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In an era where consumers place a premium on convenience, more real estate brokerages are seeing the value of establishing one-stop shops to provide home loans or title services to their clients.
Making sure homebuyers and sellers can receive title and mortgage services in-house through their residential brokerage gives firms an advantage in terms of maximized efficiency, time and cost savings.
Recent data shows that buyers are not only more likely to choose an agent whose brokerage is a one-stop shop, but they’re also willing to pay more for the service and believe that getting a mortgage through the brokerage’s affiliate lender makes it more likely that they will be approved.
When a brokerage has direct access to the mortgage and title companies, it can also take care of issues more quickly than if it had to coordinate with a third-party mortgage or title firm. This saves time for everyone involved in a home transaction and can make a brokerage a stronger contender to prospective clients.
How Homebuyers And Sellers Benefit
My firm was an early adopter of one-stop shopping. In 1988, we created our own mortgage financing business, and in 2003, we established a title service to give clients a more seamless real estate experience by creating a dedicated network of local market attorneys. There’s a reason nearly one-third of my firm’s transactions have used some combination of our residential sales, mortgage and title services over the past year.
Consumers have become increasingly interested in one-stop shopping, according to a recent National Association of Realtors survey. In fact, the majority of buyers say a one-stop shop would make the process easier. Perhaps more telling of the value to buyers, nearly 3 in 4 would be willing to pay more if that meant having a better experience.
In a one-stop shop, transactions can proceed smoothly and efficiently, resulting in reduced costs. Integrating real estate mortgage and title services can even help decrease the chance of something slipping through the cracks as it’s all under one roof. For example, many Chicago-area sellers are unaware that it’s their obligation to obtain municipal tax stamps. Without them, a closing could be postponed. But access to an in-house title insurance service helps increase communication and awareness of details like this between the broker and title firm. The one-stop shop process can help a brokerage avoid any potential last-minute surprises and, ultimately, delays.
How Agents And Brokerage Firms Benefit
Consumers aren’t the only ones reaping the benefits of one-stop shopping. Brokerages can attract new clients, improve revenue and boost client satisfaction. Chalk it up to increased quality control.
By maintaining more oversight over the entire experience, as well as the pricing of the home or mortgage or title fees to ensure they’re fair, the transaction is made as smooth as possible for the client and agent. This ultimately helps agents grow their business by saving time that can be otherwise invested in lead generation.
In fact, in the NAR survey, 86% of consumers said knowing an agent’s firm offered one-stop shop had a positive impact on their selection of that agent, an increase from 68% in 2015. That’s because more than three-quarters of consumers believe a one-stop shop makes the buying or selling process more efficient and manageable.
Moreover, my firm recently conducted an internal survey that found that nearly 9 out of 10 clients were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their one-stop shop experience using our brokerage, title and mortgage services. This no doubt reflects positively on the agent and the likelihood of their client using them again for future transactions or referring business.
There’s also clearly a benefit to the entire business. By offering additional services, a brokerage can improve its bottom line through new revenue streams. With agents on average demanding higher commission splits over the years, these complementary services can help offset a firm’s potential commission losses while simultaneously maintaining agent satisfaction.
Perhaps the most critical advantage of the one-stop shop for agents is that they can “stay in their genius” and provide the highest level of value to their clients. Their knowledge and experience deliver added value to buyers and sellers in every one-stop shop transaction.
Conclusion
It’s a credit to our industry as a whole when we can provide the best possible experience for consumers and exceed their expectations.
Having mortgage and title services in-house means buyers, sellers and agents all benefit from an approach that offers transparency and direct access to decision-makers, so consumers know where they stand every step of the way. At the end of the day, when the real estate agent, loan officer and title agent are all in sync, the brokerage can ensure a seamless transaction that provides more value and helps the client rest easier.