Finding the perfect real estate closing gifts for every buyer and seller client you work with isn’t easy. That said, if you get it just right, you will not only have a referral source for the next few months, but you could create an evangelist of your services for life...
The tricky part isn’t figuring out what your client wants, we include that at the end of the article. It’s finding gifts that are personal but not too personal, have meaning but not too much meaning, and remind your clients not only that you care, but that you’re THE local expert they can rely on for decades to come.
1. A Custom House History Poster or Book
As someone who lives in a turn of the century industrial space, I can relate to why so many of us put up with drafty windows, dodgy electrical systems, and plumbing from the stone age.
For most of us, our love of historic homes is more of an addiction than a preference…
If your listing an historic home, then offering your buyers a custom researched and designed house history is like giving a junky a gram of heroin. They don’t just want it, they NEED it.
Painstakingly researched and professionally designed by companies like Brownstone Detectives in Manhattan and Brooklyn and Once Upon a Home in New Orleans house histories are the one gift your buyer will not only keep, but treasure.
Speaking of treasure, house histories are not exactly what you would call cheap. Since they are so labor intensive to make, they start at around $750 and climb all the way to $5000 depending on how far back you want the history to go and the production of the book or poster.
While that might be a bit too rich for many Realtors looking for closing gifts, you can always have the book created as a marketing piece to help sell the home and chalk it up as a marketing expense!
2. A Wishing House
What gives a lucky rabbit’s foot its sentimental value? The answer of course, is the wishes and dreams of the person who owns it.
Wishing Houses, handcrafted by Brooklyn-based jewelry designer Brauna Rosen, allow you to send your client a gift that already has sentimental value.
Here’s how it works:
Your client gets an adorable cast pewter Wishing House along with a handwritten wish from you. They then put the Wishing House in their own home and then send a Wishing House back to you, or send a new Wishing House on to a friend of loved one who needs some moral support.
Best of all, at only $24 per Wishing House and wish shipped, they’re affordable enough to send out to all your clients during the holidays as a heartfelt personal keepsake.
3. A Shaggy Swag Gift Box Subscription
Let’s face it, today’s pampered pooches live better than we did as kids! Well, maybe not, but pets have slowly become a focal point in many people’s lives and for good reason. Taking care of a pet offers health benefits for owners, not to mention possibly saving a life for the furry little rascals.
If your client is a certified dog mommy or daddy then they’ll absolutely love the unique and fun items they’ll get from the Shaggy Swag gift box. Instead of boring old bones, their little fur monsters get high quality toys, treats and essentials.
The best part of these subscriptions is that even if your client deletes your phone number right after closing you get to feel good about keeping a little four legged friend happy for an entire year. 😊
4. A Consultation With a Local Landscape Designer
If there’s one home decorating area where even a lot of design snobs are at a loss, it’s landscaping. As a result, many homeowners just skip it, not realizing just how dramatic of an effect a well designed yard can have on their home.
That’s why an hour or so consultation with a professional landscape designer can be a great closing gift idea for newer homeowners. It’s something they might not think about that can have a huge impact in how their home looks and feels.
5. An Ecovacs Deebot N79S Robotic Vacuum
While an ordinary vacuum is a downright insulting gift for most people, (think of the message you’re sending!) a robotic vacuum will make your tech geek clients grin like little kids at christmas.
The only problem of course, is that these things were priced like unobtanium up until now. Today, you can get a well reviewed robotic vacuum that sync with Amazon’s Alexa, has an app, and even charges itself when the battery runs out, all for around $230.
If your client is more of a brand snob, you can upgrade them to the original Irobot Roomba for a little under $300. Still a great bargain for a gift that ticks both the useful and neato boxes that most gifts can’t.
6. The Nest Hello Smart Doorbell
In 2018 even doorbells are smart. The Nest Hello Smart is one of the best. Buy this as a real estate closing gift for your new homeowner and they will be able to see who’s at the door from their phone and never miss a package or visitor again.
Even better, like Nest’s namesake thermostat, it’s well designed enough to complement pretty much any exterior decor.
7. Use Evabot’s AI to Get Them What They REALLY Want
Evabot is a cool new AI service that contacts your client, then asks them a series of questions that determine what kind of gift will suit them best. The benefit here is that people might clam up when you ask, but will gladly spill the beans to EvaBot!
Want to learn more? Check out EvaBot here.
8. A Fully Planned & Paid for Evening Out
While buying your clients an experience rather than an object is always recommended, sometimes your gift of a night out can be more of a chore than welcome respite from moving. Think about it. If they have kids they need to hire a sitter, if they want to drink they need to order an Uber etc. etc.
If you really want to impress your former clients, set up a dinner at a local restaurant and make sure you cover ALL the annoying details that make nights out an obligation rather than a treat. You should at the very least, make a reservation and tell the restaurant to expect them, send the restaurant a custom cake or bottle of wine, arrange for a sitter, and most importantly, arrange for an Uber XL to take them to and from dinner in style.
Trust me, your clients will be singing your praises for years if you get this right!
9. A Gift Certificate to a Local Nursery
While most people like house plants and small trees, people who love them are generally pretty particular. Some plant lovers collect succulents while others prefer hanging plants or perennials. That makes picking out a nice plant as a closing gift a tricky proposition. If you want to make sure your plant loving client is happy, a gift certificate is the way to go.
Like the other closing gift ideas on this list that come from local business owners, make sure to try and form a relationship with the owner before buying the gift certificate. If they’re greeted warmly by a store owner who speaks well of you, you come across as a well connected local rather than just someone they completed a transaction with.
10. A Local Cooking Class
The perfect closing gift for your foodie clients, a gift certificate to a unique local cooking class can be a fun gift for anyone really. Even better, if you work in a major city you can find classes at all levels of experience and intensity.
For example a bachelor first time homeowner might genuinely appreciate a cookery 101 course while a die hard foodie might get a lot out of a butchery or advanced knife skills class.
Again, knowing your client’s interests is key to great closing gift giving!
11. A Custom House Portrait That Guest Stars Your Client’s & Pet
Image via ivyillustrations on Etsy
While a custom house portrait makes a generally pretty safe (and great) closing gift, why not go the extra mile and include the happy couple and their pet? This way you can turn something that’s fairly personal into something they may even cherish for decades.
The trick is to find a talented artists who can really capture the spirit of your clients and their new home. Some artistic license (and some Facebook snooping) will ensure your closing gift is heartfelt and truly personalized.
12. Offer 7 Star Service in a 3 Star Industry
Jay O’Brien aka the AntiRealtor, came up with a strategy that not only allowed him to NEVER have to prospect for leads again (!!) but also win Inman’s coveted Most Innovative Real Estate Agent of the year award for 2018.
O’Brien and his new company Client Giant offer their clients service that is truly memorable and creates not only referrals, but evangelists for life. Here’s what their closing and closing gift process looks like:
- Bottle of wine or gift basket is delivered to client’s current residence with handwritten note at contingency removal – this is to congratulate client that the hard part is over and they can now relax
- Forwarding of address is handled by us
- Transfer of utilities is handled by us
- Electronic file with all documents signed during transaction are sent via Dropbox
- Handyman shows up on moving day as a surprise to client and is available for 2 hours to help with just about anything
- Gardener arrives at home a few days after move-in date and mows/hedges lawn
- One week after closing, mobile car wash goes out to client(s) home/office and details car after going through the move (gratuity included)
- Four weeks after closing, 5-Star restaurant calls client to congratulate them and says I will be sending the clients to dinner on a night of their choice and transportation is provided (this information is communicated back to my assistant and Uber is scheduled to/from establishment)
Best of all, Client Giant’s services start at only $9.99 per client, per month, and your money is refunded if your deal doesn’t close.
13. A Well Curated Case of Wine
While wine of the month clubs are a dime a dozen these days, they tend to be a little bit overpriced, and getting a FEDEX box with wine once a month is pretty impersonal. Instead, work with a local wine shop to curate a sampling of wine for many different occasions.
If you work with the right shop, they will happily provide you with in-depth descriptions of the origin, tasting notes, and pairing for each bottle they sell.
Once again, the point here is not to prove your oenophile bonafides, but to show your client that you’re a local expert who is a fixture in the local community. The owner of the wine store will love you and so will your client. What more could you ask for?
14. A Local Experience They’ll Never Forget
If your clients are a bit on the daring side, why not treat them to a heart racing local experience they’ll never forget? Depending on where you work, you might be able to get them skydiving lessons, horse riding lessons, parasailing lessons or something even more unique.
15. A Gift Card to a Local Coffee Shop or Tab at a Local Pub
A gift card to a well reviewed local coffee shop or bar can be a great way to give your buyers a nudge into becoming locals. First, if you have a relationship with the owners, you can make sure they are warmly welcomed, which anyone brand new to a neighborhood will appreciate. Second, you give them an easy way to start a routine and meet new friends in the neighborhood.
Just make sure to get to know your clients well before buying them something like this. A teetotaler will not take kindly to getting a tab at a bar as a closing gift.
16. A Gift Certificate to a Local Antique Store
If your clients are moving into a vintage home, then a gift certificate to a local antique shop is a no brainer. Even if they don’t find that perfect piece right away, they’ll likely form a relationship with the owners that will ensure pleasant browsing for years to come.
This is a win/win in anyone’s book. You get your local shop owner a potential lifetime customer, and you show your client that you really understand what they really value.
17. Something to Make a Transplant Feel Welcome
Let’s face it, moving to a new city across the country or even around the world can be intimidating. You don’t know anyone and feeling truly at home isn’t easy for a lot of people. If you’re dealing with transplant clients one of the best closing gifts you can get them is a local experience that helps them feel at home.
For example, if your client just moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, then get them surfing lessons. If they moved from India to Cape Cod, then a day of whale watching will help your client get excited about the unique spirit of their new home.
Just remember that closing gifts like this don’t have to be super serious. They can be lighthearted or even corny. The idea is to provide a unique local experience that will turn your clients into instant evangelists for your services!
18. A Gift Certificate to a Local Florist
If your client loves fresh flowers, then a gift certificate to a local florist can make a great closing gift. As a rule of thumb, try and go for a florist that’s a little more high end than your clients may normally buy from. This way your gift will be seen as a treat rather than something they might have bought on their own anyway.
19. A Consultation With a Local (or Online) Interior Designer
Image via Havenly
If there is one luxury that even relatively wealthy people skip out on, it’s hiring an interior designer. After all, it just seems so… decadent. Of course interior designers work in all flavors and and at most price points. They can also actually save you money, because they can arrange or rearrange furniture you may already own to work better.
In many ways, that makes an interior designer the perfect closing gift. It’s something useful, decadent, and something most people wouldn’t dream of hiring themselves.
If you want to go local, then Yelp would be a good place to start looking. Or, you can pre book time with an online interior design consultant using a service like Havenly.
The WORST Closing Gifts for Buyers and Sellers 2018
Now that we’ve gone through some thoughtful and memorable closing gift ideas that have the best chance of turning clients into lifetime evangelists, let’s look at some of the gifts that send the opposite message, or maybe worse, no message at all. 😕
1. A Bottle of Wine (or Anything) With Your Face on it
Here’s a little secret about wine. Study after study has shown that even so called “experts” can barely taste the difference between expensive wine and two buck chuck. That means that branding and presentation platy a huge role in how people perceive the quality of wine.
How do people perceive the quality of “Jane Realtor: Congrats on Your Move!” wine with a poorly designed label with your headshot on it? Unless you’re personally well renowned for running a winery, chances are lower than supermarket wine.
That is if they ever even drink it. Seriously. Do you think they’re going to break open free wine with your picture on it for dinner with friends? Can you imagine a scenario where you do that without feeling cheap or laughing?
Worse, this is the most obvious and desperate looking strategy to stay top of mind on the planet. Was your deal so dull and uneventful that you think your client is actually going to forget your name?!
2. Kitchen Gadgets: Wine Openers, Cutting Boards, Knives, etc.
As I’m writing this, I can think of at least a dozen dubious kitchen gadgets, cheapo knives, or extra useless kitchen stuff collecting dust in my kitchen cabinets. I have never and will never use any of this stuff except maybe as trade goods after the zombie apocalypse, but I just can’t throw it out.
So there it sits. Ignored. Sadly collecting dust.
I hate to break it to you, but if you think your kitchen gadget or branded knives closing gifts are going to suffer a different fate you’re sadly mistaken.
3. A Home Depot or Lowes Gift Certificate
While a home center gift certificate isn’t the worst gift you could give someone, it does subtly signal that you’ve kind of given up. This is the equivalent of your uncle giving you a $100 for christmas as a kid. Awesome, but your parents got you that thing you REALLY wanted…
4. Dinner or Lunch WITH YOU
Have you ever been invited somewhere and just KNEW you were being set up for a sales pitch? How did it make you feel? Happy? Thankful? Did you just accept to be polite? Did you look forward to going or dread it? How do you think your client feels?
5. Furniture or Anything BIG
Just stop and think about this one for a minute. What are the odds of you picking out something your clients will both love, and not already have? Yeah sure, that end table is REALLY adorable, but what if your client thinks it’s cloying and cheesy? The same goes for pillows, ottomans, lamps, or anything else that won’t get hung on a wall.
How to Figure Out What Gift Will Increase the Odds of Your Client Becoming Your Evangelist
A five star Zillow review is great and all, but your goal as an agent is to build a referral network that will eventually eclipse your lead generation efforts. That means you need to really get to know your clients.
Not easy of course, but very worthwhile and can even be fun. Here’s how to strategically figure out the best closing gift for your buyer or seller client.
1.Stalk Their Social Media Accounts (or Have Your Virtual Assistant do it)
Okay, I know. You feel a little creepy snooping around on your client’s social media to figure out what gift they will respond to best. Don’t! First of all it’s 2018 and everyone from grandma’s to school teachers check people out on social media. Second, you client will be much happier if you get them something they actually want!
2. Have the Gift in Mind, Then Ask Strategic Questions to See if it Will Fit
Getting to know your clients personally is great and all, but remember the goal here is to figure out how well they will respond to a specific gift. For example, you might get your client talking about how nervous they are to move to your city. That means a gift of a unique local experience might be ideal to help them get acclimated and become part of the local community.
From there you can drill down further and see what their hobbies and interests are to get even more specific with your gift. If you’re thinking of buying them a skydiving package, then it would help to know that they’re afraid of heights!
Our Take on Great Real Estate Closing Gifts
Great closing gifts are personal, thoughtful, and remind you client that you are the local real estate expert they can rely on for years to come. Choose carefully by getting to know your clients well and you might help create an evangelist for life!
Excellent post as always. I really like the way you explained how the good closing gifts are good and how the bad ones are bad. And yes, I agree with you that maintaining a good relationship with clients definitely goes a long way.
Hey Paige,
Glad you liked the article and hope your fall is off to a great start! Gift buying can be tricky business, but getting it right can go a long way toward getting a referral.
I disagree with the cutting board. I’ve give one a few times that was personalized and custom etched with their last name, initial and short house warming quote. It’s displayed on a stand. Looks beautiful and the clients loved them.
Hey Jim,
If it works for you then at the end of the day you should make that decision for yourself. If you know your clients and their tastes then you can and should get something like a custom cutting board if you think they’ll enjoy it.
I have to disagree with the Home Depot gift card, purely because I sold a 100+ yr old home to first time homeowners and they are over the moon to renovate (the spouse is pretty much the equivalent to Bob Vila). I purchased a HD gift card and then had something custom made for their front porch. I went to the historical society to see if their home had a file, as my “Plan A” was to get a copy of the original exterior of their home and have it framed for their wall. No such luck. 🙁 This gift was my “Plan B”. Home Depot cards aren’t terrible, especially if they are doing the renovation themselves and plan on living in the home as their primary residence. (my opinion)
Oh I agree 100%! A Home Depot card is not a bad idea at all, but it’s also not the BEST idea as far as making an impact and offering something memorable. One way to make a gift card work better is to offer a nice heartfelt letter along with the card. This can be an amazing gift if you know they are trying to get renovations done on their own!
During one of our property tours my client asked if the balance-ball chair would come with the house because he loved it so much (we wound up not getting that property, found a better one). So, I’ve ordered that same balance ball chair as a gift to him as a closing gift. Just like gift giving to family and friends, it’s important to listen to get clues. My client also mentioned how he wanted to find a massage place in the area so I’m also considering giving a certificate for a massage as well…but frankly, worried if that would come across as an inappropriate gift. Seems more like something to give to a family member/spouse. Your thoughts?
Yeah, that’s actually pretty great. You should think of buying a gift for a client as if you were buying a gift for a friend with just a little more thought. The chair is a great idea because it shows that you are not only paying attention to your client as a person and not just a dollar sign, but that chair will more than likely turn into a talking point for your client if they haven’t used one before. “I just started using a balance ball chair that my Realtor bought for me”… Great idea!
Emile, I like your article. There are many things I agree with and a few I don’t. I am a gifting strategist to the real estate industry, so this is kind of in my wheelhouse.
What I tell my own clients is, “Think about WHY you are giving a gift. What is your goal for the relationship after the transaction has closed. If you simply want to say ‘Thanks’, any ol’ gift will do. But, if you want to express gratitude, generate referrals, and earn repeat business you gotta be strategic in your gifting.”
So what does a good strategy look like? It’s pretty simple really. You must Surprise and Delight. When I receive a present for my birthday or a card at Christmas I am most appreciative, but hardly surprised. A lot of realtors are what we call ABC Gifters. That is, they only give gifts on Anniversaries, Birthdays, and Christmas. Where’s the surprise? Your gift is mingled in with about 100 others your client just received.
Think about this however…grilling set on Labor Day. What?!?!? You’ve NEVER given a gift on Labor Day? Guess what, nobody has!
Would that be a Surprise? Now kick it up a bit and get that bad boy personalized with custom engraving. Now we’re hitting the Delight Button!
But there is more to strategic gifting than simply impressing the client. You want a return on your investment too. You want those gifts to work for you. Realtors, if you’re going to spend the money, spend it wisely.
Hey Jason,
I think you hit the nail on the head there. “Surprise and delight” is great gift giving advice when buying for pretty much anyone.
How do you gift if you barely know the client? If they bought the 1st house they saw and the entire process went so quickly that you couldn’t get a good feel for the client, then how do you gift? Seriously going nuts over these gifts for them because I can’t figure out a good gift that anyone would enjoy.
Hey Jason,
This is a tricky one. One way to tackle gifting for people you don’t know very well is to buy something that’s regional. Local maps or paintings/drawings of their new home are pretty safe bets. You can also try using something like Evabot, but that can come across as a little impersonal when they might think you should know them better!
How do you feel about a water bottle with your logo on it? Will the client appreciate and use it because it is functional or will they treat it like an add and not use it because it is branded?
Hi Brandon, frankly I think handing someone a water bottle after a six figure transaction that will most likely be the biggest in you client’s life is a little bit insulting. That, and I generally think that giving them anything with your logo on it is a little bit rude. Think about it. How would you like it if your dad bought you a birthday present with his face on it? A gift should be about them, not you.