Buyer/Seller gifts that last beyond the closing...

w67 is good with gift ideas...keep an eye out

- Donation to the Central Park Conservancy in their name (which also entitles you to discounts at various stores and restaurants...)
- Membership to the Whitney, MoMA, etc. in their name..
These are the first things that came to my mind, but your suggestions are very good (and nice) too.

Matthew: I dunno... If I bought a $1.3MM 1BR at 1CPW, I'm not sure a coffee mug emblazoned with MRUSSELL@BHSUSA would impress me. Does BHS allow gift certificates?

$ talks, and for the other stuff.... I don't know if people do this here, but I know in other states, brokers who give a very generous "kick back" when the deal closes. Like a check for a few grand.

One nice thing (especially in these challenging times) is to pick up the cleaning tab for your client while the apt is on the market, or pay for extra cleanings.

I think you want something home-related, you don't want your name on it (too cheesy / won't get used), and you don't want anything too expensive. If you spend $1000, it smacks too much of "I got paid so much from you, I can afford to throw around $1000".

Perhaps a nice vase? It's home-related, will be kept/used by almost anyone, the right price range, and pretty distinguished ("oh, let's put them in the vase that Matt the broker got us").

Err, I meant "distinct", not "distinguished".

@ Avery: I had no idea the Central Park Conservancy had such incredible discounts, all the while maintaining what is arguably one of the most spectacular parks in the world. I think this is something that I will no only be buying for my clients, but myself as well. Great suggestion.

@ West81st: I wouldn't really want to get a mug with my info on it (although it is clear that putting any of my info on something is a faux pas), I was just thinking of the BHS screwdriver set with our logo on it (we don't have anymore of them unfortunately, I've been using mine for years). I'm not sure if you clicked the link for the mug I was suggesting, but it is something that is very NY and practical. As far as gift certificates go, for the most part, I would like to avoid that route just because it can be used very quickly in most cases. Although, it would make complete sense to get someone who purchased a hotel-condo at 1 CPW a gift certificate to Jean Georges. Thank you!

@ inonada: I really like that idea. Maybe a nice vase and a month or so of flowers delivered weekly or bi-weekly by a local florist. Great idea.

A big dildo with those little bumpy things on it. I hear some ppl like it rough, and if you are buying bf interest rate rises that would put your buyers in the 'no lube' camp. Hey maybe you can buy these dildos in bulk for BHS?

Mr. Russ, now that the deal has closed why don't you send a quarterly 'this is what your home is worth' report. I'm sure the buyers will appreciate the mkt update. That plus the dildo should keep your name in their re radar front and center.

And you are welcome.

Jimmy. You damn enabler. ; )

My partner and I each sold an apt with our broker and then bought one with her at our side, too. We loved her work for us. She loved us for the work we gave her. And we all genuinely got along. She was extremely thoughtful and generous at the closings. We really appreciated over the course of the transactions gifts that included:
-Selection of my favorite cigars (they are not cheap).
-$1000 gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma
-$500 gift certificate to Bed Bath and Beyond
-Boxed bottle of vintage Dom Perignon

They were thoughtful, somewhat extravagant, very nice gestures of appreciation. We gave her quite a bit of business and these 'thank you' gifts really made us feel good at the end of the transactions.

Others gifts might include:
-I think the idea of a Time Out subscription or New York Magazine subscription is fantastic.
-A year of flower-of-the-month club would also be very nice. These subscriptions are available from many bulb catalogues. A new bouquet of flowering bulbs arrives each month in a different kind of basket or pot or vase.
-Gift certificate to Kate's Papery or Papyrus for change of address cards or some new personalized stationery for the new place.
-Gracious Home and Broadway Panhandler and home stores such as these are always appreciated.
-Whatever the gift, throw in a Zagat is the client is a buyer so they can explore new restaurants in the new 'hood.

I would HATE a gift with a logo or the broker's name. That does not say "thank you." That says, please accept this advertisement you can use to get me more business. Tacky for a transaction that likely involved seven figures.

The keys here, in my opinion are two fold: (1) if you can find something that shows you have thought about what the particular client would like, you get extra credit; (2) spend a little more than you initially thought--this is not a time to cheap out--generosity is noted and remembered.

Hope these ideas help.

On the flower idea, I think it'd be better to send the flowers once a year (in addition to the first time) on anniversaries, with a little note saying "congrats on your Nth anniversary" or whatever. It'll keep you "fresh" in their minds in a regular basis in a way that is not cheesy and will probably be appreciated.

I guess the only issue there is that if you're doing 1 CPW for pied-a-terre clients, it's hard to know when they're there.

I'm with kylewest... do not label the dildo w/ BHS, very tacky indeed.

Hey kylewest... 3 trades within what 3 yrs? You know there's a thing called "renting" for ppl like yourselves. ; )

hate to tell you, my wife gets gifts all the time from patients... her front office has a policy of donating all food items and all monetary gifts to charity. She never hears of a patient's gift. She thinks it is not "professional" and that it might taint her judgement or how she treats a patient. She goes the route of do a "good" job cause she is paid for it. There is professionalism. A bunch of over-paid bankers taking "clients" to Scores for some drinks and blowjobs in the corner.. .well, you see where that led our financial system.

this policy is written, still patients send things in. one time a $5K blk pearl necklace from a well meaning man who lost his wife and wanted to tnk my wife for her yrs of work....

having someone rape you bc there was a bubble and then gives .001% it back as a champagne bottle stuffed w/ porsecco seems to me "not a gift" at best, and a middle finger at worst.

None of this gifting is legal, according to what I was taught about NYS Licensing Law in my classes.

When I was a journalist most companies had a $25 limit on gifts. I was explicitly taught that there is no such limit in real estate in New York State, that legally the limit is zero.

I have a pretty refrigerator magnet with my name/contact info that I leave on the fridge.

I have a new CD coming out next week, and on the very supportable theory that its market value is approximately zero, I am sending that out. I also do oil painting and I might leave a tiny painting in the unit as a quirky surprise for the buyer.

But otherwise no gifts from me. I'm with w67 on this one.

I just gave a client a rebate check for $21,300 dollars at closing. :)

(before anyone tells me its illegal, please Google commission rebates...thanks)

KeithB: I think that is the way to go. I have a family member (not in NYS) who bought his first house through a family-recommended agent. The agent promptly rebated half of his commission at the closing. It sure created a lot of goodwill (not a std bus. practice where they are). My family member will be sure to use that agent again.

was the rebate negotiated prior?...i would think when there is a hefty payment then it must have been usually ....is there any constraint on legally documenting such an arrangement in advance?

Blah, blah. Gifts are nice and 99.9% of people who buy and sell apartments appreciate them. IMO at least.

w67thstreet: I didn't explain myself clearly. We didn't just keep buying and selling. My partner and I each owned our respective apts for very long times. We met. And after getting engaged wanted to live together. But we each had a lot of history in our own apartments and we wanted to start out together in something new where we could make our own memories without a lot of history (some of that history being rather difficult for each of us in our old places). We wanted to start fresh. Well, in NYC that mean A LOT of RE talk for a long time. We readied our apts for sale, found buyers within 60 days, and both went to contract to sell within a week of each other. We both closed in December '07 and moved into a sublet in a different neighborhood than either of us had lived in. We loved the area and looked to buy. Couldn't find something we liked by time our sublet was up in late spring '08 so we moved into a really nice pre-war rental in the same area. Figured we could stay there as long as we wanted. 4 days later we found exactly what we were looking for and purchased it by summer '08. Then we gut reno'd the estate condition place and moved into it last spring. I'm glad we had the experience of renting for 1.5 years in two very, very nice buildings, but what we learned from it was that so long as our finances permitted us to buy, we are both a lot happier owning a place and truly making it our own. Yes, we could one day die with more money if we rented right now, but this apartment fits comfortably within our long term financial goals and the daily quality of life we enjoy as a result of living here is, for us, a lot higher than it was even in the very nice rental apartments.

IRS deems it an adjustment to price/income, no 1099 needs to be filed. I think I posted a link to the DOJ and the IRS document on my blog. Along with a Breast Cancer awareness thank you card, include a copy of the IRS ruling. Lots of info on the REDFIN sight.

@Jim Yes it is arranged in advance and I do put it in writing.

I agree Gifts are nice and I always spent quite a a bit of time trying to find something thoughtful.

I think that the idea of giving a gift to the buyer/seller is a nice idea, but personally I think that a gift of an item of no more than $250 is more than sufficient unless you're talking about a very expensive apartment. If after the closing, my broker, for example, gave us two seats to see a Broadway play, I would appreciate it. However, IMO, if you have a good working relationship with the buyer/seller, then he/she/they will keep you in mind for a future referral. I personally wouldn't mind getting a holiday card once a year from my broker (with a short handwritten note) as a way to keep in touch.

What I'm about to ask may be grounds for an entirely new topic... but to go off of what lobster was saying, receiving a handwritten holiday card once a year, what sorts of mailings (if any) would you want to receive from your broker (assuming you had a good relationship with him/her) during the year.

I will occasionally send a postcard with a NYC scene on it just dropping a quick line. But considering how much mail goes straight from the mailbox to the trash without an afterthought, what is the most effective mailing you could receive (market information / quick hello / updates about the neighborhood / etc) that would actually interest you? 'No information,' is also an answer, but if you go this route, please let me know why.

Again, thank you all for the feedback. This is really good stuff!

For myself, I wouldn't mind receiving something that was informative as opposed to just advertising. For example, some sort of a newsletter with information about recent sales in the neighborhood, housing trends, even interesting local events that were coming up in my neighborhood. Something that will help me in my apartment search or just tell me what's going on with RE in my neighborhood.

how common is it to negotiate a rebate?...

could i get a broker as a buyer, and say, you do nothing, and i get 75% rebate, and then tell every seller i have an agent, and avoid any hassle of negotiating a discount with the seller???

I would think a very nice box of chocolates(short-lived) and-the thing most used in our household-a single cup coffee maker(around 20$)that could be taken to office/kept home for the occasional cup of coffee when you don't bother with the fancy coffee maker.

I second the idea of a coffeemaker. Great suggestion (but no company logo on coffeemaker).

The coffeemaker is an interesting premise. I would assume that most people already have a coffee maker that they have and enjoy, same goes for a single cup coffee maker in the office (lots of offices have those single cup makers). But everyone does drink coffee... so some sort of coffee related product could be interesting.

And don't worry guys, it is abundantly clear that no one wants branded items. You won't see my name on anything :)

My broker saw me accepting the keys at closing on a very tacky key chain. I'm not sure if this was the result of that or its something she does customarily but I received a gift of a Tiffany key chain (the "balls", not something I ever told I was lacking but that's another story), with the date of my closing engraved on the label. (no broker branding). Regardless it was classy gift and one that couldn't be more important or useful.

@ lizyank: I love it. I have actually owned two of those key rings. And even if you already have a solution for your keys, it isn't like you don't need an extra set of keys to stash away somewhere.

All these great ideas! I'm going to have some happy buyers & sellers this year!

what about the rebate....what about the rebate....

if a decent broker is willing to do that , let's put that "gift" front and center....

sorry, but that dwarfs in importance these other "gifts"....in fact, if i received a very expensive gift, my thought would be: this broker realizes they were overcompensated by the commission system

i think this industry is still in transition and will be very different in the not too distant future

the premise of this thread is very looking backwards to the old system; it's like the car dealer in the pre-internet shopping days throwing in some freebie, which should have , actually, made you think about how you just got screwed, not how grateful you are

i do NOT per se disdain brokers..i just think the compensation system is flawed

With all due respect Jim, a rebate is not a gift, it is just that, a rebate. If you wish to discuss rebates please contact Keith directly or start a new post. This post is just about gifts.

(KeithB, if you are reading this, please post a link to your blog so that people interested in rebates can get more information.)

jimstreeteasy, I'm not trying to shut you down, we are just discussing two completely different subjects.

Mrussell that's a reasonable point, at least so far as the minor type gifts you mentioned. To be fair, I really do believe that when the so-called "gifts" get into the types mentioned by kyle -- 1000$ gift certificate -- you're starting to cross the line into a quasi-rebate.

jimstreeteasy
1 minute ago
ignore this person
report abuse Mrussell that's a reasonable point, at least so far as the minor type gifts you mentioned. To be fair, I really do believe that when the so-called "gifts" get into the types mentioned by kyle -- 1000$ gift certificate -- you're starting to cross the line into a quasi-rebate.

i think all you have proven here is that you don't like to pay people for a job done for you....and you are a cheap gift giver

I don't recognize that name. Are you a broker?

@ jimstreeteasy: $1000 is a lot of money, no question about it. If you were selling a $10m dollar apartment though it is less money in terms of the overall commission. I'm not saying a gift of that size is right or wrong, I'm just saying that there are more factors involved than just the amount.

I have a ton of friends in the industry who frequently get to take weekends in their clients country estates and and join them on trips abroad because they have become good friends with their customers. At that point, you are still performing a service for them, but it is less of a gift for working with them and more of a gift in celebration that they found/sold an apartment.

At the end of the day it can boil down to a multitude of factors. For right now though, I'm just looking at the smaller gifts that people will genuinely enjoy :)

Nobody cares about the legality of gifts, I guess, except the extremely knowledgeable guy who taught my real estate class at New York University. I was expecting somebody to tell me my teach was wrong, but I guess not.

For the record I wanna say that doesn't reflect well on this profession. I also know agents/brokers who think agency disclosure is optional, and who consider themselves dual agents without every disclosing it to buyers or sellers.

Maybe the cavalier attitude to the law should be rethunk.

Keith, the rebate check at closing is way better than any "gift," but how did the buyer benefit from that?

It's a dramatic gesture but that money comes out of the buyer's pocket, it seems to me it should be shared somehow.

I had high-end rental clients who were relos who I bought a crib for -- they didn't have it, and they needed it, and I'm sure they thought of me every time they used it.

In this terrible economy, though, now more than ever I'm doing gift certificates at local restaurants. I was in Tabla for lunch the other day and it was half-empty. I'd hate to see some of these mainstay places close because NYC is having a bumpy year.

But I agree that negotiability is high on the list of client wishes. My last closing but one, the firms took a five-figure commission discount to make the deal happen. BTW, the firm on the other side was one of the Big Two.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

"A big dildo with those little bumpy things on it." i am eating lunch and i just laughed so hard i spit lettuce on my desk.

ok but seriously now folks. there are too many douchebags already in the city, time-out subscriptions will only create more, so definitely do not give those to anyone. liz's keychain idea ia great. also i do like the vintage photograph idea and think you can get away with putting BH on the BACK of it. tape measure, tool kit, etc is a nice gesture but only with a good quality set. my broker gave me an entire set of luxury tolietries including skin care and makeup, thought that was great until i started reading all this stuff. by the way, don't you have to pay gift tax for any cash transfer over 10k?

Greatest gift you could give is putting all the date current delivery menus in a box or drawer and save the new owners a lot of legwork.

Menu drawer? People still have those? I went www.seamlessweb.com ages ago. Eeeeeasy.

Fluter, you raise an interesting point. My RE professors (I'm licensed both in NY and NJ) cared extremely about the legality of kickbacks, but they were careful to make a distinction between negotiating a commission during the offer process (which as I understand it is entirely legal in every state; in fact, if commissions weren't negotiable, it would be a violation of anti-trust laws) and handing someone an envelope of cash or a pair of airline tickets post-closing.

My client "gifts" are sub-$750, so as a percentage of commission they're small enough that I don't think they're going to be perceived as kickbacks, but I do hear you, and it would be nice to get some clarity on this point in New York.

NJ legislature was debating rebates this past December, my story on it is here: http://bit.ly/5OfnlV

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Oh, and @truthseeker, that's a brilliant idea, I've done binders of those too.

Kyle, what do you do when you want to order food and your Internet is out, or do you live with a different and better Time Warner than the rest of us?

ali

Ali, maybe we're in a lucky building. I think in the last 10 months our internet may have "been out" 5 minutes. Perhaps that was the night I cooked.

There's always the iphone & menupages if TWC goes out.

KW: I recently upgraded to "turbo" cable internet. It's maybe 20% faster.

Geeze guys,I love all my gadgets and gizmos but sometimes it's nice to read a menu from a piece of paper.