In the latest episode of the RealTrending podcast, Amy Stockberger — broker-owner of Amy Stockberger Real Estate — joins Tracey Velt for a tantalizing conversation that covers her teamerage’s unique “Lifetime Home Support” model and other ways that agents can provide value to home buyers and sellers.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. The conversation kicks off with a window into Stockberger’s past and her early involvement with real estate.
Amy Stockberger: I was a buyer’s agent, then I decided that wasn’t for me. I had my sister come join me almost immediately, started a team with her and a part-time assistant, and then we started growing.
Since then, we’ve been the highest-producing team in our state, and we’ve been lucky enough to keep on growing and serving in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, area.
Tracey Velt: Tell me a little bit about your “Lifetime Home Support” model and how it transformed your approach to real estate.
Stockberger: In 2014, I noticed a major hole in our business. For the amount of clients we were serving, we weren’t getting that repeat and referral business. We created a serve-serve-serve-sell system for every step of the home buying and selling process.
Velt: What are some of the key tenets of this model?
Stockberger: First, we added a moving truck. The second thing we did was our party and tool shed. I was providing service to them, outside of just that real estate need, to stay top of mind and make sure that I was helping them in everything they needed.
Velt: How do you encourage your current or past buyers and sellers to actually use the services that you’re offering?
Stockberger: It’s very omnipresent. It’s one of the first things we’re going over. On top of that, has anybody shown you how the buying process works, or what’s new in the industry? We go through that too.
We have a system and strategy for every step of the process before, during and forever. We just walk them through the unique value propositions that match their human experience.
Velt: Looking for multiple revenue streams is really important for real estate leaders to do. What are some other ways that you are generating revenue through some nontraditional means?
Stockberger: We borrow from the Amazon model and seek sponsors for our client events. Those are profit centers for us as well. And it provides an opportunity for our vendors to come in and be in front of our market and their target market, which is our audience.
Velt: What do you think is shaping the future of real estate right now?
Stockberger: One of the reasons we’re in the situation our industry is in is that there was just that perceived lack of value. I think that what agents truly should be doing is really tripling down on their service model.
What are they doing for their clients outside of the transaction? What are the levels of care for clients for their whole human journey? Shifting from being transactional to transformational is going to allow certain agents to excel at a high level in our industry going forward.