When people talk about buying or selling a house, they’re usually excited about the idea—except when it comes to moving. That part is viewed with trepidation at best and at worst, fear of what lies buried in basements or forgotten in attics; it will all need to be handled before the move can transpire.
As a real estate agent who wants to make your clients happy and differentiate yourself from the competition, moving is one lucrative area to focus. From the packing to the housewarming party, here are 17 different ways you can help smooth the moving process for your clients and make their move so easy (and memorable) that they won’t be able to resist raving about you to all their friends.
1. Professional purging assistance
In a time when a woman can become globally famous for her ability to pare down belongings, it’s pretty safe to guess that your clients have things in their home they don’t need or want to pack, but they might be feeling too overwhelmed to get rid of them before the move.
We all know the desolate feeling of unpacking something we wish we’d never brought with us, and you can help your clients avoid it by finding the best professional purger or Marie Kondo equivalent in your town and booking some of their time for your buyers and your sellers before they get ready to move.
2. Help packing delicate items or collections
Whether you’re catering to a wine aficionado with a whole cellar full of pricey bottles or a 35-millimeter camera enthusiast with a bona fide darkroom to relocate, your buyers and your sellers might have items dear to them that need special packing attention.
Ask them if there are any items they’re concerned about transporting, then see who’s qualified to help. Some moving companies specialize in more fragile or high-end items, or you might learn that the clock repair specialist will relocate an antique grandfather clock for a fee. Keep a running list of these specialist packers and movers for the next client who might need their assistance.
3. Moving vehicles
Yes, anyone can find and book a moving van, but not everyone can do so on short notice, and most people aren’t familiar with the best deals on vehicles, or might not know what size is going to work best for their household.
Ask your clients if they’ve arranged for moving transportation, and if they haven’t, offer to help find it, or even book a vehicle for them.
4. Hiring movers
Movers can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, they certainly can remove a lot of stress from the moving experience; a good moving company can pack and move your house so quickly your head will spin. That said, many agents have probably also heard ample horror stories about movers—and your clients will have heard them, too.
Perhaps you’re only providing a list of reputable moving companies to your client, or perhaps you’re going the extra mile and hiring movers for them. Whatever the case, helping clients obtain movers is typically a weight off their shoulders.
5. Managing transfer of utilities, mail, and so on
There are a lot of things that we need our address in order to receive, from goods to services, and oftentimes, those things can get lost in the shuffle of the move. Perhaps your clients will remember to transfer their internet, but will they remember that they need to cancel their trash service with their old company and set up new services (plus recycling) with a different one?
You can find a number of companies that can help you provide this service for your clients, making the move a seamless one when it comes to shifting over the gas, electricity, water, and even less-vital items, such as any subscription boxes that your client is used to receiving.
6. Day-of-move pet or child care
Buyers and sellers with pets and kids are going to have to figure something out when it comes to their more vulnerable and less self-sufficient family members on moving day. Ask your clients if they’ve made arrangements—and if not, you can be a real hero by offering some suggestions for reliable and safe care options.
If parents are understandably leery of leaving kids with someone you’re recommending (but who’s still a stranger), then a list of kid-friendly activities near the new house might be a welcome alternative; one caregiver can take the kids exploring or adventuring while another supervises the move.
7. Cleaning services for the new home
Sellers are supposed to leave homes “broom clean” when they move out, but that means there’s still likely to be dust, the carpets may not have been cleaned, and there’s a lot of detritus that a broom simply can’t eliminate.
Ask your new homeowner clients if they’d prefer to have their new place deep-cleaned before or after they move in, then hire a cleaning service around their preference. They might already want movers to wear shoe coverings (and so cleaning beforehand might work), or if there are conditions that would mean a messier move, such as rain or snow, they can choose to wait until they’ve finished moving their belongings.
8. Cleaning services for the previous home
Your seller clients might have trouble leaving the house broom-clean, or it’s possible that you’re working with first-time buyers who are moving out of a rental situation and are going to have to scrub it from floor to ceiling in order to get their deposit back. In both situations, hiring cleaners to take care of that unwelcome task will generate eternally grateful clients.
9. Storage solutions
Depending on what’s happening in the real estate market, your sellers might be moving right into their new house, or they might have to spend a month or two in an interim state while they wait for their new place. If the latter is the case, solve one problem for them by renting a storage unit that will fit their overflow items, and also paying for the first and last month.
10. Ordering dinner the night of the move …
The very last thing that most new homeowners want to do the first night that they move into a new house is cook dinner. It’s likely that most of their kitchen appliances and utensils are still packed, not to mention flatware and plates. The fridge and pantry are unlikely to be stocked with their favorite foods. And they’ve probably spent most of the day loading and unloading an entire house’s worth of belongings.
Make their life easier by ordering a pizza (very traditional) or whatever kind of food they would prefer, if pizza’s not on the menu.
11. … Or have someone pick up groceries
Grocery pickup and delivery has gotten easier than ever during the pandemic, and if the new homeowners are the types to want to cook something special in their kitchen on their first night, then you can help make that dream come true by asking what they’ll need and arranging for the groceries to be purchased and stashed in the fridge or the pantry.
For this to be a truly helpful step, you might also want to hire a task-person to help unpack the kitchen, at least enough to where they can find what they’ll need to cook dinner.
12. Home theater setup
Some clients might be home theater fanatics (we have all met them!), and if they’re amenable, you can offer to send a home theater expert to help them set up their system in the new space. There are specialists who can help with maximizing the acoustics and making sure that the visuals are as crisp as possible, and if your client isn’t sure how their equipment will work in the new space, this can be a useful and exciting way to solve a problem for them.
13. Smart home assistance
If they’ve just got a set of Alexas, then they probably don’t need your help, but the smarter the home, the more your clients could likely use a little bit of hand-holding.
You can hire a part-time handyperson or tasker to do something like this, or perhaps there’s someone in your area who specializes in new home technology setup; asking around on social media might yield some good candidates (but make sure you vet them with plenty of references).
14. Provide gift cards to a hardware store
Whether your client is big on DIY or you haven’t had time to find help for some of these other solutions, stacking up gift cards to your local hardware store and handing them out to your new clients is one simple way to take the edge off of moving pain. Because you know they’re headed to the hardware store sooner or later.
15. Send over a handyperson a week or two after the move
Your best bet will be someone who can patch and paint over drywall scuffs or dents, unclog drains, de-drip faucets, tighten loose cabinets, and any number of small tasks that are most-needed after move-in.
Waiting a week or a bit longer gives the new homeowners a chance to compile a list of things they need tackled; tell them you’ll be sending someone over after you hand over the house keys so that they know to put together said list.
16. Help set up and/or pay for home security system
The security system is one of those things that can slip through the cracks pretty easily, whether it’s a seller forgetting to cancel their account, or a buyer who’s never had one before and doesn’t know they need to create an account for the system they acquired. Or, perhaps you have a new homeowner who wants a security system but isn’t sure what their best option in town is.
Providing this kind of support, and paying for the system for a certain amount of time (six months to a year might make sense), is something your clients will definitely remember when they’re sitting around with friends and family talking real estate.
17. Buy supplies for the housewarming party
Ask your clients what food and beverages they might prefer for a housewarming bash, then do your best to supply it. If they’re alcohol drinkers, ask them what kind of bar setup they’d like; perhaps you can provide a spread of pizzas for a family-friendly bash.
This can be an especially kind gesture if you know your clients are big fans of a certain type of cuisine but don’t know where to get it in your town—cater a housewarming party from your favorite example of their most-missed food.
Even if you can’t provide a top-level white-glove concierge moving service for clients, offering one or more of these little path-smoothers will be a gesture they remember, and continue to mention, for months down the road.
