A Different Clientele

When working in relocation, you’ll have a myriad number of challenges and idiosyncrasies to grapple with, all of which mean servicing a clientele with much different needs – and demands – than your typical homebuyer or seller.

For Cleal, that means starting on square one with her relocation clients, who often have zero familiarity with the Chicagoland area and its many communities.

“When you’re working with transferees who are moving to Chicago, they may not have an idea of exactly where they want to be; they just know that they’ll be working downtown, or they’ll be working in a specific suburb, or they’ll be looking for an area with great schools or dog parks,” Cleal says. “So by having a broad knowledge of different areas that may have the amenities that they’re looking for, you’re able to direct them; having first-hand knowledge of that really helps you.”

“It’s not just writing a contract and saying ‘congratulations,’” Traines explains. “You’re helping someone rent a car, or providing train schedules, or buying house ware, or recommending restaurants. If they’ve never been to the Chicago area, they really need some help.”

Such commitments, Traines says, are the reason that she describes relocation real estate as “real estate on steroids.”

Setting the Proper Expectations

Managing expectations can be a challenge in any real estate transaction, but in relocation real estate, agents often deal with expectations that clash with how Chicago’s housing market operates. Laricy experienced that firsthand when working with clients relocating from Serbia, who were measuring value by price per square foot, which is commonly done in other parts of the world, but not here in Chicago.

“There’s no algorithm for measuring square footage in Chicago,” Laricy says. “Everyone has their own system. Is it outside walls in? Inside walls in? Do they include the balcony space? There are no set standards.”

That lack of standards, Laricy explains, posed significant problems for his Serbian clients at the appraisal stage, when the appraiser reported a dramatically different square footage than what he and his clients had anticipated. Though Laricy was able to save the deal, he now makes it a priority to discuss Chicago’s perverse relationship with square footage at the outset of his transactions, and not only when dealing with international clients – consumers from the Coasts, he quickly learned, are also unaware of Chicago’s unorthodox approach to square footage.

Therefore, Laricy says that setting expectations is integral to working in relocation real estate, and ensuring that the client is comfortable not only with how real estate in Chicago functions, but how it differs from their local marketplace. With clients from New York, for instance, Laricy has encountered the assumption that any problems uncovered during inspections will be automatically fixed – without any further negotiations with the seller.

Nothing can be assumed when working with relocation clients. Weikum says that Illinois’ attorney requirement in transactions befuddles some of her clients, who, like Laricy’s clients from New York, assume that she can handle all the legal documentation in a transaction, which is common in other housing markets.

“I feel bad doing so, but I have to tell them I can’t legally handle such details,” Weikum says. “I can chat with them about it, but nothing legal can be done by agents.”