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“Why use a Relocation Department instead of placing referrals directly with an agent?”

June 3, 2010 by MSI

This was a “hot” topic for those attending the recent Worldwide ERC conference in Orlando, FL.  Frankly, I am surprised by the amount of time and energy that has been spent on this topic recently. The benefits of working through a Relocation Director seem so obvious to me, but for the “unenlightened” I will outline some of these benefits.

First and foremost, relocation management companies (RMC) need an advocate at the brokerage firm. The agent on “floor time” who happens to answer the phone may not always be the best one for an assignment. Even if they are on a list of relocation trained agents, the agent could really be much better as a listing agent than as a buyer’s agent and how could the RMC possibly know who sells in a particular price range, subdivision or condominium complex? 

Good sales associates, in addition to being knowledgeable about the local market, are often, by their very nature, aggressive, independent thinkers. The Relocation Director can often rein them in and convince them to follow the corporation’s relocation guidelines, which often include tight timeframes for appointments and reporting, along with list price restrictions and referral fee payment. The transferee also has an ally in the Relocation Director as they are there to ensure top customer service and a smooth transaction. They are available to objectively answer any transferee questions and to act as a resource should there be any difficulties in working with the assigned agent. In rare cases, when the selected agent and the transferee do not “click”, the RMC and the Relocation Director can work together to quickly step in and facilitate a change in agents on behalf of the transferee avoiding a potentially awkward situation.

Finally, all of the best area overview presentations that we have seen for group move meetings have come from the Relocation Departments within the real estate companies. I cannot imagine an individual agent having the resources or the time to put something together that would be on par with what I have recently seen. Not to mention the time and effort put in by the Relocation Directors in the scheduling of bus tours and area overviews for these group moves.

I really could go on and on, but you get the point. It’s time to put this topic to rest as this model has obviously stood the test of time and proven its value many times over to corporations, relocation management companies and transferees alike.