July 9th, 2013 12:28 PM by Gregg Mower
The question I raise in the Real Estate/Mortgage Business is a simple one. Do consumers prefer to be at a one stop shop where they can get their Real Estate needs, Mortgage needs, Insurance needs, Energy Efficiency needs, Alarms, TV ,Cable, cell services all sold to them from one person? It sure sounds convenient, especially to a first time home buyer where they might not know where to get the services or that they could be provided for cheaper. In today’s ever changing world we are constantly looking for bargains and ways to be more efficient with our time. So why not look at Buying home differently than ever before. Your parents may have bought the home you were raised in 20-30 years ago or more and at the time they used a Real Estate Agent to find them their home negotiated the transaction and probably referred them to a Mortgage Loan officer to do their loan. When it came time to install an Alarm system on their home they called a company they have seen or heard of on TV or the Radio. Their cable was just what was provided in their area, and their cell service they have had since Cell phones came out. When it came time to make their house more energy efficient by installing more insolation, or replacing the old Air Conditioner, windows, or even adding Solar they probably used many companies to provide this for them. What if all they need to do was to call their Real Estate Agent every time they had a need for their home?
This is a concept we are trying to get off the ground. The foundation is the Real Estate itself. Why should a Real Estate Agent be proficient in only finding homes to sell? In today’s world with all the technology and the access to different networks an Agent can be trained in many different areas of service providing, and more importantly an Agent can point their clients in the right direction for service providers in that market place. There are now so many different service providers out there it is sometimes tough to choose the right one for your particular needs.
In a perfect world when a home buyer or an existing home owner goes to purchase or finance their home they should be exposed to services that can come with their home. A good Agent should suggest an energy audit on the home that is generally free. This will expose what the energy bills will be on the home they are buying or for existing home owners it will expose ways to make the home more efficient thus being able to save on their monthly energy bill if they did some inexpensive things to the home or even putting solar on the house and eliminating the bill all together with little or no money out of their pocket. Or when they are financing the home they could use an Energy Efficient Mortgage to do those improvements. Your Agent could also check your current TV service, internet, cell, home alarm system and bundle all this and lower the total bill so that maybe the installation of an alarm system becomes free from the savings. This concept is becoming more prevalent and is saving our client hundreds of dollars a month by simply asking their Loan officer, or Real Estate Agent if they have any suggestions. Yes the Agent will receive a commission from this but the service providers will pay the Agent and provide the services cheaper than the mainstream sources. But by doing so the Agent can negotiate better deals for the client as he or she can reduce the overall commissions and the consumer will get all the premium services from mainstream providers for a reduced monthly fee as the provider is not having to pay for store frontage and additional overhead. This is the future of most services and if a consumer looks for these bundles they can save thousands over time and use that money to pay off their mortgage sooner or get that much needed life insurance policy for the family.