How Realtors Are Enhancing Client Relationships With Bookkeeping
Buying a home is consistently ranked as one of the most stressful things a person will experience in their lifetime. From finding the right home to negotiating the right price, all while their current home and possessions are in a storage unit. It’s an overwhelming event. Which is why realtors are essential to a smooth process.
Many home buyers begin the experience unsure of what challenges they will be facing. This is part of what makes the realtor’s knowledge so valuable. Their ability to refer to past experiences can turn a potential disaster into a success. It is also what helps get the referral for the next client.
As a real estate agent, you are always building relationships, especially with those already established. It helps you grow your practice and achieve your vision of getting homebuyers in the perfect property. So how do we make the experience even better for these anxious buyers?
Bookkeeping.
That’s right. It may not have been the first thought that came to your mind but in this article, we are going to discuss the many ways great bookkeeping can help you generate more income with relationship building.
Your Time vs. Your Income
Which clients generate the most income for you? It may be an easy call. The houses that have the highest sticker price. However, we want you to take a closer look at the revenue these commissions bring in versus the time you spend on these clients.
While these clients may certainly be generating the highest revenue, let’s compare it with the time put in to make sure they are also the most profitable.
Begin by tracking your hours, acquisition costs, and any perks provided to your clients. Then compare the cost of each client with the profit generated. This can be done in any bookkeeping software using job costing.
Job costing looks at the revenue generated by any specific project versus the expenses taken to complete the project. This can help you determine where you are most profitable and whether you can provide a few more incentives to leads who are on the fence about working with you.
You may also discover houses at a lower price have been providing a larger profit.
Establishing A Presence
In the prior example, we mentioned acquisition cost. Acquisition cost is everything that goes into getting that next client. So that may be pamphlets, events you hold, or email campaigns sent. Analyzing these costs and discovering how many new clients are generated from these sorts of activities can help you create more successful experiences for your clients.
Begin by looking at some of the client-generating activities you do. Then group them into segments. For example, if you focus on social media consider the costs associated with running your online presence. This may be content creation tools, scheduling software, email campaign software, or a website subscription.
Then do a bit of research on how many clients are generated from these activities. Do the costs outweigh the income? Maybe you notice for every $500 you spend on online marketing you generate 1 client, resulting in $1,000 in revenue.
This can provide you insight on whether building these relationships through online marketing is profitable or whether you should focus somewhere else.
Sweetening The Deal
The client experience is everything. At the beginning of the article, we discussed how buying a home is oftentimes one of the most stressful experiences a person will go through. Many real estate agents try to make the experience less stressful by providing home warming gifts, informational pamphlets on each home, or driving clients to each home.
No matter how you are trying to improve the experience, do you notice a correlation with your success rates? Oftentimes a more positive experience with a realtor will encourage buyers to refer their agent.
Similar to our job costing example above, consider how you can make the experience better for your clients. Do you find the small cost is less than your acquisition costs? If so, it may be a good way to build a strong report with your clients.
Services to Renters
Providing services to renters is going to be a much different experience than working with home buyers. In these situations, you have multiple opportunities to build long-term relationships. One way you can improve these relationships is to focus on accurate and timely bookkeeping.
By providing items like invoices and payments on time and in an orderly manner, you are establishing yourself as an organized professional. This can be done with your Google calendar and notifications set up or you can use your bookkeeping software to automate the process.
By automatically sending payments and invoices, you are improving your perceived value with consistency.
When your bookkeeping is in order, you are creating more opportunities to build relationships with your clients. When you analyze your numbers, learn where you are profitable, and where you should invest more time you make the home buying experience more enjoyable.
