Written by Lee Nelson
Reading Time: 5 min
Some Illinois REALTORS® go beyond offering excellent real estate expertise to their clients. They’ve found that offering additional services or real estate-related businesses provides a more full-rounded experience and streamlines the process for sellers and buyers. Plus, it helps them increase their own bottom line because they can help clients with more than just finding or selling them a property.
Jennifer Hyman earned a master’s degree in interior design and started Home Interiors as a full-service design company in the Chicagoland area while being a REALTOR® at Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group in Chicago.
“Having an interior design business helps me work on projects that excite and enthuse me,” she says. “I blend the interior design world with the real estate world because the two just naturally fit together.”
The National Association of REALTORS® 2023 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows 85 percent of sellers used an agent who provides a broad range of services and management of most aspects of the home sale. A few years before that, NAR commissioned The Harris Poll to do a survey on One-Stop Shopping (OSS) Consumer Preferences. The results revealed that 79 percent of buyers thought the process was more efficient and manageable, and 77 percent saved money thanks to discounted prices with one-stop shopping.
Jennifer Hyman
Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group
Chicago
Hyman and Chicago area REALTOR® Nick Libert explain the challenges and benefits to adding services to their businesses.
Meeting the client where they are
For years, Libert thought about moving to some type of one-stop shopping brokerage. He is CEO and owner of EXIT Strategy Realty/Nick Libert Properties Inc. in Chicago. He also is licensed in Indiana and Michigan and earned his law degree, but never practiced because real estate was his “love.”
Nick Libert
EXIT Strategy Realty / Nick Libert Properties Inc.
Chicago
“I wanted to open something that is competitive and offer something different for my clients. I had friends all over in title companies,” he adds. “I wanted to make it more accessible and personable for my agents, too.”
So, one month before COVID hit in 2020, he opened Strategic Title Company. It operates out of his four real estate offices along with the four law firms where his partner in the title company and other attorneys work.
“This allows our clients to have the ability to close at any of these offices with free parking and have a level of comfort. The biggest thing for the agent and consumer is that it’s a medium sized title company, and very easy to navigate,” he adds.
“The title industry had the biggest changes during COVID,” Libert states. “You couldn’t go into a title company during the pandemic. So, we had mobile closings and offsite closings — things they said they would never do before.”
“Title company isn’t a sexy thing, but it is something mandatory and a valuable part of transactions. When something goes wrong, the vendor is one phone call away,” he says. “We know the file. It is a much quicker turnaround time with personal interaction.”
Companies and services REALTORS® are adding to their portfolio: construction, auctioneer, moving company, mortgage company, finance planning, property management, real estate attorney, photographer and drone photographer, videographer, interior design, appraisal company, staging, inspections and more.
Benefits of adding another service: Build your own strengths, attract more clients and increase your financial stability.
Advantages for clients and potential clients: Customers value convenience and save time by not having to look for a particular service.
Discover what is needed and wanted: Don’t add a specific service until surveying other agents, former clients, and community members.
Sprucing up client’s homes
Hyman concentrates on the lifestyle any particular home can provide a new buyer or help a home become attractive to a whole range of buyers.
“I don’t believe it’s a skill that can be absorbed in a class or bought. It only comes with experience,” she adds.
For instance, she had an investor client from California purchase a home via an auction site. Multiple dogs had been living there free range, and DIY projects had gone wrong, including windows painted shut.
“Undeterred, we set the goal, created a plan and got to work. Within several months, we had a beautifully updated home that set a sales record for the neighborhood,” she says.
Hyman admits her best sales successes and most enjoyable projects have come from blending real estate and interior design skills.
“Life is too short not to love what you do,” she says.
Challenges of one-stop shopping for agents
“With anything else, you need to monitor your time,” Libert says. “You can’t be jack-of-all trades and master of none.”
He suggests partnering with the right person and monitoring those relationships to make sure it remains a win-win situation. You need to ask for feedback and take action on that feedback. Understand, too, how much money, time, stress and further education it might take to take on this venture.
“You always have the ability to do more and do better, but a limit to what time you have,” he adds.
Hyman says she’s making a better and more consistent living since she added a real estate license than when she was a solopreneur in interior design.
“But I’ve learned to structure my business in a more organized way, and I still use a notebook when in the moment with clients,” she says. “The project reveals how much time it needs. Real life is not HGTV, and most clients cannot afford the manpower it takes to work a 24-hour schedule.”
Legal Note: If you are expanding into services governed by the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), get specific legal advice about requirements and limits that apply to affiliated businesses. Settlement services include but may not be limited to various insurance providers (title, homeowners and home warranties), surveyors, lenders, attorneys and real estate brokers.
About the writer: Lee Nelson is an Illinois-based writer whose work regularly appears in REALTOR® Magazine and other industry publications.
