Above and Beyond

P.R. ‘Randy’ Cooney
President, The Success Institute

As the seminar “Creating Clients for Life” is approaching, I recall some stories of real estate agents who did some extraordinary things on behalf of their clients. Below are a few stories that come to mind from attending various real estate conferences over the years. I do not remember the full names of the agents; however, I shall never forget their stories of going “Above & Beyond.”

John, a buyer’s agent from Maryland, had spent nearly the entire summer trying to find the right property for his buyers. His buyers had two children and while showing one particular home, the buyer’s kids, age 6 and 8, had spent the entire time playing in a magnificent treehouse in the back yard of the property. The house seemed perfect for them and the kids were super excited at the possibility of having their own treehouse. Unfortunately several other buyers also found this property, all of whom put in offers.  After several days of a “bidding war” John’s buyers did not come out on top.  His buyers were disappointed and the two kids were very saddened to lose out on the treehouse amenity. A couple weeks later John was able to find another wonderful property to his buyer’s liking.  As John put this property into escrow he went back to the original treehouse home, his buyers had lost-out on and was able to find-out the contractor’s name who built the incredible treehouse on that property. Getting permission from the new seller John hired the treehouse builder to construct a very similar tree house in the final week of escrow. As a final touch, John placed a huge red bow around the newly constructed treehouse the day the buyers moved-in as a surprise gift to his buyer’s children.   He gave back $8,000 dollars of his commissions to create a lifetime of memories for his buyer’s children and likely a lifetime of referrals.

Susan an agent in New Mexico was trying to find a home for a client who was a single mom with three younger children.  The challenge was taking all the kids ages 2 — 8 on the showing appointments to find their next home. Susan hired and paid a highly recommended baby sitter to take care of the kids on Saturdays so Mom could go shopping for a new home. After four Saturdays they found the home. Cost Susan about $500 in babysitting fees yet provided the time and focus for Mom to locate and purchase her first family home. To celebrate, after the closing, Susan made dinner for the entire family in their new home and invited the baby sitter to join them as well.

Michael an agent in Southern California was able to locate a wonderful ocean view property for his clients. As a closing gift he purchased a high-end camera for his clients for all the pictures they may wish to snap of their spectacular views. However, for the first 365 days his clients were not allowed to touch the camera, for Michael had arranged for the camera to sit atop a secured tripod on their deck for the entire first year. He had the camera programmed to take a sunset photo every evening for 365 consecutive days. At end of the year Michael went and picked up the camera to have all the photos developed. He then created a hard bound coffee table book for his clients that was entitled:

“365 Sunset Views from Our Deck”
From our Realtor Michael