On this Storii Time, Saad and Mike chat about what happens after the close…making sure new homeowners are able to celebrate their big life moment through co-hosting housewarmings. 🏡
Saad: Alright.
Mike: I think one thing is clear. This medium is going to be phased out and we’re going to find a new medium. Yes. I think that’s the evidence of this entire thing.
Saad: Or we just get together and do it in one place so we don’t have to worry about connecting each other at the same time. We can do that.
Mike: Yeah, we need to get guests and everything. We’re gonna, I’m gonna, I don’t like this, but anyway, here we are again.
Mike: So, to quickly, the gist of what your question was…I think one of our pillars is building community around us and you have to actually like put in the manpower and go out and meet people. And this is the most, like high efficiency, potent, whatever way of doing so, of helping a client not only find a place, but like we’re also gonna be at you, be with you at the beginning of the journey when you’re getting to know the neighborhood and the neighbors and you wanna celebrate with your friends and family. And we wanna acknowledge this as a huge accomplishment for you, so we’re gonna help you….
Mike: I’ve had clients who’ve thrown housewarming parties that really probably wouldn’t have done it without our nudging. You could speak to that and just making it fun. Not to mention it’s like a reward for us too, because we get to like party with our clients that just bought the house. We get to be part of that, like a celebration of actually getting it.
Saad: I think it’s like you just alluded to it. It’s a moment, it’s that moment of delight, right? It’s a huge moment in that person’s life. And we’re talking about a relationship, like for them to, that opportunity where you can be involved in that moment of delight, not just in terms of getting the transaction to the finish line, but also in that celebratory phase, is a huge deal. Right? And it’s a great opportunity for a real estate agent to share in that, build even a stronger relationship with the client. And then, obviously, the bonus is you get to meet their friends, their family, things like that. So I think for us to be involved and also just tell them, look, this is your party. Right? We’ll do everything. We’ll cover the cost for it and all that kind of stuff and we can get into that in a little bit But it’s your party, you tell us kind of like what you want, how you want to do it, things like that and we’ll make it happen. With clients, we want to be memorable. You know even after that so uh so it’s a great way for us to do that.
Saad: We can talk about towards the end of the call around like you know what that looks like and how we do that and you know we’ve only done a few them to this point. Yeah, it’s not easy for us to do that for every single client but we’re learning we’re growing we have SOPs written out for like how to create the best possible experience for our client when we do them because that obviously is paramount. So we can talk about that in a second.
Saad: But what would you say, in the one or two that you’ve done, what are the key components? What do you think is important to either discuss with the client or have involved as you kind of put it together? Just from an organization perspective, especially.
Mike: There’s a tendency by people to not really allow themselves to communicate what they would really want in a party to really let go and enjoy themselves and celebrate the accomplishment and look like it’s almost like limiting behavior sometimes. It’s like, no, you should celebrate this.This is a good thing. By inviting people, it’s not bothering them. Everyone likes an invitation to something, right? Some people, there’s always gonna be attrition and people can’t make it or whatever. You’re not gonna find the perfect day but letting other people know that they’re important and part of your life. So, I would welcome you to the house. I want you to celebrate this with me. So getting people to just like over that hurdle to start with and then …Mine was like having one or two key things that you’re doing. Bought a shit ton of food–big subs, extra food, comically large amounts of food–-so that was very good. And then the photographer, Corvington, shout out, know, getting those pictures as a service for them so that they have them forever is super nice. That way, nobody’s always on their phone filming. like, hey, this guy’s going to take photos and evidence for two hours. He’s going to make it look pretty. And now it’s yours forever. That’s a beautiful thing to keep thinking about.
Saad: I think, to me, and we’ve gotten better as they go on, obviously, each of these is very customized. It’s like a home. Right? Like it’s a housewarming party. It’s not like you do it at random venue, like our client appreciation events, we have full control because we just pick the venue and we pick all the details and the venue makes it happen. Right? Those are always super fun, but these are very different. The level of organization and the level of client feedback is super important. Everything from the guest list to what kind of food items they want, which by the way, again, I think each of the ones…you’ve done one so far, right?
Mike: One in the current format, yeah.
Saad: Yeah, and I’ve done three in the current format, and the food setup alone was different for each one. Yeah. Right? Like, you went and picked up a giant sub for your client. That was like the main kind of draw in terms of the food for that particular party. I had one client….
Mike: Three giant subs, you.
Saad: Three giant subs, right?
Mike: totality. among everything else.
Saad: And I had one client, they actually cooked everything. So we helped cover the cost of the groceries and things like that. I had another client who preferred to have like past hors d’oeuvres and kind of like somebody who cooked in their kitchen and had everything ready. That was the very first one I did last year.
Saad: This last one I did, ordered, because they wanted to do like a game day themed party for the Patriots game and we just ordered everything off of Uber Eats. And everything was delivered on time, all that kind of stuff. This is what I mean by like, it’s so customized, it’s so personal. Since it’s so customized, it just requires that much more level of organization.
Saad: So if you’re an agent, right, and you’re thinking about doing it, just keep that in mind. It’s not the type of thing where you just make all the decisions yourself. Like every client’s different, you have to ask. You gotta make sure you have control over the guest list in terms of like, is it organized? At the end of the day, there’s a business component to it as well.
Saad: Matt, what’s going on, man? Thanks for joining our live. Matt’s actually photographed one of the housewarming parties as well. He can attest to it too. These housewarming parties, it’s something that not many other agents are doing. If you want to stand apart, if you want to be memorable for your clients, it’s a great way to do that, but don’t ever think that it’s easy. You need to have some organization, need to probably have some people to support you in making it happen for your clients. But it’s a way to, again, go on the extra mile for them. But if you’re not organized, it’s not gonna be the best experience for you or for the client.
Mike: No, it won’t be. I agree.
Saad: In terms of feedback from clients, like the one that you’ve done in the current format, was there in particular that was shared with you that you could improve upon? Will factor into future housewarming parties?
Mike: I think it went well. Everyone was very complimentary afterwards. I think once you get the photos and you’re able to give them out to everybody, it allows a reflection: “Oh man, that was really fun.” It’s nice to think about that a second time and the photos came out great. And you know, I knew it was. It was a smaller condo, I think in was a nice day. We were by the water to be like, okay, we’re gonna go do like our photos by the water because that’s a beautiful area. is, while not within the confines of the actual home, part of the advantage of living and choosing what that place is. I feel like there’s so many of those things in greater Boston where you might have a house with a very small yard, but there’s a park on that street where everybody kind of goes or whatever. Like there’s always, it’s within walking distance of a very beautiful, fun park of Boston that’s like open and public and whatnot.
Mike: So say, the photos, just the memories, like people coming in and out. That’s yeah, it’s lovely to get people together and it’s not for like, you know, it’s casual, like people are going around hanging out at the house. It’s not like an event you have to go to where by the time you hit our age, most of the invitations for things are like more formal events out. That’s something a birthday party out somewhere, this or that out somewhere and it’s being in the house is nice. I just like a housewarming.
Saad: Agreed. think it’s a significant contrast to our client appreciation party, which is also a lot of fun. They’re great time. But yeah, there’s obviously something much more intimate about being in someone’s home. They’re welcoming you into their home and they’re introducing you to their friends, their family and person. Hey, this is Saad, this is Mike, he helped us buy this place. There’s literally no other moment that somebody could do that. So I think that’s really powerful and we love seeing our clients so it’s a great opportunity too to… in that key moment, soon after they close, obviously you wanna give them a little bit of time to settle in. Soon after they close, I would say typically within two, three months, it’s a good time to visit that, or visit that idea with a client if they’re open to it. Now, it’s not gonna be for everybody, right? Like not every client will wanna do that. But our plan is, if we can do a few a year and create that special moment for our clients and be a part of that too, then that’s not only helps foster a stronger relationship, I frankly it’s good for business. Anything else you want to add there?
Mike: No, I don’t. Like having to host..I hope that we can relieve some of that. In my family whoever’s hosting the holidays, asks for no hope and has a complete meltdown. So, being able to say this is going to be fun. It’s going to be easy. Like, don’t put too much pressure on posting and whatnot. And we can, the tailoring part of it, I like first see at some point probably like, I don’t know, if a group loves like a particular game, like, you know, they always play like Cards Against Humanity or something like that, or like Settlers of Catan or something like that, we can go that route. If they like music or something, like maybe I envision like potentially some sort of DJ or live performer in the future or you know what have you. It’s just like what is your niche little thing that like you know you enjoy a lot that isn’t right x-rated …even then who knows..but that that we can like get your rally around get your friends together and like have a truly great time
Saad: so yeah i think one thing too, in two of the ones I’ve done, the clients set up an activity. This was actually really cool.
Saad: Last year, those clients who bought in Medford, and bought a new construction, so they wanted to do some painting of a couple of the rooms. So they had set up these jars with paint swatches outside and this little sign that said, “help us pick a paint color” for specials at bathroom.
Mike: That crowdsourcing, I love it.
Saad: Yeah, it was really, really nice. obviously, these are all paint colors they liked or else they wouldn’t do it. But they were having a tough time selecting which colors. So they’re like, hey, let’s have the people who are coming to our party help us pick and select amongst these three or whatever.
Saad: And then the folks that did the most recent one in Waltham, it was really nice. They had set up this little canvas with this like, I don’t know, mud putty type paint, right? And they’re like, hey, everybody like, you know, put a couple of brush strokes on this canvas. And everyone that comes to the party, you know, they put a couple of brush strokes on it. Whatever comes up of it, we’re put it up in our house. Like as a reminder of like, you know, all these people that came through on this really kind of like special occasion for us. So again, I mean, that’s like big time stuff. That’s like, that’s the type of stuff that like most, I feel that it’s rare to have that opportunity. It’s been learning experience for me too, to just tell people, hey, like if you want to do something like that, we’ll support you in that, right? And we’ll help you make that happen. And especially if, mean, if because of that, a room in their house is painted a certain color or they have something up on their wall that’s like a result of that party we helped them throw, again, nobody else is doing that. And it’s something different. So if you are an agent, think about it and feel free to reach out if you have questions about how we make it happen. If you’re a client, ask and tell us if you’re interested in doing that. And if you’re not a client, then you should question your choice and agent.
Mike: Well put, you covered all the bases.
Saad: I’m just saying. I’m just saying.
Saad: JSheck85, Rosalilly. Oh, Rosalie. Thanks for joining Rosalie. Rosalie is our most recent PNS signer. The early days.
Mike: Hey, yeah. I saw your name come through in Dotloop. You’re a legend around these parts, Exactly.
Saad: The most recent client to come through her and her husband, Hansel. Most recent client to come through a housewarming party. So perfect timing, Rosalie. Yeah. She was not paid to drop in, I promise.
Mike: We do have to disclose that.
Saad: I think we covered everything. Thanks for everyone for joining. We do these Storii Timesevery week. Join us next week, another topic.
Saad: He’s Mike, I’m Saad, this is Storii Time. See you next week.
Mike: Invite us to your homes.
Saad: Yes, sir.
This Instagram live is transcribed for your easy reading. If you want to catch Storii Time live, every week, follow @saadmun1r and @photolowski on Instagram.