Alinal and Laura... prior to our relocation, we looked at a new housing development and were told that if we purchased a house without a buyer's agent, we could figure about 2% off the price. We didn't consider buying there for various reasons. We ended up with an relo agent who acted as our buyer's agent. She was helpful since we were new to the area. We were looking at new and resale homes, but ended up with a nearly-finished new construction. I don't know what her commission will be, but I have to say I'm glad we have an agent. We like the builder, but it's nice to have an advocate to iron out wrinkles in the process. Having said that, her personality can be a bit abrasive and gets on my nerves some days which is why I probably wouldn't recommend her. But I'll reserve judgement until I see if she gives us a cool housewarming gift, lol.

We didn't have an agent when we were looking and instead usually just called the listing agent of each home and arranged a showing. One particular agent asked us specifically what we were interested in, what area, and how much $ we wanted to spend and that same week found three homes that met our needs perfectly. Two of the homes sold right out from under us, one deal was made in the driveway while we were inside looking (we're in Katrina country and some homes are selling the same day they're put on the market).

The third home was "the one" and when she phoned in our offer, we learned that another offer had beat ours in by five minutes. She advised us to up our offer over the listing price by $1500, which we did, and we're moving our furniture in tomorrow!

I feel like she went out of her way to scour the listings as soon as the homes went on the market to find us the perfect home and we hadn't even signed an agreement with her! Needless to say, we've chosen her to sell our existing home when we put it on the market in the next couple of weeks.

And yes, she did give us a lovely housewarming/thank you present of a large crystal bowl and some delicious smelling potpourri. Not on a scale as grand as some of the gifts I've read about here, but certainly appropriate considering the homes in our area are much less expensive than some I've seen shared on this board :-)

Bought a 300k house in 1994, agent got us a Tiffany Bud Vase, probably retailed for under 30 back then. We got the feeling she buys them in bulk and hands them out at closing. Her agency got the entire commission since one of her fellow agents was the listing broker

Nope, never heard from my selling agent after we closed. Actually, I had to call her a day or two after closing she was supposed to call the water company and put the new owners' names in the account. Well, she didn't, that's why I had to call her. I bet she was antsy to get rid of me as I was with her.

When we bought our first home in 2000, our agent bought us a basket of goodies with champagne.

Haven't received any gifts being on the selling side, but did get a wine-of-the-month gift from my agent we recently bought through. We then referred him to my BIL who bought, and he gave us a $150 gc to a local eatery.

I thought the wine-of-the-month club was a good idea for the agent, because it reminds me each month what a good job he did for us and I definitely would refer him to others.

Should add we referred her to BIL a few years later, we got a nice card after they bought through her but no gift

I have kind of a funny story about this. A while back, my husband and I sold our home and, at closing, the buyer's agent presented a gift to our buyer, and OUR agent presented a gift to the buyer. We laughed and joked about how come WE didn't get a gift. A few days later, our agent showed up with something for us. A very cheap mantle clock!

This is a fun thread. The best antedote so far has been the one about the Avon Skin So Soft. What was that agent thinking?!?

When we bought/sold a townhome in MD 15-18 years ago, we received pen and ink sketches suitable for framing from both Realtors. I believe one of them was personalized. Not sure where either of them is now, we never had them framed nor did we display them. Not saying that type of gift is a MD thing, just a conincidence, I'm sure!

When we purchased our first home in VA our Realtors gave us a beautiful HUGE cut glass vase that I still use quite often. When we purchased our current home we received a set of Tiffany's candlesticks from the builder and a gift cert to the nicest restaurant near us (may not be saying much as we are in the boonies now!) from the Realtor that was the builder's rep. Nothing from our buyer's agent, though. Hmmm....

Since we haven't sold our previous home yet, I can't say about that transaction. When it finally does sell, I won't care about a gift I will just be so happy that it's all OVER!

I wrote: The best antedote so far
ANTEDOTE?? Obviously I meant ANECDOTE.
sigh....

That's funny...a gift from our realtor? Two years ago we purchased a home from a winner of a realty company. We met her at an open house and started out very honestly telling her that we weren't really sure if we wanted to move or not, but were interested in seeing what's out there, and if we could find what we were looking for we'd move...but we are in not hurry to and we didn't have to move. She was so interested in helping us. I think she showed us a total of 6 - 8 houses over an 11 month period. We asked my parents to come with us to a house we really loved just to get some insight from someone else. The realtor looked at my mom and said "are they ever going to buy a house?" We did buy that particular house, unfortunately with her as our agent. At closing she never showed up (she kept saying she would be there to help with any questions we had. We were actually relieved when she didn't) and her agency charged us several hundred dollars that we were unaware of. The title company went line by line on the closing information and asked if we knew of the charge. She said most people who use them are shocked with this mystery charge and have never been told about it. After we called her, she said it was for all the work that the company does following up daily on our closing and all kinds of things. I told her that was fine but we were never told of a seperate "fee" above and beyond her commission, and if they really did follow the closing each day, we made the appointment to close a week prior...why didn't she know about it? She had no comment and showed up with a check to reimburse us. Obviously I refer people AWAY from her and her agency.

A friend of mine bought a house and her realtor gave her a beautiful set of patio furniture, probably a few thousand dollars worth.

I should've used her realtor. When we bought our house, our buyer's agent had only shown us a few, we actually found the house we bought on our own, through an open house.

So for next to nothing work, he got his commission... and we got nothing! I really was expecting a gift, guess that was naive on my part.

Oh he does send us his yearly little ugly calendar magnet to stick on the fridge with his photo on it... funny how that manages to get dropped in the trash can instead.

We referred a friend to a car dealership where he purchased a car, and the salesman sent us a $50 gc to Olive Garden.

Tokens of appreciation go a long way in my book.

Sher

Nada. Diddley squat. Not even a verbal TY by phone.

I received a good quality set of bowls when I bought my first house.
For the second one, I received a gift card to Home Depot (my realtor knows I like to garden), a 'contractor's price' coupon for an appliance store from the brokerage firm, and two pizzas from my bank! ("to help with moving day")
My realtor also took me out to sign the final papers over a drink (signed BEFORE I took a sip, though :)
Didn't think banks get into gestures like that but, high fees notwithstanding, my bank has decent customer service.

Nothing quite so fancy from our agent..we got a low end CO alarm, a set of baby clothes for our soon-to be born son and a thank you card. sure would have liked the tiffany vases better!

Um, no. Our realtors didn't even show up to our closing when we bought this house. This is our first house we've ever sold, but I kind of doubt that we'll be getting anything as the sellers.

Our buyer's agent bought us our dining room table set (about $500). She made about $18,000 on the deal, which I guess is why we got more than a fruit basket... She also took us out to dinner at our one year house anniversary, and touches base with us regularly. She was a good agent -- I'd recommend her to anyone, which I guess is why she continues to make an effort, even after the fact.

Sold my house last April and paid the selling agent a $68k commission. I don't think I received a "Thank You" let alone a gift.

Purchased a house from an agent where the sellers paid them a $110k commission upon the sale. Guess what? No "thank you" or gift from them either though I don't know if the actual seller recieved anything....

In retrospect a small token of their appreciation might have gone a long way towards making me feel a bit better about the whole transaction.

I told my agent "Thanks for hanging in there". (Many DOM) He said "no ..."Thank You! "This couldn't have happened if it wasn't for YOU" (I lowered the price of the house by almost 20% to make a sale happen in this tough market)

But...I look at it this way...I am where I want to be right now and I am generating additional income from the CDs I bought which makes life a little easier.

We didn't receive a gift from our RE agent on the last sale, but we're still using him this time around. He took a cut in his share of the commission to make the bottom line work and, even more important to me, he arranged to have his handyman take care of all the little piddly jobs that the buyers wanted done. So in addition to the discount, he paid about $1K out of pocket to get the buyers to sign off on all the minor fix-ups and saved me the hassle of finding people to do the jobs.

We used an agent about 10 yrs. ago (in another state) who did the same when we had already transferred. She just took care of everything (in that case, maybe $400 - $500 of repairs) so that I would not have to fly back to deal with it. Afterwards, I gave her name to over a dozen people in the area.

OTOH, the seller's agent (for a builder) left a package in our kitchen containing cleaning supplies, some paper products and pizza coupons. It was all generic/store brands that I don't use, so it was promptly donated.

To quote quirkyquercus: "Nada. Diddley squat. Not even a verbal TY by phone."

Couldn't have said it better myself. And the really sad part is, our "co-realtor" was one of my best friends, who had just gotten her real estate license, was completely inexperienced, and we took a huge risk by giving her her first listing ever, just to help her out.

BTW, I am still friends with her (can't say the best friends moniker still applies), and I've never said a word. But believe me, it hurt my feelings tremendously that she took that check in a heartbeat but never, ever uttered the words "thank you for taking a chance on me" or something to that effect.

Her mentor and "co-realtor," however, had many years of experience, and should have known better.

Obviously, I'm not referring these realtors to anyone else. There were many mistakes made during the time on market, especially in the early, most crucial weeks after listing the house. What goes round comes round.

We didn't get anything. Actually, the realtor when we bought our first house presented us with the photographs (4x6 snapshots) they took to market the house. Great. That's a gift???

I was quite jealous to learn later that another realtor in the same office hired an artist to sit outside for a few hours and sketch a picture of the home just bought. It made a beautiful wall hanging for the new owners.

I think realtors should do something for both buyers and sellers--the process is so stressful, why not leave clients with a good feeling about you rather than a "good riddance" feeling.

Many years ago, when we bought our first home (FSBO) the sellers left us 2 chanpagne glass and a bottle of champagne along with some pretty kitchen towels. It was so thoughtful and they knew how excited we were about getting that home.

My husband lost a friend when we bought our first house. We bought new construction, and he adviced us not to ask for anything while the listing agent told us to ask for fridge, window screens, washer/dryer instead of going low on the price. Once we faxed the paperwork in, listing agent called us in to sign 'cause we missed some. She even said that she never saw messt paperwork like that. Not to mention that we found the house, and it took him forever to get there. Once the offer is accepted, he disappeared. We couldn't close on time, and our stuff were out on the street waiting to move in, we called him, and he was taking vacation in California w/o letting us know. So the listing agent has to make an arrangement for us to move in 3 days earlier. 1 month later, he left a msg asking to show his client my house 'cause they were looking at the same floor plan, of course I didn't return phone call. 3 months later, I saw another friend walking down the street, she recently moved in. She used him as well and told me that he didn't remember which one is our house when she asked him so she can pay a visit. Too much for a full time, full commission agent...

And you know what, it doesn't end there. My brother-in-law listed his house for sale, and this agent showed up w/ his client 2 hours late. Since my brother-in-law knew what happened to us, and that he was late, he didn't let them in...

Eventhough agent makes a pretty decent living, I still feel like I owe them something when they are nice to me. Awkward isn't it?

When we bought our first (and current) house, we got nothing. I got the distinct impression that the whole transaction was a burden to our realtor.

Now that *I are one* (a realtor, that is), it my SOP that EVERYONE gets a gift. I just had a closing yesterday, and I bought cards and gifts for the other realtor, the escrow officer and her assistant, and the buyers (my clients). It takes all of those people to see a transaction through successfully, and there's no way I could have done it without all of them.

The buyers got a gift card to Lowes.
The escrow agent/assistant and the other realtor got a small gift card for "lunch on me" with a thank you card.

I sent big fancy foodie gift baskets to our lawyer and our listing realtor, because the whole experience was traumatic (crazy divorcing sellers, took 6 months to close) and they both really helped keep both deals alive. Each called to say thank you, and the realtor said "I'm supposed to send YOU a gift!".

We didn't have an agent for our purchase (different state than our sale), but the sellers' agent gave us a gift (I think because we hung in there and he finally got his commission). He gave us a beautiful conch shell and a copy of The Money Pit, one of my favorite movies. It was really nice of him, I wasn't expecting it.

No, our realtor didn't even say thank you, let alone give us a gift. I'm sure he was mad that we forced him to be a good realtor when he wanted to be a lazy realtor, but oh well. We didn't go into it trying to make a friend.

But you would think when you're selling a $725K home for 6% commission that the realtor would at least say thank you on the phone after you give him all that money, eh?

I think regardless of if your purchasing a $100,000 house or a million dollar house, a $50 gift certificate to either a restaurant or Home Depot/Lowes or a nice bottle of wine is nothing compared to the few thousands (or few hundred thousands) they are are getting from our purchasing/selling through them. When you have a home party (pampered chef, candles, spa party), the hostess leaves you with a nice "thank you" gift...a small candle, lotions...something and they've probably only made a $200 profit if that!!! A "thank you" can go a long way too...we didn't even get that. My children have more manners than my realtor did...

We have heard from homeowners regarding how a little thankyou gift goes a long way- now from the realtors: why or why not do you thank your sellers/buyers?

When we bought our house, neither realtor gave us nor our sellers anything, PLUS the sellers' agent couldn't even bother to be there. He did stop by later (when we were moving in) to pick up his sign, and never even said "Hi" as we stood there in our new front yard, looking at him. The buyers' agent couldn't be rid of us fast enough (I think she was angry because we asked her to take a few more pictures of the house. There were only three, and we were moving from 15 hours away, and could not visit before the purchase.) But that didn't stop her from inviting herself in, UNANOUNCED, a month later "to see what we had done with the place"!!!!

"When we bought our house, neither realtor gave us nor our sellers anything, PLUS the sellers' agent couldn't even bother to be there."
I'm curious, be there for what? Where? When?

skatermom said "now from the realtors: why or why not do you thank your sellers/buyers?"

Absolutely! Why thank them?
Because I consider it a privledge that they would trust me to coordinate such an important event in their lives. Because I really am thankful for them and I want them to be aware of that. Because I really like what I do and without them, I can't do what I like!

I choose gifts with them in mind- what their hobbies are, what they enjoy, their favorite thing about the house, who they are, where they are in their lives. Exactly like I choose gifts for the other important people in my life- friends, family, co-workers. I start getting ideas of what to get them very early on in the process and love finding the perfect thank you/congratulations gift.

I never got a thank you gift from my realtor; only good service and professional care till the end, including closing. I would not hesitate to recommend him.

I'm surprised to read all of the above; those gifts are really important and make a difference; most people expect them I guess.

As the seller, my gift to the buyer is an impeccably clean home and a kitchen candle with a welcome note, or something to that effect.

We got a cheesy afghan -type furniture throw with the realtor's name prominently embroidered in the corner- which makes it pretty useless for any purpose other than my dogs' bedding. I can't really complain, as it's more than I expected.
We were low-maintenance clients, no hand-holding. The house sold itself in 18 days at full price.

CMarlin, I meant that the sellers' agent wasn't at the closing. Sorry!

Oh my gosh...some of these are just too much! Skin So Soft and an advertising afghan??? LOL! Please....keep them coming. This is a study in what to do/what not to do!

I try to tailor my gifts to the situation. For my friend, she bought a house and LOVED that the shower curtain and window treatments matched. We asked for the shower curtain to stay, but it was a family gift, so the sellers didn't want to leave it. I did some research and found her one exactly the same and bought it for her. It wasn't very expensive, but this was her first house after a divorce, and I knew she wouldn't have the time/money/desire to track down a shower curtain, but it really "made" the bathroom. She *still* thanks me for that.

I bought one client a garden statuary, as the house she was buying had the cutest little garden. She almost cried when I gave it to her!

I bought another first time homebuyer a gift card to Lowes. You always need weird new things when you first move in, and I wanted to lessen her load for moving in.

I'll admit, I've not done much for my sellers. I guess I was following tradition too much by buying the buyers gifts. That changed after this week reading this thread. They'll now get a nice gift card as well.

For folks that send me referrals, I enter them into my "Taste of the Town" referral reward program. Every time they send me a name, I send them a gift card to a very nice local eatery.

The house we just bought had tons of work that needed to be done. Our agent gave us a $1000 gift card to Home Depot.
She still sends me Christmas gifts and takes turns paying for meals out. I talk to her several times a week. She watches my kids when we need someone.
Of course she is my mother(legally step mom, but in all other ways a real mom to me).
I do know she usually gets something nice, but not quite as nice as what she got us, for the people she worked with.
Of course I have to put up with phone calls telling me she has found me the perfect house, knowing we have no intention of moving. But now that I think about it we said that while we were living in our old house.....

I remember watching a home show where the Realtor gave her clients a puppy at closing. She had gotten close to the family and knew they were looking to buy a puppy anyway. I thought that was sweet (maybe done for the cameras) but the family did buy a million dollar home.
We've always gotten gift cards for $100 at a big box store and/or a nice resturant. One realtor also sent fresh flowers every Christmas. This is from our agent only. We've never gotten anything from the other party's agent. I hate the calendars and magnets, though.

"CMarlin, I meant that the sellers' agent wasn't at the closing. Sorry!"
A little OT, but maybe you are miffed for no reason. I've never heard of a listing agent being at a closing, was the seller at the closing? Closing to me is you signing all your docs for your purchase, the seller has already signed away the house. Here in CA, the buyer agent isn't there either, just the escrow officer.
BTW, I do gets lots of calendars every year from past agents.

When I purchased my 9 year old home last month, my realtor had all the carpeting cleaned and all nail holes professionally fixed beautifully. The walls are perfect. Some of the carpet still needs to be replaced. She also left a nice fall flower arrangement of dried foliage in a ceramic cornucopia.

My agent sold our house and found us our new one. She gave us a gift card to Crate and Barrel. Nice lady. We still talk occasionally.

cmarlin,
Here, our closings are attended by all parties (or their representatives). Buyers may arrive first, since they have so much signing to do. Eventualy, though, both realtors and the buyers and sellers gather around a table with the title company rep. Sometimes you learn interesting factoids about your new house. When I bought my first house in Michigan, the father of the husband signed for the selling couple. He told me how he had once walked in to find his son just finishing up a coat of bright yellow paint in the sun room. He told his son that the color would be unbearable in the afternoon sun, and had him paint a lighter blue over it. That explained how it came to be periwinkle!

When we closed on the house we now live in a year ago, we heard how the owner had raised his son in the house. his son was finishing pharmacy school that year.

one thing my mom, a realtor, always gives her buyers and/or sellers, depending on who she's representing in the sale, is one of those Entertainment coupon books for the area. if someone is new to town, they love it, or if you've even new to the specific neighborhood across town it's a nice way to explore new restaurants. plus, she buys them in bulk and they're pretty inexpensive.

she typically tries to find bulk gifts on sale that appear more expensive. one time there was a closeout sale on breadmakers for $30 each. that was about eight years ago when everyone didn't already have a breadmaker. She bought about 20 and gave one to every customer after the closing. they loved it.

I have to vent. As I posted above, we are new to an area, having relocated here from San Diego. Our San Diego agent hooked us up with a "relocation specialist" who acted as our buyer's agent. She did an adequate job in a transaction that was relatively painless for everyone. I'm here to report back that we received NOTHING. I mean, not even a follow-up phone call asking if we got moved in okay. She left the closing table with her commission check and that was that. Honestly, I don't care about a gift. But it really irks me that she never even called. And she's a RELOCATION SPECIALIST. So at the very least, I would've expected her to follow-up and see if we had any questions on the area. ZIP NADA NOTHING. Not a peep.

End of rant. Thanks for listening :)

I am really liking this site. I learned so much from all this. I, too, have never heard of gifts being given to the sellers. That is, however, a great idea and one I intend on doing. My husband is in the military, so I have to start from scratch in real estate every time we move. I need ideas to get people to do business with me. So, the first listing I get, I will make sure to get the sellers a nice gift.

Last property I bought, agent got a $45k commission, no thank you or gift. I wasn't expecting a $1000 gift certificate, but I think a decent bottle of wine or fruit basket would have been nice. Plus, this agent was a pain in the @ss, almost killed the deal on a couple of occasions.

I think if I were a realtor I'd have a very good floral arrangement delivered after they moved in, something in the $300 range. I also liked the idea of an artist's sketch of the new home.

I knew someone was selling, and put him together with another agent I had worked with. She got a $58k commission on that one, solely because I had hooked her up with that guy. $58k for about 10 hours work is a pretty good payout (it was a very easy sale). I did not expect to share in the commission, but a small gift would have been nice. I'm not going to connect her with potential sellers in the future.

On second thought, if someone handed me a $58k commission on a silver platter that I earned with about 10 hours work, I'd send them to Hawaii all expenses paid.

fredwolf, lol... an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii. I'm sure you deserved it :)

cpowers21... ya know, whether I'm the buyer or the seller, it would be nice to receive at least a thank you card from my agent. Something to put a warm fuzzy out there and give closure to the "relationship" part of the transaction. I wonder how many agents lose possible referrals because they just didn't have the class or experience to know that a follow-up is the professional thing to do, be it a phone call, a card or a gift.

cpowers21 wrote: I, too, have never heard of gifts being given to the sellers.

It seems strange that the seller would not (usually) receive some kind of material acknowledgement from the agent since historically the seller has been the one paying the Realtors' (sometimes very large) commission.

I have been a seller only once (so far!) but did receive a beautiful painted ceramic vase that I still use often. (I got this mixed up when I posted before, one of the pen and ink drawings was actually from my Realtor and one was from the title company, on the same transaction when my h and I were the buyers.)

Nope, nada, zip...

My husband nearly begged me to sell our house "by owner". We hired a friend of a friend to list the property. What a mistake. Seems like he found a hundred reasons it was ok for agents to bend the rules while, as sellers, we had to stick to the rules like glue.

Oh, don't get me started!!! I have vowed to never ever use a real estate agent again. It ain't brain surgery.

yeah, I didn't expect a gift, either, but a thank you would have been nice considering that we gave the realtor a $44K commission. (well, okay, so he only got half of that since he had to split it. but still, $22K is a lotta dough for seven weeks on the market and maybe the equivalent of 2-3 days worth of work total. and I'm being generous in that estimate of work!)

obviously, since we were moving out of state he didn't see us for potential future sales but that was stupid of him considering we have, oh, about 150 family members in the area who will be buying and selling homes.

I think he didn't like us because we actually made him work more than his other clients. Such as asking him to do open houses and calling him to follow up after he'd promised offers that didn't materialize.

god forbid he actually work for his $22K.