In today’s real estate market, where convenience is king, more and more brokerages are adopting ancillary services – whether mortgage, property management, title or insurance. Bringing outside offerings in-house can set your brokerage apart, enhance your clients’ experience and expand your business.
Differentiation
With 106,548 real estate brokerage firms operating in the United States (NAR.Realtor, 2020), any opportunity to differentiate your organization could potentially benefit business. Adding mortgage, property management, title or insurance services can give real estate businesses that added competitive advantage. The usual promise of excellent service will certainly help attract some buyers, but it won’t necessarily help your brokerage stand out from the crowd. Offering ancillary services can help provide more opportunity for positive reviews and referrals from buyers already in the pipeline, while simultaneously drawing in potential new business.
One-stop shopping
With so many choices in the real estate and mortgage spheres, adaptable businesses could benefit from streamlining and simplifying the homebuying process for their clients. Are you delivering a total solution, combining real estate, tile, insurance, or mortgage services? Your brokerage is a wealth of referral business. Capitalizing on this factor, paired with proximity to other ancillary professionals, could win those additional sales. In fact, in 2019, 86% of consumers reported that knowing an agent’s firm offered one-stop shopping had a positive impact on their selection of an agent (National Association of Realtors (NAR), The Harris Poll, 2019).
Recruiting and retaining
By offering ancillary services, you can also provide both real estate agents and loan originators (LOs) with educational opportunities across industry lines. This easy access to knowledgeable professionals in the related field, as well as the potential for synergistic work, can benefit both. Real estate agents can feel confident in their referral, having a close relationship and knowing the work of their ancillary mortgage brokerage. LO’s, who may be accustomed to days of cold calling, can potentially tap into a consistent stream of clients, referred by their agent counterparts. Plus, adding a pool of established LO’s to your overall business could draw in outside real estate agents, thereby enhancing recruiting for brokerage growth. Claiming these other pieces of the deal can help your existing agents facilitate a dynamic homebuying process while also attracting new agents and LO’s.
Customer experience
Establishing ancillary services can provide broker owners with more oversight throughout the entire homebuying process. By streamlining multiple services under one roof, transactions may be completed smoothly and swiftly. Without the complication of an unrelated third party, you could also have much more control over the level of care your customers receive. Providing additional touchpoints of knowledge and expertise adds value every step of the way.
Bringing ancillary services under one roof can benefit consumers, real estate agents and broker owners alike through increased opportunity, ease of access and additional oversight. The best deals are achieved when all homebuying professionals are in sync and client experience is at the forefront of the transaction.
Earning potential
Ancillary services may lead to additional revenue opportunities. By capturing more of the homebuying transaction, whether mortgage, property management, title or insurance, brokerages may be able to grow their business. Most buyers have to get their mortgage loan somewhere – why not from you? By adding additional revenue streams, brokerages may also be able to offset potential commission losses during real estate down turns.
In addition, a mortgage business can operate independently of home sales. As we’ve seen recently, borrowers seek refinances for many reasons. They may be after a lower interest rate, looking to reduce their monthly payment, planning to pay off their home sooner or utilizing funds for a home renovation through a cash-out refinance. This variety of refinance drivers enables the potential for a diversified revenue stream, even in times of a sluggish real estate market. More importantly, real estate agents often recommend that their house-hunting clients get a mortgage pre-qualification before starting their home search. This presents a unique opportunity to retain more business transactions and to streamline the homebuyer experience.
Interested in adding mortgage service to your real estate brokerage? Motto Mortgage is the ancillary service franchise in-a-box that makes business expansion easier.
Published on August 18, 2020
