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Why Your Closing Gift Needs an Upgrade · Unstoppable Real Estate Agents

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everybody, it's Kim Hughes, and today I want to talk to you about a comprehensive home book that you can give to your new homeowner on the day of closing.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Unstoppable Real Estate Agents Podcast.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host and real estate productivity expert, Kim Hughes.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Join me as we focus on real strategies and implement real solutions designed for you to achieve major success in your business and life while getting you organized.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is such a great practical and thoughtful gift that you could start making these and having them ready so you can just do like a batch of them and then print them as you need them, bind them as you need them, that kind of thing.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So here's some of the things that I would recommend that you would put in your um your homebook.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So these are some of the essentials.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So of course, you want your notebook to be appealing.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: You want to make sure it's branded.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just a little side note.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can buy the notebooks that have the little slot on the front cover, and you could put, you know, your your logo, your picture, your contact information, whatever you want.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's a side binder, you know, the side of the binder.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you could put that in there, like, you know, homebook four, and then maybe put your name on it somewhere so that if they have it sitting on a bookshelf, people would see it and see your name.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So those are a couple of little you know, tricks that you can do that might get you some recognition at just sitting in the home.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the when they open the book, the first thing you want to do is um have a welcome letter, congratulations, you know, just telling them that you know you're very excited for them to have their new home.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Make it personal, you know, make a personal letter.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you can always tweak that each time you have a new homeowner.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't take a lot of time, print it out and stick it in there.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other thing that you might want to do is go to your chamber of commerce and pick up all the pamphlets that are at the chamber and or pick up the ones that you feel that are the most relevant to put in the little pouch in the front of the notebook when they open it.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it could be just general information, it could be a map of the town, it could be um a list of all the businesses, things like that.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think that would be very handy.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of these welcome packages that you get from the chamber might even have coupons in there for the homeowner to use.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if that is the case, make sure you say in your welcome letter to have them look for those coupons.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you have a special pouch in there that's attached that has all the coupons separated for them to go through.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a real easy convenience for them to do that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, but also let them know that, hey, you know, if you have any questions, etc., let me know.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always here for you.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even though we've closed the property and you're moving in, I'm still here for you.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I will always be available to you should you have any questions or need something.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So this is gonna go back to where you can um promote your affiliates.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you might even mention in this welcome letter, you know, if you visit my website um and you give them the link, or maybe you even give them a domain for that um affiliate page, then that can drive them over to your website and see all of the um products that they may need.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you might have that broken down in various ways on your website.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: It could be for, you know, new homeowners, um, for move, you know, moving out, you know, things like that.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm just kind of throwing stuff out there, but you know, have it broken down so that when somebody does come to the website and they're looking for something, they know where to go.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um and if you haven't listened to that video on how that works, just kind of look for the affiliate video and we'll put the link down below for you as well.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, so then we've got that taken care of.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So now what do we need to put in there?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: We need important contacts.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is going to be like your utility providers, emergency services, your if they're a homeowner association, um, you know, who do they need to contact when they need something?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it would be like your water company, um, electric, um, you know, trash, um, internet providers, cell phone provider, all the things that have to do with that neighborhood.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it is a homeowners association, you might even put there uh an area in the homebook for them to put their homeowners um information on the HOA.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And who should they contact?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Who's the board?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, things like that.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, then you want a maintenance checklist.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the checklist would be just, you know, your regular checklist.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, one of the things that everybody, I guarantee you, everybody deals with is when the refrigerator, um, the little filter light goes off, that it's time to change the filter, have a thing in there for them to mark that off, you know.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe they change their filter every three months.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So they have a place to write that down.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like when you take your car in for an oil change.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they used to write it down, put a sticker in your window to let you know when your next the next visit should be or the last time you had it done.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So little things like that can mean so much because if you're dealing with a first-time homebuyer, they're not gonna know to do this.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, a maintenance list, like, you know, what do they do when the weather turns cold and it's gonna freeze?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do they need to protect their pipes?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, things that they need to take care of, um, depending on that season of what they're going through.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And again, anything that you are talking about here, like, you know, if you say, well, you know, in the winter months you need to buy the little thing that goes over the water um faucet outside, that could be in your affiliate program on your website.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you're directing them over there as well and you're making their life convenient because some people may not even know what that is.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like in the where I live, we don't use them.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know people that have them, but we really don't need them because our our temperatures don't get that crazy.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So these are the things that you need to remember because if somebody is moving from an environment like mine to a colder environment, they may not know to do that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a way that you can talk to them and share with them the importance of doing it.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, by the way, I have that product over here for you to go purchase.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So just make sure that you have all the essential services that they need in their area.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the homeowner manual could have the instructions.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you might have like a little pouch where they can put in their home warranty information.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: They can put in the refrigerator warranty, the stove warranty, the dishwasher warranty, the washer and dryer.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anything that they have purchased that has a warranty with it, have them have a place in that home binder where they can keep track of that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, you know, a regular maintenance checklist like we were talking about earlier is, you know, when should they clean their gutters?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when do they change the air filter?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: When do they, you know, do certain things to take care of the home?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if if if I am, if I, if my husband, if something happened to him and I had to take care of all this stuff, I would, I would be so appreciative to this homebook because my husband takes care of all that.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I do know that it needs to be done, but I don't know what size air filter to buy for my air conditioner.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what filter to change out in my uh refrigerator.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: My husband handles all of that.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if something was to happen and I had to start handling it, I wouldn't even know where to begin.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is something that you can do, whether it's a new homeowner, just people buying a new home, um, maybe um there was a divorce and they need to know how to do this stuff.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have friends that the wives do all of this and the husbands don't.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if the husband, if they something happened to their wife, they would have to handle it.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Would they know what to do?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just a guy thing.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a, you know, who's the best person in the relationship to handle it?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And right now I'm gonna tell you it's my husband, but if I needed to do it, this homebook would be something that I would probably put right next to my Bible, right?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so then, you know, you've got your maintenance checklist, you've got your warranty in there, you've got your homeowners' manuals, you've got your HOA information if needed.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're gonna talk about um, you know, home improvement resources.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, like a list of contractors for plumbers, electricians, landscapers, housekeepers, um, you might even put in their healthcare facilities, um, you know, carpet cleaners, window washers, um, all of those people that can help you maintain that home.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not that they're gonna use them, but it's nice to know that they are.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if something was to happen, you know, and this is affecting us right now, is that um my husband's getting ready to go in for surgery and it's an eight-week recovery.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So during the spring and summer months, he's going to need help taking care of our yard and some of the other things that he maintains around our property.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a lawn care service coming in.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I have a housekeeper coming in.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: These are not people we normally use, but to make his life easier and to take the stress off of him as well as me, then we decided that we do need to bring people in, even if it's a temporary thing.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So keep that in mind as well.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then the hair, you know, the health care provider, you know, you could have a parent living with that couple and they need health care facilities to help them or have home care or something like that.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of think about this as you're working with clients.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be right going out the gate, but you can always look at it and then say, okay, because I dealt with this client has this going on in their lives, this would be something I could add to my homeowner's manual.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then you go create it, you print it, and you stick it in there.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you that way you're always tweaking it to make it better.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um, of course, when you make it better, it makes you more popular and makes you more top of mind when your clients need something.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, local amenities.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that would include schools, religious areas, um, the parks, shopping centers, um, hairdressers, um, dry cleaner.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's in your town that you need to share with your homeowner because they may not know.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I first moved to my town over 30 years ago, I needed a dry cleaner, didn't know we had one, never could find one.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I was driving 30 miles to a dry cleaner.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then somebody was asking me one day something, and I said, Yeah, I've got to go to the dry cleaners.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Oh, well, then we'll just meet you in a few minutes.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I got to drive 30 minutes.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Did you not know we had a dry cleaner in town?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I went, No, I didn't.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I live in a town that's very small, it's like 5,000 people.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, these are things that you may not think are important, but they are.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would even list the name, uh, the laundromats that are in the area so that you can, um, it's their washing machine breaks down, they know where to go.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the car washes, you know, these are things that are convenient.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: The pharmacies, um, you know, all the healthcare facilities and things like that.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you live in a market that's rather large, let's say like um Frisco, Texas, you want to just do the ones that are in the immediate area.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want to get too crazy with it.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you also want to write down um who the finance institutions are, the banks, the investments, the financial, financial planners, and all of them.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So make a list of those.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, security, huge.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, who are the security companies that they can call and have come out, um, or security equipment that they need.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if they're buying a service, you know, if they have to buy the equipment, that could be in your affiliate program as well.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, moving tips.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So this could be um, you know, a checklist of by room, you know, as they go into each room, they check it off.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um that will, you know, then include, you know, packing information, give them advice, change of address cards, um, how to change their utilities.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really important.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um then, you know, maybe local regulations.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have people moving from state to state.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you live in one state, the laws and the local regulations and everything is gonna probably be different.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they need to know who is, who's the city, who's on the city, um, who's on, you know, the school boards, you know, who are these people and what do they need to know about those particular regulations or you know, things like that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when I talk about regulations, I'm talking about like the zoning laws, the trash collection, um, the rules for the HOA and things like that.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're if your client is moving into an HOA, then you want to make sure that they have all the information they need about that HOA.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen agents get into situations where um they just assumed that the homeowner knew because they were given the HOA guidelines and they didn't follow them.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so now they're upset with the agent because the agent didn't tell them.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's the agent's responsibility as a courtesy, but it's it's also the homeowner's responsibility to know as well.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So just kind of take that little extra step in making sure that they know about what's going on in the HOA and what they can and can't do.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, we have um in one of our HOAs in our town, um I I couldn't swear by this, but it was interesting because in this HOA, it's a very small one.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are no fences.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because there's a lake behind the HOA.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you have some of them that are on some homes on the lake, some across the street with a view.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they one of the rules is no fences of any kind, period.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: No um, you can't have structures like so so much tall and all this.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a family had bought a home there, had bred the HOA, did everything they were supposed to do, went out and bought one of those big old play sets for their children and had it built and placed in their backyard.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: HOA said can't have it, showed them where it says that, and they had to take it down.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So just make sure they all know what's going on and what they can and can't do.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: That will save you and your client a lot of trouble.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, you want to put in like any personal touches.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: What I think of is, you know, if there's a couple of schools, list them and their mascots.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, where do they go to get information about when the baseball games start, football starts, you know, the girls' softball team, you know, the drama, um the drama group or whatever they call themselves.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: I call it drama, and you know, the choir and all the band things and all the things to do with the schools so that parents know that these are available to them as well as to their children.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if they're coming from a big city to a small town, they're not gonna have, you know, a swim team, you know, but now we may have a really popular um golf team.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: So just make sure that when they transition to that new area that they know, you know, what to expect and they can look through this and learn a lot about their community and and what the community offers and what you offer.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then also always include the information about, you know, the products that you promote on your affiliate system on your website.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I've talked about that a couple of times.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know what the affiliate system I'm talking about, um I'll put a link below.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can download my free guide.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Learn all about how you can incorporate affiliate marketing into your business.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then, you know, just keep keep um about five at a time, is what I say, because you're gonna constantly tweak them.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you think of something, you're gonna go put it into whether you create, you know, um created in Canva or in a Word document, whatever you're creating it in, always have it as a working document.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that way if you have five and you have to make a major change, you're not losing a lot of in the investment.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um, if this is something that you really like and you like that idea of a homeboy, um we'll put a link below because we do have a homeboy that you can uh purchase and tweak it to your own market.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that way you don't have to recreate the wheel.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can just download our template and use it and then modify it as you need to based on your area, your market, or your personality and everything.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it's really important to have one.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a great relationship builder because let's say, okay, they bought the home three years later, they are selling the home.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: That homebook stays with that new homeowner.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an evolving process here, you know, whether you sell the home or not, they're gonna get that home book and it's gonna have all your information on it because not all agents do this.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that we've been doing, oh my gosh, for 20 years.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it is huge, it's popular and people appreciate it.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just another level of relationship building and showing that you really do care about your clients.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope this podcast was really good for you today.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that it has triggered you to come up with some ideas of your own and how to create your own homebook.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you need any help with it, click on that link below.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: That'll help you get started.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then you just cart, you know, tweak it from there.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you but keep in mind that it's in Canva.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have a Canva account, we'll give you a link below so that you can just click there and create you a free account.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you don't really need to pay for the account, but if you want to, that's great.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot of stuff in there that a lot of my clients do not need um to have.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they just use the free account.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: So try that out and let us know what you think and how your home book is going.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to see pictures of it so you can email them to me.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can post them on your social media and tag me.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd love to look at it.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully this was helpful and we will talk to you next time.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for tuning in.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know someone, and I bet you do, who would appreciate this podcast, please share it with them.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, this podcast can be delivered directly to your favorite device by using the subscribe links you can find in the show notes below or over at unstoppable realestateagents.com.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, it takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.