When you’re helping a client buy or sell a home, how can you make sure that you’re connecting with them as people?

Real estate is a profession built upon communication, and unless you’re connecting with your clients in a genuine manner, it can prove difficult not only communicating properly, but also fulfilling your desired tasks for the client.

To make sure you are connecting with clients, consider these three steps:

1. Put the Client First – We know, this one seems really obvious and rudimentary, but given all the bases agents must cover throughout the buying and selling process, it can become perilously easy to lose sight of the very people bringing you their business. But of course, that doesn’t mean simply respecting the client’s checkbook. As Peter Economy explained in a recent Inc article, “Respect comes in many different forms: respecting opinions, respecting time, respecting culture and more.” And that respect, Economy adds, will only be reciprocated when applied genuinely.

2. Creating a Safe Haven for the Client – If there’s one thing that the buying and selling process is, it’s stressful. From preparing a home for the open market to making an offer on that dream house, consumer experience waves of emotion during the process, and it’s up to you to provide a safe haven for the client to better connect with how they are feeling at different stages of the process.

3. Abolish Any Barriers – With syndication sites and cyber-brokerages like Redfin on the rise, the Realtor community has shown a tendency to erect barriers between themselves and the greater public, and to protect the data and information they hold so dear. Though it’s certainly in their right to do so – after all, Realtor dues and other monetary commitments make the data possible – you’ll have to be careful that such barriers to not create distance between yourself and your client, and that you be upfront and direct in all matters involving their transaction. Your client should be a part of the process, not merely along for the ride, and when people feel apart of something, it’s much easier to connect with them.