big thing,” Chase said in a statement.
And the vast majority of these buyers are inclined to use agents for purchasing future homes, with nearly eight out of 10 homebuyers saying that real estate agents are “an essential part” of the homebuying process.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that agents often have a shot at nabbing business from past clients not so long after representing them in a previous transaction.
“Keep in touch with your client base. This is one of the biggest hang-ups we agents fail to do, year after year,” said Laura Hall, a partner at Sebastopol, California-based brokerage Terra Firma Global Partners, in the Facebook group Raise the Bar in Real Estate.
“No matter how good of an experience your clients had previously with you, unless you are front and center they will undoubtedly choose another agent,” she added.
Relying on tech to stay in touch
To boost the odds of reeling in repeat business, agents might be well advised to maintain lasting relationships with previous clients.
Some tools designed to help agents stay top-of-mind include apps that let agents share curated lists of vendors, customer relationship management systems that remind agents to wish people “happy birthday” and email marketing software that helps agents continually deliver rich content to contacts.
Source: Chase
While most homebuyers continue to value the role of agents, they’re likely hiring agents after initially searching for properties on their own, not right off the bat.
More people are taking a do-it-yourself approach (at least in the initial stages of the home search) to house hunting amid the rise of digital tools, Chase said.
Nearly seven out of 10 Americans are starting the home search on their own, with 45 percent using a computer or laptop as the first step and 13 percent using their mobile device, the survey found.
Only one out of 10 Americans would first check their local listings in a newspaper or magazine, Chase said.
