My realtor didn't give a housewarming gift after closing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My realtor sends me stupid trinkets/junk every few months and it's really annoying.

It's just another reminder of how excessive their commission is for the work done. I also found a house quickly and closed within 45 days. If I ever buy/sell again, I'm handling it without a realtor or at the very least using Redfin.

But seriously, would you like the branded picnic blanket, ice cream scoop, apple butter, motivational book, and other trash that my realtor sends me? I do not, and I'll gladly send it your way.

Hold the train, what is your problem with apple butter??

I lived in a neighborhood where an agent left apple butter for everyone each fall. Tons of people would leave curb alert messages on our neighborhood listserv. Never met him but somehow found it annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little disappointed. Is that not done anymore? She took me to see houses over two separate days - I picked one and closed within thirty days. She's a very good realtor.

Our buyer agent gives us back 1-1.5% of his commision on the houses we bought...rather have this then some measly housewarming gift...

[Anonymous]

OMG. Are you kidding me? My realtor gave me a huge brown outdoor swinging couch with sort of an umbrella-like shade piece on top.

I was so pissed because not only did I have to keep that thing in our yard for years (because we were connected through husbands' work and they might come over), but all I could think about every time I looked at it was that she had paid for it with MY money!

[Anonymous]

My realtor left champagne is the fridge...we don't drink.

[Anonymous]

LOL the sense of entitlement on this site is out of control. Sorry, OP, they don't owe you a gift. Sure, it's 'nice', but the fact that you would ask DCUM about it means it's gnawing at you.

[Anonymous]

Your realtor is cheap.

[Anonymous]

I have lived in 28 different houses in my lifetime so far. Only once did we get a gift from a realtor - here in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We received a framed black and white sketch of our house. Great gift!

Same here! I love ours, I think its way better than getting a gift card

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ours gave us champagne and glasses with our city on them at closing.

A few weeks later, she gave us tickets to a basketball game.

She mails us Girl Scout cookies every year.

Just the other day we came home and found a gift bag with beer glasses from her on our porch.

We bought our house 3 years ago for about $200k.

Can you share her name? Sounds great!

[Anonymous]

AgentX wrote:I didn't know I could lower my bar so much.

I give every client a gift. I try to tailor it to what I know they want or like, based on our conversations while house hunting. Most of the time it ends up being a gift card for a place they mentioned wanting to buy furnishings or things for the house. I haven't done drawings of the house gift though I like that idea, but I think it makes more sense when you have a drawing of something that means something to you. The new house doesn't have the memories yet, and it may not be a house they stay in for long as is often the story in DC. I don't like doing actual gifts because who wants to carry more stuff when they are knee deep in packing and at that point of contemplating throwing everything out so they don't have to pack anymore and move.

Typically I spend a few hundred dollars, depending on the clients and the transaction. It's almost always a gift card that I tuck into a thank you card that fits into a purse or pocket.

That's very classy and thoughtful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My realtor sends me stupid trinkets/junk every few months and it's really annoying.

It's just another reminder of how excessive their commission is for the work done. I also found a house quickly and closed within 45 days. If I ever buy/sell again, I'm handling it without a realtor or at the very least using Redfin.

But seriously, would you like the branded picnic blanket, ice cream scoop, apple butter, motivational book, and other trash that my realtor sends me? I do not, and I'll gladly send it your way.

Oh dear, PP. Your agent is a victim of a real estate scheme perpetrated by a huckster named "Brian Buffini." He charges large amounts of money to show people how to generate business by giving former clients the type of junk you have been receiving. The agents who do this generally do not have the ability or are to lazy to generate their own business. They think that by giving you junk, you will give them referrals. Last week two agents in my office delivered 80 loaves of bad bread to past clients hoping to improve their business above the $2 million in sales they did this year. You might contact your agent and tell her you are more likely to give her referrals if she stops the junk. Of course, you will use Refin in the future, and it is agents like yours who are pushing the industry to Redfin.

[Anonymous]

Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed.

[Anonymous]

I've bought two houses (out of the area) and never received a gift. I'd rather they focused on doing a good job.

[Anonymous]

We have gotten toys for our kids, candles, guestbooks (for beach houses), linens or decorative objects and then yearly restaurant/coffee gift cards on our home buying anniversaries.

Getting nothing would annoy me, especially when we throw business at them so often.

[Anonymous]

I live in an apple butter neighborhood! Last week we got a jar of apple butter left on our doorstep with a realtor's face on the lid. I found it very weird.

Call me paranoid, but I'm throwing it away. So that's a total waste of money for the realtor. Not effective marketing at all.