Gift after closing

amother

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 9:13 pm

Hi,

Baruch Hashem we just closed on a house and I noticed in our lawyer's office a bunch of thank you cards hanging on the wall with some that seemed to have accompanied a gift like a candy or chocolate platter, plant, etc.
So is it customary/mentchlich to send some sort of thank you to the lawyer? And is there anyone else I should be sending to? I.e. mortgage broker, real estate agent, etc.?

Thanks!

amother

Anemone

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 9:14 pm

Pretty sure the agent is supposed to send you a gift Smile

You can send something to the lawyer. I’m sure it will be appreciated but it’s not a must

amother

Tan

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 9:47 pm

The agent will ger you a gift

You’ll pay the lawyer his/her fees

amother

Ruby

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 10:04 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

As a mortgage broker I'll tell you that most clients do not send gifts. Some remember to call or email us to thank us; which is very nice. A few do gift us, and it is immensely appreciated. What you gift, does not matter. But the thought counts. A lot. We put in more time, thought, and effort than most of our clients will ever know, so their appreciation goes a long way.

amother

Clear

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 11:22 pm

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

I am also in the process of buying a house and I would like to show appreciation to all the people that helped us along the way. Can you pls give some examples of some gifts you have been given?
Thank you!

simba

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 11:24 pm

No. They’re all making money.

amother

Lawngreen

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 11:26 pm

I am also in the mortgage field. Some clients gift us, some send us nice emails, and some do nothing.
Some examples of what we've gotten are lunch, chocolates, flowers or plants, candy platters, we've had clients give us stuff depending what business they were in like. Like for example, we had a client who made tablecloths and gifted the loan officer and the processor that dealt with the file a brand new tablecloth. We've had clients that send sushi platters for the team, or breakfast/ lunch for the team.
Really It's whatever you feel like doing.
And in my office, every client gets a closing gift from us after they close.

amother

Sapphire

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 12:18 am

I think we paid enough money to all parties involved that we don’t need to give a gift. They didn’t do you a favor they did what you paid them to do. And we didn’t get a closing gift from the broker which I thought was standard. In our case we found the house off the market but got a broker involved so I was super surprised that he showed no appreciation even though he made a commission.

amother

Cerise

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 12:26 am

amother [ Sapphire ] wrote:

I had the same exact situation. I found the house asked the broker to call and get us the appt 3 days later we were in contract we got nothing everyone else got nice payments

amother

Lily

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 2:24 am

They were just doing their job and being paid for it. I don't give gifts to every person that does some work for me. If they went out of their way and above what their job requires, then I might give something. Obviously it's very sweet and nice to give something if you want, but I don't see that it's necessary.

amother

Pear

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 9:08 am

I am a paralegal in a law office for many years, and we only rarely get gift from clients post closing. That being said, the few clients that did send candy/chocolate platters I remember to to this day fondly and it was most appreciated. Only once did a client give a small $150 bonus which we were most most grateful for. Most people have no idea how much work behind the scenes we put into your file.

Your lawyer is making VERY little compared to what your real estate agent and mortgage broker is making off commissions. An extra few dollars to show appreciation to your lawyer and his paralegals will go a long way.

amother

Pumpkin

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 9:16 am

simba wrote:

No. They’re all making money.

This no need it’s their business. You don’t gift every business owner, do you?

amother

Valerian

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 9:18 am

We just closed.

£5K to the broker
The solicitors fee.
The mortgage brokers fee (and the extra cost we incurred due to his inefficiency. He works with solicitor, he planned for 1 month for mortgage. Exchange and closing dates were several weeks after that.
It took 3 months to get a mortgage- he forgot to tell us what paperwork to submit, used a bank that we found out after, had huge covid backlog) it took 3 months from submission to offer. We had to pay late fees as we couldn’t complete on time.

So definitely no gift from me. To anyone.

amother

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 10:21 am

It's interesting to hear the different perspectives. Thank you everyone for your replies!

amother

Lawngreen

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 10:30 am

Someone posted this this morning and the resonated with this post.

Before you go and ask for a discount on your commission from a Realtor for helping you sell your home, please understand what you're truly asking for them to do ... and ask yourself this question: If your boss came to you and asked you to work overtime, but wasn't going to compensate you for doing so, would you still do it?

Another day, another person who says realtors are overpaid and an unnecessary part of a transaction. I’m assuming that those who think this have either been watching too much Million Dollar Listing or think they know how to do it all on their own.

A few things to consider:

There is no salary for your Realtor. No guaranteed income for them until the home actually sells. If it doesn’t go through for any reason, all of hours and time spent helping you and your loved ones go without any compensation for the time spent. You see 3% on a $500k home as $15k. The agents sure don’t. That commission is paid to them:

- Before taxes
- Before broker splits
- Before marketing
- Before board dues
- Before office bills
- Before professional photographs on your home
- Before professional staging on your home
- Before all the other costs of doing business

Out of what’s left of their checks after all this, they can then begin paying for everything else. But wait, that’s not all!

They don’t get afforded a lot of the things you enjoy at a 9-5 job. They don’t receive:

- Employer healthcare
- Employee matched retirement accounts
- Paid vacations
- Weekends off
- Nights off
- Maternity leave
- Bereavement pay/leave
- Company car

They pay for all of this out of our own pockets. Every single penny.

Yes, there are some realtors married to people working company jobs who receive some of these benefits. But the vast majority of real estate agents, they support their families on what’s left after their benefits are taken out and spoken for.

Yes, they did choose to sell real estate. It’s a career which they love and it allows virtually uncapped growth and income potential. But they also have to often be available at any time of the day when needed. Whether it’s showing homes at 7pm, writing offers at 11 pm or doing final walkthroughs at 6am. They are there, available to help their clients when they are needed.

So before you tell another one of them that they make too much money and aren’t really needed anymore, I encourage you to do the following ...

Get your own real estate license, start lead generating on your own, find clients who like you and trust you to help them with the BIGGEST purchase of their lives.

Make sure you know not only what goes in the blanks of the contracts, but also what the promulgated parts of them say. Learn the legal steps of what happens once you write a contract, and what business partners are a good fit to help you and your clients and who’s a scam.

Try and keep deals together when they’re about to go south with critical thinking skills all while staying within legal parameters. Educate your new homeowner clients about what’s going to happen after they close and what to expect in the years to come.

Then listen, repeatedly, as others tell you the money you’ve been paid is WAY too much and they could do what you’ve done for much, much less.

Exhausting, isn’t it?

PS. Just had some long ago clients send me a contract FSBO it was completely in favor of the seller I challenged them on the no inspections, loss of earnest money and all the things they would never know to ask. They terminated the contract after their “friends aka FSBO sellers wouldn’t change a thing to be benefit and protect both buyer and seller”. Using an Agent is always a benefit to both parties.

thunderstorm

Thu, Dec 09 2021, 10:38 am

We received gifts from the agent and from the mortgage broker we used. We are paying them for their services. They are thanking us for using their services .