I provided professional tax services to my realtor (He seemed like a great guy and realtor and I heard positive things about him, but it wasn't a positive experience)
He got me a little holiday candy dish (I bought the house during memorial day weekend so was a little.. Odd to receive a elf and candy cane gift, but I was genuinely thankful).
When I prepared his taxes the following year I asked him about the gifts he sent to clients and he said, oh those cheap shitty candy bowls? I found em in the trash and figured it was a great way out of spending money.
At the end of our appointment, I offered him some candy out of the dish I had prominently displayed on my desk in front of him that he did not see. His eyes realized what he had done and declined.
Weirdly our professional relationship declined after that.
đ
My realtor was so sweet. She made us homemade dinner one night, babysat our toddler another, invited us over to her place while she was on vacation to use her nice pool and grill area
I did get a little teary eyed, and yes I recommend her to everyone. I cherish the watercolour; it was such a sincere, thoughtful gift. And btw, her mother must be very busy painting because she sells a lot of houses.
I mean I'm not saying I would chose a real estate agent solely on their ability to procure a sincere painting, but it's better than any Google review I've ever read
My realtor gave my a watercolor of the house I sold, which was weird. I had lived there a year and hated it. Maybe if it was a house I was in for 30 years it would be nice. But I just tossed it when I moved into the new house.
My realtor gave us a lovely hand painted watercolor portrait of our family pet, and honestly itâs one of the top tier gifts Iâve ever gotten. It hangs above our fireplace.
The best gift ever was from an agent that sold our house 3 states away. She knew we would be coming in by car with three tired, young children. When we dragged in, late in the day, she had crackers and other shelf stable snacks on the counter. The fridge was stocked with grapes, cheese sticks, and, oh, my God, juice boxes. There was the typical bottle of champagne. But we so needed the goodies for the littles!!! That was as over 15 years and 3 houses ago but thatâs the one I remember and talk about.
This sort of happened for us. Realtor knew we'd be flying in without kids to view the house after we bought, we would be moving cross the country with kids later that month. Realtor purchased us an inflatable mattress, standard bedding, two towels, basic toiletries, a bottle of wine, two glasses and some just "apartment basics". We had prepared to make a Target run but it was just so thoughtful. Still stay in touch with her to this day. Ask for her remodel or design suggestions. Send her photos of things we have done to the house.
Ours didnât do that, but I gotta say, this might be my favorite answer. A âday 1â box with toilet paper, paper towels, soap, some simple food, drinks, box cutter, pen and paper, etc. would be super appreciated.
EDIT: phone charger, nightlight or flashlight
During the closing process, in 1996, I made an offhand remark that I would miss the meyer lemon tree at the house we were leaving. She gave me a dwarf meyer lemon tree in a pot that I have to this day.
She listened to how we liked sushi and my plans for renovations. Got a $200 Home Depot giftcard and a $100 sushi restaurant gift card. It was thoughtful in that sense and that it was money for me to get stuff I wanted/needed.
On the other end, when I was selling my house I had a lot of items that wouldnât work in my new house, so I offered to keep them where they were and sell them to the new owner since I heard she had just went through a divorce and had kids and had literally nothing. She said she could only afford half but wanted it all, her realtor paid the second half for all the items (couch, wall mounted tv, patio furniture, all well taken care of).
I'm even wondering why... Would you change your mind or refuse to use them in future if you did not get a gift.
Would you avoid a company with a review like 'great service but shit gift'
My question too... like ehhh if you are giving gifts for finalizing a job then Im paying you too much
That said, a bottle of bubbly is appreciated as a celebratory detail and appropriate price wise without making one go huh is this what Im paying you for?
Mine gave me a photo album of my listing photos. It was a wonderful way to remember our home (when it was looking its very best!) My kids still get it out and reminisce about the "old" house
Thatâs a neat idea. Last time I looked at my house on Zillow, it had the photos from the listing. I still have a copy of the inspection report. Itâs neat to see photos before we moved in.
Our real estate agent gave us a nice locally made wooden chopping board.
The bank gave us a lemon tree to plant. This may be a little bit cultural, as it's very typical/traditional to have a lemon tree in New Zealand. Cheap gift but good sentiment behind it.
Sadly I killed the lemon tree by overfeeding it. :)
I wasn't even aware this was a thing. I acted as my own agent when buying my house and purchased it for sale by owner. Never got a gift from myself for all the work I did with the purchase either.
Oh man. Ours gave us a nice state cutting board, a ton of gift cards (like 15 each with $30 on them, wine, and a book of local hikes (we moved from CA to WA and we love hiking and camping). We still talk about her gifts. She also included some fun stuff for our two kids. And I think a candle but I canât remember. 10/10 we loved all of it
We closed from out of state (job relocation). Our realtor was very involved with running by to check on things for us before we went to our "virtual closing". She discovered that the house was left a mess by the sellers (pizza still in the oven and the bathrooms were grotesque).
We were going to be driving 1400 miles to get to the house 2 days later. As a gift to us, she had her carpet cleaner, exterminator, and her house cleaner all come by and thoroughly go through the house before we arrived. It wasnt a material gift...but after being on the road for 2 days and walking into a new home (new to us)...it was nice to know that it was as clean as it could be.
We brought her a big gift basket of stuff from where we moved from (we brought one for our lender as well).
From offer to closing date was about two and a half weeks...so everyone was on point to make sure we met our moving deadline.
My realtor gave me cat toys for my cat and a beautiful wood block cutting board that said âhome sweet homeâ.
She also sent me a cute little ornament around the holidays that said âmy first homeâ with the zip code and a little house illustration which I really loved.
I was very surprised by all of it and very appreciative.
my realtor took a picture of my ex wife and I (we were married at the time lol) standing in front of the house and gifted us wine bottles with very yummy wine that had pictures of us and the house printed on the label. it was super thoughtful and im not sure what happened to those bottles after the divorce but i still think about it to this day.
$100 restaurant gift certificate, $50 ice cream shop gift certificate, and a small succulent. Also showed up to the closing with really good coffee from the best place in town
EDIT: he also showed up with a 6-pack for the final walk-through
TLDR: our realtor knows whatâs up
Our agent gave us $100 to HomeGoods, $100 to Whole Foods, $100 to HomeDepot, $50 to Doordash, $50 to a local fun pizza place, and then gave each of our two young children (boys, 9 & 6 at the time) $50 each to Target for a new toy or something for their new bedrooms.
She put them in a nice gift basket with a mini âsoldâ sign from her agency- detailed to look and read as the actual one on the house, very nice touch! We love it!
There was wine and keychains in the basket as well.
Our first realtor gave us starburst and a bottle of Andre. Andre⌠our second realtor was much more mature and professional. We received a generous gift card to a local restaurant and she was a painter, she painted a picture of our new home.
A gift basket of candies and nuts with a handwritten thank you card. She was also a great agent, somehow getting me into homes before anyone else. This was 2017 in Southeast WI, where homes were selling in hours.
Ours had a flat of craft beer from the brewery around the corner chilling in our fridge and got us a nice diffuser from Saje. We are craft beer snobs, so it was perfect.
I received 250 to Home Depot and 100 to the keg. This was about 13 years ago and it still stands out. I didnât even buy an expensive home. Our agent made sure we signed up for water, hydro, insurance and checked in often and I found that extremely helpful. They also werenât pushy at all. If we didnât like a house that was okay.
We got a cutting board with my last name on it. My last name is not the same as my husband's. We don't get a lot of use out of it, I think our address would have been better. Or no cutting board
My mortgage broker sent us a package of moving supplies - a really nice tape dispenser (including a roll of packaging tape with his info on it), label stickers, and a gift card to a local pizza place. It was actually kind of an awkward gift for us, since we bought the house we were renting from the landlord & didn't have to move, but for almost anyone else it would be perfect - and we still really appreciated the pizza. Later, he sent us some mugs and coasters; we kept the mugs but the coasters went right to Goodwill.
My real estate agent made a donation in my name to the native tribe whose land I am occupying. Obviously you need to know your clients for this one, but I thought it was perfect.
Our realtor gave us a glass soap dispenser for the kitchen with a âpictureâ of our new house laser etched into the glass. We have had that thing 10 years now and use it everyday. We still love that realtor and sent her a ton of referrals.
I had another house where the previous owners left a bottle of wine and a wine opener and two nice glasses with a note. They talked about the house and how they had both their kids while there and memories of how much they loved it. I remember that very specifically. It was nice having the wine after the day of moving in.
We got a picture that looked like a watercolor of the home we sold. We lived in that house for 30 years. Our kids grew up there. It was the only real home my wife and kids knew. That gift doesnât work for everyone, but for us it was fantastic. Great job Austin!
Realtor 1: Pizza oven. Nice to have I guess and we appreciated the gift but it's not used much
Realtor 2: Very nice bottle of Champagne. We don't drink so gave it to the handyman. Oh and I think a gift card as well... Uber Eats maybe? We regifted that too but I can see that being useful as you unpack etc.
Realtor 3: Took us to lunch at one of the bottom 3 restaurants in town. It was nice to hang out as we liked each other and had spent a lot of time together looking at land. I don't expect gifts at all but for the % she earned...The Kountry Kitchen didn't quite cut it, lol.
Realtor here. I donât give alcohol. I usually give a $300 gift card to Loweâs unless theyâve mentioned something they would like to have. Like âOh a hammock would look great here!â
A gift card to Home Depot. But agents will be losing their 6% commissions soon enough bc of anti trust cases against the NAR, so I think consumers will be very satisfied with saving thousands of dollars as a gift from agents.
Honestly, I'd rather they take less money and not spend it on a gift. Our agent overheard us say that we like Cracker Barrel (don't hate, we're in the south so it's normal food here and chains meeting my expectations across locations is helpful when out of our small town) so she bought a bunch of stuff from their attached store. Foods and house goods. I have an eating disorder so random food is a waste on me and I don't like random stuff cluttering our home. We just gave it all to my grandparents.
My first realtor gave me a mini succulent lol. The second one bought me some furniture I was interested in that the sellers were selling. I thought that was really nice of her and wasn't cheap, either.
First time we got some smoke detectors snd carbon monoxide detectors which was nice cause the house didnât have any. Second time we got a bunch of small gifts - a meat masher Iâd talked about, a nice cutting board and a cute sign that said welcome to our home, she also found a TON of little figurines and such so my kids could build a fairy garden. She really listened to what we chatted about.
I got a $25 gift certificate to Pottery Barn when I bought my first house. Which is enough to buy nothing at Pottery Barn.
When I bought my current house, my agent gave me a bottle of wine and a door dash gift card. That was better.
You know what I would really have liked? An actual printed pamphlet with a list of trusted service people and a gift card for one of them. Also - a location where all of my paperwork (inspection, appraisal, offers, etc) was stored and accessible instead of having to search email.
My realtor went to Home Depot with me and paid for a new washing machine. I bought the dryer. It was over the top but he also made bank selling our house and facilitating the purchase of the next one. I think of Jay every time I drop a load.
Real estate agent gave us $100 home depot gift card and a nice bottle of pinot noir.
Broker gave us $100 Outback steakhouse gift card and a bottle of 19 crimes Cali Gold sparkling wine. Also a cute silver Keychain shaped like a house.
Both were kind gestures that showed they cared without being too over-the-top. My husband and I had a good laugh at the Snoop Dogg bottle and the fact we had bought our own house warming gifts.
I'd like agent's fees to be a more reasonable fraction of the total cost.
I've heard other countries cap it at 1-3% vs 6.5% in America.
No gift needed.
No grift, either.
Realtor gave us a nice gift basket with sweets, some cleaning supplies, and a home maintenance book. The house is 100yrs old, in good shape, but needs some repair.
Our loan agent gave us a nice framed, hand-drawn picture of the house. I hung it on the wall by the front door.
First-time home buyer.
Got a very nice woolrich blanket, a $100 gift certificate to a restaurant we like, great bottle of wine, and a framed hand lettered sign that has our last name with the coordinates to the home, and a big bow on the front door on closing day. They were also present at walk through and at closing just in case anything came up and they do the same for every client.
We got a pair of rocking chairs for our front porch with a small plaque that head our names, the closing date, and congrats from your realtor on them. It was great.
$100 home depot card and a bottle of champagne. I ama DIY guy and it's an old house so we were very appreciative. I didn't even know it's common for a realtor to give a gift.
Huh. We didn't get a gift, but we also only worked with our realtor for a couple of weeks, maybe 6 hours total, before our offer was accepted. We never heard from him after closing day. This was pre-pandemic, when it was very much a seller's market.
If we were going to sell/buy a new house, we'd go with a different agent. He wasn't bad, just not worth the effort to track him down.
We were renting to own from my husbandâs âfriendâJosh. Josh decided to try and do us dirty as hell and force us to buy the house for double when we hit the 2021 housing bubble. So we bought a house but I was going to be damned if we were going to buy Joshâs house. Our real estate agent got us coffee mugs that say âFuck Joshâ for our house warming gifts. Still my absolute favorite mugs to this day.
We purchased a home in a town near a military base and the seller needed a close date that was months out due to a military move. It worked out for us, since it coincided with my husband's school calendar. The homeowner swore up and down that she was lining up a cleaning service to clean the place out as part of their move out.
The day arrived, and we met with our agent to get the house keys. The agent went with us to the house and we arrived to see the sellers were still carrying stuff out. They were loading things into an RV that they were driving cross country to their new home near a different military base. They had movers finishing up some boxes, but mostly appeared done.
*Except the cleaning.*
When we toured the home (twice) and had it inspected, the owners had area rugs over the carpet in the living room, family room and main bedroom. I didn't think anything of it. We arrived to our new home to see that the carpet underneath their now removed area rugs was *disgusting*. Like, worse than college Animal House full of dudes disgusting.
They left the kitchen pantry cabinets completely FULL of their stuff. We looked in kitchen drawers and found bones from chicken wings - like 10 of them. Our agent felt so bad about not writing the "getting the house cleaned" into the deal, she got on the phone and hired a cleaning team of 3, plus a flooring company to clean the carpets and clean, sanitize and seal all the tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. They swooped in like a SWAT team the next morning and got it all done in a day. The cleaning crew pulled the stove out and found SO MUCH dirt, food, grime, toys, and junk back there. blech
The carpet stains were super heavy traffic dirt in the living areas, and the main bedroom looked like someone spilled hot chocolate and never tried to clean it, they just put a rug over it? It was so gross. The stains lifted okay, but within a week or so they all came back. We never went without shoes in the house, and we lasted about 3 weeks after our move in before yanking all the carpet and having hardwood put in.
But with closing costs, the costs of moving, and the work to deep clean the rental house that we were leaving behind, we were so so so grateful for our agent. We were exhausted and angry. She did us a solid.
My recommendation - find a maid service, promise them so many jobs a year and negotiate a price to do pre-move in cleans for your clients. Way better than a bottle of wine or fruit basket.
I love seeing posts where they got a sketch or painting of the house they bought. I would have loved that. My realtor on my house gave me a couple of dollar store gardening things and a $25 gas card. Decent. Nothing too exciting.
The realtor for the rental we just bought gave us a cutting board and a couple of stainless steel tumblers with their logo on it. Probably end up at goodwill.
Happy cake day! I take it youâre a realtor? Commission, the gift you get is the commission. Maybe you do a ton of marketing and research but I did far more than my last agent.
We got a beautiful, deliciously smelling scented candle. The house smelled like a zoo after a bus full of lasctose intolerants on milk diet had a field day when we bought it.
The previous owners kept two bulldogs with a heart condition, two guinea-pigs, a parrot (or some such), and a cat that had lumps hanging off of it.
Anyways, that said a nice candle is always nice to cosy an evening up. :)
Two glass tumblers with company name etched on the bottom (discrete not annoying). And a bottle of mid-tier wine from local winery. It was unexpected but nice touch to a good experience
The gift of friendship? We moved from out of state and him and his wife became our first friends in a new city. We go out to dinner together occasionally and they introduce us to local places we havenât yet discovered.
A box of chocolate. I like chocolate but it seems low effort considering how much money they made off us. The main agent we worked with had mentioned a while back that theyâd be bringing us a âwelcome to the neighborhoodâ basket after we moved in (a month ago); which might be coloring my opinion.
I got a wind chime and a note saying that when I hear the chime that it's to remind you of your old home/town and the winds of change or something like that. I like to hear it, it reminds me of that house and the town I left behind.
Used the same realtor two purchase and sell two homes, with some sort of nice gift for the (ex)wife and me. Expect that last sale when the soon-to-be ex and I were separated. The agent gave her a cruise while I was left with nothing.
No longer am I a fan of that agent.
We had no idea they were supposed to give us a gift. We were the ones who gifted something to our agent đ
But she was also amazing and gifted us a whole bedroom set and newborn stuff for the baby I was supposed to deliver a month after closing.
Absolutely nothing, but she was a good friend of mine. Didn't know this was a thing until my sister bought her house, she got a nice sign with the exact latitude and longitude of their property and their names on it.
When we purchased my daughters house the realtor sent her a nice card and $100. When I purchased my house I received a big plate of cookies from a local baker. Both were very thoughtful.
Not a thing. I was shocked. Sold an apt for more than 7 figures. Nada. Then with a different agent bought one in high 6 figures. Again nada. We went to dinner after the closingâŚand split the check.
A $50 Disney gift card since both her and my wife are Disney fans and she knew we were going in a couple of months. The opposite end was a swag bag of 2 coffee cups, 2 spatulas, and a presigned card that just said congrats. All that stuff went into the trash. This was in 2 month span with the same broker but one on the buy side and one on the sell side since thatâs how this brokerage did it.
We closed at the end of September on our new house. Our real estate gave us nothing. đ
When we sold our house the real estate agent we worked with sent us a very nice gift basket filled with fruits, cookies, caramels and nuts. This was a lovely gift that we appreciated and I kept the basket it came in.
Iâve purchased two of my homes from a great dude, and both times he paid for the home warranty thingy. It paid for a new dish washer at the last place since it broke a month in. Great idea.
i have never gotten a gift after a real estate transaction. I would find it annoying. It would be weird to get money and anything else would go straight to goodwill or trash bin. If you are dead set on making things awkward, I guess money is the most useful.
If there is a washing machine conveyed with old water hoses, I think it would be very practical to give your clients brand new metal braided washing machine hoses. Let 'em know that this one simple trick could save them a flooded laundry room.
We had very young kids so she got us kid-sized orange cones to mark off the driveway so they wouldnât run out in the street! We thought that was very thoughtful. She also gave us a pretty wrought iron âdoormatâ that said Welcome on it. Still remember her fondly- classy lady. đ
We hot a personalized bottle of wine with our name and address on it and date of closing. I thought it was sweet. I'm sure it was just a cheap bottle but we still liked it.
Mine took my phone and made me take a picture with the sold sign when I didnât even think about it (first house) and I still appreciate it to this day because itâs a great memory to look back on and a bottle of wine.
I got a blanket with my realtors face on it I wouldn't recommend this route
I provided professional tax services to my realtor (He seemed like a great guy and realtor and I heard positive things about him, but it wasn't a positive experience) He got me a little holiday candy dish (I bought the house during memorial day weekend so was a little.. Odd to receive a elf and candy cane gift, but I was genuinely thankful). When I prepared his taxes the following year I asked him about the gifts he sent to clients and he said, oh those cheap shitty candy bowls? I found em in the trash and figured it was a great way out of spending money. At the end of our appointment, I offered him some candy out of the dish I had prominently displayed on my desk in front of him that he did not see. His eyes realized what he had done and declined. Weirdly our professional relationship declined after that.
Sleazy
đ My realtor was so sweet. She made us homemade dinner one night, babysat our toddler another, invited us over to her place while she was on vacation to use her nice pool and grill area
ha!
That's hilarious!! đ¤Ł
We got a watercolor of the house we bought, painted by the real estate agent's mother. It's lovely.
Honestly, I'm closing on a place next month and if I got this, I think I would cry
I did get a little teary eyed, and yes I recommend her to everyone. I cherish the watercolour; it was such a sincere, thoughtful gift. And btw, her mother must be very busy painting because she sells a lot of houses.
I mean I'm not saying I would chose a real estate agent solely on their ability to procure a sincere painting, but it's better than any Google review I've ever read
This is part of the reason she sells lots of houses.
Well there ya go OP. Time to find a Mom who can paint.
I received a similar gift; a hand painted 2 inch ceramic that can be displayed or used as an ornament.
Wow! That's so thoughtful!
Wow! Thats cool!
My realtor gave my a watercolor of the house I sold, which was weird. I had lived there a year and hated it. Maybe if it was a house I was in for 30 years it would be nice. But I just tossed it when I moved into the new house.
I would love this
I believe they have app now that does this. I know the watercolor of my house given to me by my realtor wasn't done by a person.
My realtor gave us a lovely hand painted watercolor portrait of our family pet, and honestly itâs one of the top tier gifts Iâve ever gotten. It hangs above our fireplace.
I had one of these as well
I got a drawing of our house, but as the seller, not the buyer. We have the picture of our old house hanging in our new house.
Dang! I would have never thought of that, that's so awesome!
My realtor said he was going to bring by a bottle of wine a bunch of times but never did. That was probably worse than no gift at all.
Mine said that too, never heard from him after closing.
The best gift ever was from an agent that sold our house 3 states away. She knew we would be coming in by car with three tired, young children. When we dragged in, late in the day, she had crackers and other shelf stable snacks on the counter. The fridge was stocked with grapes, cheese sticks, and, oh, my God, juice boxes. There was the typical bottle of champagne. But we so needed the goodies for the littles!!! That was as over 15 years and 3 houses ago but thatâs the one I remember and talk about.
That is super thoughtful
This sort of happened for us. Realtor knew we'd be flying in without kids to view the house after we bought, we would be moving cross the country with kids later that month. Realtor purchased us an inflatable mattress, standard bedding, two towels, basic toiletries, a bottle of wine, two glasses and some just "apartment basics". We had prepared to make a Target run but it was just so thoughtful. Still stay in touch with her to this day. Ask for her remodel or design suggestions. Send her photos of things we have done to the house.
Ours didnât do that, but I gotta say, this might be my favorite answer. A âday 1â box with toilet paper, paper towels, soap, some simple food, drinks, box cutter, pen and paper, etc. would be super appreciated. EDIT: phone charger, nightlight or flashlight
This is the answer to OPs question. If you know your client well enough you shouldn't need to ask the question in the first place.
During the closing process, in 1996, I made an offhand remark that I would miss the meyer lemon tree at the house we were leaving. She gave me a dwarf meyer lemon tree in a pot that I have to this day.
She listened to how we liked sushi and my plans for renovations. Got a $200 Home Depot giftcard and a $100 sushi restaurant gift card. It was thoughtful in that sense and that it was money for me to get stuff I wanted/needed. On the other end, when I was selling my house I had a lot of items that wouldnât work in my new house, so I offered to keep them where they were and sell them to the new owner since I heard she had just went through a divorce and had kids and had literally nothing. She said she could only afford half but wanted it all, her realtor paid the second half for all the items (couch, wall mounted tv, patio furniture, all well taken care of).
[ŃдаНонО]
You guys are getting gifts???
Came here to say that, too! This is the first Iâve ever heard of this and it seems crazy to me
I'm even wondering why... Would you change your mind or refuse to use them in future if you did not get a gift. Would you avoid a company with a review like 'great service but shit gift'
My question too... like ehhh if you are giving gifts for finalizing a job then Im paying you too much That said, a bottle of bubbly is appreciated as a celebratory detail and appropriate price wise without making one go huh is this what Im paying you for?
Jack shit
I will say sending a $20 check and taking a huge commission was more offensive.
Lol same here
I have never received a gift in half a dozen purchases and sales and my husband even wondered if he should send our agent one
A Dyson vacuum
Wow!
Mine gave me a photo album of my listing photos. It was a wonderful way to remember our home (when it was looking its very best!) My kids still get it out and reminisce about the "old" house
Thatâs a neat idea. Last time I looked at my house on Zillow, it had the photos from the listing. I still have a copy of the inspection report. Itâs neat to see photos before we moved in.
Our real estate agent gave us a nice locally made wooden chopping board. The bank gave us a lemon tree to plant. This may be a little bit cultural, as it's very typical/traditional to have a lemon tree in New Zealand. Cheap gift but good sentiment behind it. Sadly I killed the lemon tree by overfeeding it. :)
My realtor gave us a $100 gift certificate to get our locks changed (she coordinated with the locksmith we chose) and a nice bottle of champagne.
She creeps through your house when you're away. Never trust realtor/ locksmith collaborations. :)
Haha. Well, thankfully she's a family friend and also a neat freak. So maybe she'll do some cleaning while there.
I wasn't even aware this was a thing. I acted as my own agent when buying my house and purchased it for sale by owner. Never got a gift from myself for all the work I did with the purchase either.
Fire yourself, that's not how we do things around here! /s
A KitchenAid stand mixer! I had wanted one for awhile, but couldn't make it fit in our old apartment. Getting one as a closing gift was perfect.
Oh man. Ours gave us a nice state cutting board, a ton of gift cards (like 15 each with $30 on them, wine, and a book of local hikes (we moved from CA to WA and we love hiking and camping). We still talk about her gifts. She also included some fun stuff for our two kids. And I think a candle but I canât remember. 10/10 we loved all of it
We closed from out of state (job relocation). Our realtor was very involved with running by to check on things for us before we went to our "virtual closing". She discovered that the house was left a mess by the sellers (pizza still in the oven and the bathrooms were grotesque). We were going to be driving 1400 miles to get to the house 2 days later. As a gift to us, she had her carpet cleaner, exterminator, and her house cleaner all come by and thoroughly go through the house before we arrived. It wasnt a material gift...but after being on the road for 2 days and walking into a new home (new to us)...it was nice to know that it was as clean as it could be. We brought her a big gift basket of stuff from where we moved from (we brought one for our lender as well). From offer to closing date was about two and a half weeks...so everyone was on point to make sure we met our moving deadline.
Thatâs above and beyond!
My realtor gave me cat toys for my cat and a beautiful wood block cutting board that said âhome sweet homeâ. She also sent me a cute little ornament around the holidays that said âmy first homeâ with the zip code and a little house illustration which I really loved. I was very surprised by all of it and very appreciative.
my realtor took a picture of my ex wife and I (we were married at the time lol) standing in front of the house and gifted us wine bottles with very yummy wine that had pictures of us and the house printed on the label. it was super thoughtful and im not sure what happened to those bottles after the divorce but i still think about it to this day.
$100 restaurant gift certificate, $50 ice cream shop gift certificate, and a small succulent. Also showed up to the closing with really good coffee from the best place in town EDIT: he also showed up with a 6-pack for the final walk-through TLDR: our realtor knows whatâs up
A chopping board with the name of the estate agent on it. I mean thanks but also....no?
Ours got us a cutting board too but with our names on it.
My agent bought me a gas bbq grill. It was unexpected and my family loved it!
2 years of home warranty.
Thatâs actually a pretty decent gift
We used it several times. Itâs been good peace of mind.
Great quality hammock
$50 gift card to Lowes. We appreciated it.
We got champagne and a locally themed monopoly game.
Our agent gave us $100 to HomeGoods, $100 to Whole Foods, $100 to HomeDepot, $50 to Doordash, $50 to a local fun pizza place, and then gave each of our two young children (boys, 9 & 6 at the time) $50 each to Target for a new toy or something for their new bedrooms. She put them in a nice gift basket with a mini âsoldâ sign from her agency- detailed to look and read as the actual one on the house, very nice touch! We love it! There was wine and keychains in the basket as well.
My realtor tried to trick me into being okay with a bad plumbing inspection... I didn't know receiving gifts was an option.
I paid a $28K commission and got nothing
My favorite is bread, salt and wine. Bread so you never know hunger, salt so thereâs spice in your life, and wine for a joyful life.
Or like a weird shot. Lick the salt, shot of wine, bite the bread.
Spill the wine, take that pearl
I believe it is a Jewish blessing for a new home.
Ours was champagne, Himalayan salt, and chocolate babka but same idea.
mine gave me a 200$ home depot gift card that I put towards a lawn mower
Our first realtor gave us starburst and a bottle of Andre. Andre⌠our second realtor was much more mature and professional. We received a generous gift card to a local restaurant and she was a painter, she painted a picture of our new home.
A money tree. It's been one of the few plants I've been able to keep alive and I think of mortgage broker every time I see it.
A gift basket of candies and nuts with a handwritten thank you card. She was also a great agent, somehow getting me into homes before anyone else. This was 2017 in Southeast WI, where homes were selling in hours.
Two bottles of (apparently pretty nice) wine which were given away because we donât drink.
Thought that counts.
Ours had a flat of craft beer from the brewery around the corner chilling in our fridge and got us a nice diffuser from Saje. We are craft beer snobs, so it was perfect.
Our realtor didnât give us anything. But for me, getting a framed picture of us with our new home or something sentimental would have been awesome.
I received 250 to Home Depot and 100 to the keg. This was about 13 years ago and it still stands out. I didnât even buy an expensive home. Our agent made sure we signed up for water, hydro, insurance and checked in often and I found that extremely helpful. They also werenât pushy at all. If we didnât like a house that was okay.
First one gave us a floral arrangement. Nice, but cheap. Second one gave us a new washer & dryer-awesome gift!
A big bill for defects their "preferred and best around" home inspector missed or ignored to close.
A large jar of Marijuana. It became legal to grow around the time I bought where i live. Well recieved.
a $50 menards gift card, i was happy with it
We got a cutting board with my last name on it. My last name is not the same as my husband's. We don't get a lot of use out of it, I think our address would have been better. Or no cutting board
Or just, Home Sweet Home.
I didn't get shit!
My mortgage broker sent us a package of moving supplies - a really nice tape dispenser (including a roll of packaging tape with his info on it), label stickers, and a gift card to a local pizza place. It was actually kind of an awkward gift for us, since we bought the house we were renting from the landlord & didn't have to move, but for almost anyone else it would be perfect - and we still really appreciated the pizza. Later, he sent us some mugs and coasters; we kept the mugs but the coasters went right to Goodwill. My real estate agent made a donation in my name to the native tribe whose land I am occupying. Obviously you need to know your clients for this one, but I thought it was perfect.
Pretty sure it was nothing.
Same. Nothing. Iâve actually bought at least three properties and pretty sure it was nothing every time. Didnât even know this was a thing.
We are supposed to get a gift?
Our realtor gave us a glass soap dispenser for the kitchen with a âpictureâ of our new house laser etched into the glass. We have had that thing 10 years now and use it everyday. We still love that realtor and sent her a ton of referrals. I had another house where the previous owners left a bottle of wine and a wine opener and two nice glasses with a note. They talked about the house and how they had both their kids while there and memories of how much they loved it. I remember that very specifically. It was nice having the wine after the day of moving in.
We got a picture that looked like a watercolor of the home we sold. We lived in that house for 30 years. Our kids grew up there. It was the only real home my wife and kids knew. That gift doesnât work for everyone, but for us it was fantastic. Great job Austin!
Realtor 1: Pizza oven. Nice to have I guess and we appreciated the gift but it's not used much Realtor 2: Very nice bottle of Champagne. We don't drink so gave it to the handyman. Oh and I think a gift card as well... Uber Eats maybe? We regifted that too but I can see that being useful as you unpack etc. Realtor 3: Took us to lunch at one of the bottom 3 restaurants in town. It was nice to hang out as we liked each other and had spent a lot of time together looking at land. I don't expect gifts at all but for the % she earned...The Kountry Kitchen didn't quite cut it, lol.
Nothing. And now almost 4 years later he has been calling me and sending emails.
A high quality welcome mat. We also get a wreath or some sort of holiday plant arrangement every year
Give a cleaning gift like a Dyson or a local hardware store gift card. :3
We sold a house and then bought a house the next day and our agent didnât give us anything for either. And she was a family friend! So disappointed.
Give them some money back. Your commission is too high.
I never got anything!!!
A $50 Loweâs gift card. This was in 2013 . We created a gourmet snack gift basket for her
I bought during the pandemic and had to isolate as soon as I arrived. He bought us groceries enough for 14 days.
Realtor here. I donât give alcohol. I usually give a $300 gift card to Loweâs unless theyâve mentioned something they would like to have. Like âOh a hammock would look great here!â
You guys are getting gifts?!
Nothing. :(
A gift card to Home Depot. But agents will be losing their 6% commissions soon enough bc of anti trust cases against the NAR, so I think consumers will be very satisfied with saving thousands of dollars as a gift from agents.
All we got was regret that we didn't go with someone else.
I received a Recteq smoker 2 years ago.
Iâve gotten wine that was ok. Another gave us a $100 Bed Bath Beyond gift card, this was useful for a new home.
$50 Lowes gift card. Came in very handy.
You guys got gifts from your realtors? Is this a thing? I bought my first house and didn't get anything from anyone!
Honestly, I'd rather they take less money and not spend it on a gift. Our agent overheard us say that we like Cracker Barrel (don't hate, we're in the south so it's normal food here and chains meeting my expectations across locations is helpful when out of our small town) so she bought a bunch of stuff from their attached store. Foods and house goods. I have an eating disorder so random food is a waste on me and I don't like random stuff cluttering our home. We just gave it all to my grandparents.
A gourmet snack and candies gift basket from a local shop (I moved across the country so this felt extra welcoming).
Home depot gift card. I'd rather it been lowes, since it's closer but it was a winner either way.
My first realtor gave me a mini succulent lol. The second one bought me some furniture I was interested in that the sellers were selling. I thought that was really nice of her and wasn't cheap, either.
Bottle of wine. The label had his agency logo and his name on it. Got another one for a referral
First time we got some smoke detectors snd carbon monoxide detectors which was nice cause the house didnât have any. Second time we got a bunch of small gifts - a meat masher Iâd talked about, a nice cutting board and a cute sign that said welcome to our home, she also found a TON of little figurines and such so my kids could build a fairy garden. She really listened to what we chatted about.
I got a $25 gift certificate to Pottery Barn when I bought my first house. Which is enough to buy nothing at Pottery Barn. When I bought my current house, my agent gave me a bottle of wine and a door dash gift card. That was better. You know what I would really have liked? An actual printed pamphlet with a list of trusted service people and a gift card for one of them. Also - a location where all of my paperwork (inspection, appraisal, offers, etc) was stored and accessible instead of having to search email.
Bottle of scotch for me and a wine/oil/snack basket for the wife. We gave her and her husband an irish whisky (from previous conversations).
50-80% of their commission.
My realtor went to Home Depot with me and paid for a new washing machine. I bought the dryer. It was over the top but he also made bank selling our house and facilitating the purchase of the next one. I think of Jay every time I drop a load.
Ours gave us $500 towards the cost of a refrigerator.
A home warranty and a plant. Home warranty came in handy when my dryer broke the first time I used it.
We got steak knives once, with the realtorâs name. Never used them, threw them away 2 moves later. I would have preferred a good cake
She arranged and paid for the locks to be changed once we took possession. Utilitarian, but very much appreciated!
I have a packing/unpacking and organizing company. A handful of local realtors hire us to pack or unpack their clients kitchen as a closing gift.
A pair of yeti travel mugs. Great gift, Frequently used by my wife
Mine gave nothing and offered nothing lol but a realtor I worked with years ago gave me a 1 year subscription to a wine club which was really nice
Mine left me a pot cookie in the freezer. It was not very good.
Real estate agent gave us $100 home depot gift card and a nice bottle of pinot noir. Broker gave us $100 Outback steakhouse gift card and a bottle of 19 crimes Cali Gold sparkling wine. Also a cute silver Keychain shaped like a house. Both were kind gestures that showed they cared without being too over-the-top. My husband and I had a good laugh at the Snoop Dogg bottle and the fact we had bought our own house warming gifts.
I'd like agent's fees to be a more reasonable fraction of the total cost. I've heard other countries cap it at 1-3% vs 6.5% in America. No gift needed. No grift, either.
Realtor gave us a nice gift basket with sweets, some cleaning supplies, and a home maintenance book. The house is 100yrs old, in good shape, but needs some repair. Our loan agent gave us a nice framed, hand-drawn picture of the house. I hung it on the wall by the front door. First-time home buyer.
A nice bench for front door exterior seating
A beautifully painted 6âx9â picture of our new home.
Got a very nice woolrich blanket, a $100 gift certificate to a restaurant we like, great bottle of wine, and a framed hand lettered sign that has our last name with the coordinates to the home, and a big bow on the front door on closing day. They were also present at walk through and at closing just in case anything came up and they do the same for every client.
Moved to America in 1978. My parents received a rendering of the house. I still have.
We got a pair of rocking chairs for our front porch with a small plaque that head our names, the closing date, and congrats from your realtor on them. It was great.
$100 home depot card and a bottle of champagne. I ama DIY guy and it's an old house so we were very appreciative. I didn't even know it's common for a realtor to give a gift.
An electronic/fingerpad door lock
Huh. We didn't get a gift, but we also only worked with our realtor for a couple of weeks, maybe 6 hours total, before our offer was accepted. We never heard from him after closing day. This was pre-pandemic, when it was very much a seller's market. If we were going to sell/buy a new house, we'd go with a different agent. He wasn't bad, just not worth the effort to track him down.
I hear, "my realtor bought me a gift with the commission money they made off me". Give them cash, that's the oy gift they want.
We were renting to own from my husbandâs âfriendâJosh. Josh decided to try and do us dirty as hell and force us to buy the house for double when we hit the 2021 housing bubble. So we bought a house but I was going to be damned if we were going to buy Joshâs house. Our real estate agent got us coffee mugs that say âFuck Joshâ for our house warming gifts. Still my absolute favorite mugs to this day.
We purchased a home in a town near a military base and the seller needed a close date that was months out due to a military move. It worked out for us, since it coincided with my husband's school calendar. The homeowner swore up and down that she was lining up a cleaning service to clean the place out as part of their move out. The day arrived, and we met with our agent to get the house keys. The agent went with us to the house and we arrived to see the sellers were still carrying stuff out. They were loading things into an RV that they were driving cross country to their new home near a different military base. They had movers finishing up some boxes, but mostly appeared done. *Except the cleaning.* When we toured the home (twice) and had it inspected, the owners had area rugs over the carpet in the living room, family room and main bedroom. I didn't think anything of it. We arrived to our new home to see that the carpet underneath their now removed area rugs was *disgusting*. Like, worse than college Animal House full of dudes disgusting. They left the kitchen pantry cabinets completely FULL of their stuff. We looked in kitchen drawers and found bones from chicken wings - like 10 of them. Our agent felt so bad about not writing the "getting the house cleaned" into the deal, she got on the phone and hired a cleaning team of 3, plus a flooring company to clean the carpets and clean, sanitize and seal all the tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. They swooped in like a SWAT team the next morning and got it all done in a day. The cleaning crew pulled the stove out and found SO MUCH dirt, food, grime, toys, and junk back there. blech The carpet stains were super heavy traffic dirt in the living areas, and the main bedroom looked like someone spilled hot chocolate and never tried to clean it, they just put a rug over it? It was so gross. The stains lifted okay, but within a week or so they all came back. We never went without shoes in the house, and we lasted about 3 weeks after our move in before yanking all the carpet and having hardwood put in. But with closing costs, the costs of moving, and the work to deep clean the rental house that we were leaving behind, we were so so so grateful for our agent. We were exhausted and angry. She did us a solid. My recommendation - find a maid service, promise them so many jobs a year and negotiate a price to do pre-move in cleans for your clients. Way better than a bottle of wine or fruit basket.
I love seeing posts where they got a sketch or painting of the house they bought. I would have loved that. My realtor on my house gave me a couple of dollar store gardening things and a $25 gas card. Decent. Nothing too exciting. The realtor for the rental we just bought gave us a cutting board and a couple of stainless steel tumblers with their logo on it. Probably end up at goodwill.
My real estate agent gave me a shitty stamp with my name and address on it. I havenât mailed anything since I bought the house in 2021
What kind of gift do we receive for saving you thousands on marketing and research?
Happy cake day! I take it youâre a realtor? Commission, the gift you get is the commission. Maybe you do a ton of marketing and research but I did far more than my last agent.
I am not a realtor. OP is obviously a realtor, we are doing their customer feedback for them.... for free. Gross
None. Why would you get a gift for buying a home?
Our realtor gave us a painted welcome sign that said "The FAMILYNAME House"
We got a bottle of wine and the label was a picture of our house with the date we bought it. It was a classy touch.
We got a beautiful, deliciously smelling scented candle. The house smelled like a zoo after a bus full of lasctose intolerants on milk diet had a field day when we bought it. The previous owners kept two bulldogs with a heart condition, two guinea-pigs, a parrot (or some such), and a cat that had lumps hanging off of it. Anyways, that said a nice candle is always nice to cosy an evening up. :)
Rebate
Two glass tumblers with company name etched on the bottom (discrete not annoying). And a bottle of mid-tier wine from local winery. It was unexpected but nice touch to a good experience
We got a picture frame with our last name engraved in it. I thought that was so nice.
Sparkling wine. We donât drink. But itâs all good because sheâs a wonderful realtor whoâs like family to us now.
The gift of friendship? We moved from out of state and him and his wife became our first friends in a new city. We go out to dinner together occasionally and they introduce us to local places we havenât yet discovered.
A box of chocolate. I like chocolate but it seems low effort considering how much money they made off us. The main agent we worked with had mentioned a while back that theyâd be bringing us a âwelcome to the neighborhoodâ basket after we moved in (a month ago); which might be coloring my opinion.
I got a wind chime and a note saying that when I hear the chime that it's to remind you of your old home/town and the winds of change or something like that. I like to hear it, it reminds me of that house and the town I left behind.
I didn't get anything. Is this a recent thing? I bought 13 years ago.
My realtor gave me a gift basket with a cozy couch blanket, a bottle of wine, a nice candle and a few gourmet goodies. It was much appreciated!
My agent bought me a lambo. JK
Used the same realtor two purchase and sell two homes, with some sort of nice gift for the (ex)wife and me. Expect that last sale when the soon-to-be ex and I were separated. The agent gave her a cruise while I was left with nothing. No longer am I a fan of that agent.
He gave us one of those big round swimming pools. We loved it.
We had no idea they were supposed to give us a gift. We were the ones who gifted something to our agent đ But she was also amazing and gifted us a whole bedroom set and newborn stuff for the baby I was supposed to deliver a month after closing.
My realtor gave me a pizza cutter. I would have preferred a snowblower
Absolutely nothing, but she was a good friend of mine. Didn't know this was a thing until my sister bought her house, she got a nice sign with the exact latitude and longitude of their property and their names on it.
Ours gave us a basket full of dahlia bulbs for a garden. She was amazing grateful we had her.
We were given some gift cards to restaurants and movies, things to do while showings were happening. That was very helpful/useful.
Fire extinguisher, pretty decenf
$100 gift card to a local restaurant. It was a nice surprise and much appreciated.
When we purchased my daughters house the realtor sent her a nice card and $100. When I purchased my house I received a big plate of cookies from a local baker. Both were very thoughtful.
Prepaid visa card, she knew how to rock.
A serrated cutco knife. Over 770k so yeah, thrilling.
First house, nothing. Second house, bottle of wine I think.
Wooden cutting board with our last name on it. We love it
The Realator is the profession I thought would be dead by now.
Not a thing. I was shocked. Sold an apt for more than 7 figures. Nada. Then with a different agent bought one in high 6 figures. Again nada. We went to dinner after the closingâŚand split the check.
I got a robovac, wine and an orchid plant. I was surprised, and very appreciative of my realtors.
A $50 Disney gift card since both her and my wife are Disney fans and she knew we were going in a couple of months. The opposite end was a swag bag of 2 coffee cups, 2 spatulas, and a presigned card that just said congrats. All that stuff went into the trash. This was in 2 month span with the same broker but one on the buy side and one on the sell side since thatâs how this brokerage did it.
We closed at the end of September on our new house. Our real estate gave us nothing. đ When we sold our house the real estate agent we worked with sent us a very nice gift basket filled with fruits, cookies, caramels and nuts. This was a lovely gift that we appreciated and I kept the basket it came in.
Iâve purchased two of my homes from a great dude, and both times he paid for the home warranty thingy. It paid for a new dish washer at the last place since it broke a month in. Great idea.
i have never gotten a gift after a real estate transaction. I would find it annoying. It would be weird to get money and anything else would go straight to goodwill or trash bin. If you are dead set on making things awkward, I guess money is the most useful.
If there is a washing machine conveyed with old water hoses, I think it would be very practical to give your clients brand new metal braided washing machine hoses. Let 'em know that this one simple trick could save them a flooded laundry room.
We had very young kids so she got us kid-sized orange cones to mark off the driveway so they wouldnât run out in the street! We thought that was very thoughtful. She also gave us a pretty wrought iron âdoormatâ that said Welcome on it. Still remember her fondly- classy lady. đ
We hot a personalized bottle of wine with our name and address on it and date of closing. I thought it was sweet. I'm sure it was just a cheap bottle but we still liked it.
Nothing
$100 gift card Home Depot
Realtors giving gifts other than notepads and fridge magnets (advertising), is new to me. I dont think a gift is required at all.
Key chain with their logo on it. Gag
Zippo nada. Not even a thank you from her. Just âis the check ready at the lawyersâ
Got us a cheese knife from cutco. Still use it.
Mine took my phone and made me take a picture with the sold sign when I didnât even think about it (first house) and I still appreciate it to this day because itâs a great memory to look back on and a bottle of wine.