How to Empower Your Real Estate Clients with Full Legal Counsel

As a seasoned real estate expert, you’re a vital source of guidance and assistance for individuals and families as they work to purchase or sell a property. Their willingness to put their trust in you for these milestone moments speaks volumes. As we continue our series providing resources for real estate agents, we’ll focus here on how you can enhance that trusting relationship through thoughtful referrals when needed. 

Leveraging well-established professional partnerships to make referrals is a win for all involved; not only will you boost your own reputation as a resourceful and well-rounded agent, but you’ll also provide undeniable value to each of your clients long after they buy, sell, or refinance their home. Read on to learn how real estate agents can inform and aid their clients by making referrals to appropriate legal counsel — for real estate transactions and all other life events that they may need help navigating. 

Relationship Building and Real Estate 

Because of the rapport you naturally build with your clients, you may learn about some of the pressing needs they have in their lives that could require legal counsel outside of the real estate sector. Even if your clients don’t approach you directly with these needs, topics like an injury or the passing away of a loved one can come up in the conversations they have with you as a trusted professional.

Common Client Legal Counsel Needs 

Learning about client needs gives you the opportunity to connect them with valuable resources. Here are just a few examples of situations you may become aware of during the course of your ongoing relationships with your homeowners and buyers where a well-placed referral to vetted  legal counsel can prove beneficial: 

• Change in Family Status: Both joyful and sorrowful family events can occur during the time you spend guiding clients through real estate transactions. A simple conversation about how many bedrooms your client is seeking in their new home may alert you that they are looking to build their family. Perhaps they are even considering adoption.  Alternatively, a home purchase or sale may be prompted by a death in the family or a divorce decision. Major life events like this often require documentation or legal assistance to ensure the best possible outcome for everyone. 

• Injury or Change in Health Status: As you work with your clients you may become aware that they are going through an ongoing health battle, are challenged with the onset of an illness, or have experienced a major accident. Events impacting health can necessitate bringing a legal team on board to handle items like a trust, a will, and a power of attorney. 

• Advancing Age: Legal processes are one of the many time-sensitive matters that come with reaching retirement age.  
  
  
• Preparing for the Unexpected: Many current or prospective homeowners have a lot on their plate when it comes to securing the people they love and the property they’ve accumulated for the long term. An attorney is crucial in establishing legal protection for their legacy.

How can you go above and beyond for these clients – ensuring that their real estate transactions proceed as smoothly as possible and that they are taken care of with equal care and quality service in these other aspects of their lives? The answer lies with appropriate and valuable legal referrals. 

Adding Value With Strong Attorney Partnerships  

When you establish strategic alliances with professionals in other fields, you exponentially increase your ability to provide value to your clients. Because of the natural connections between decisions related to home buying and selling and life events that benefit from the assistance of an attorney, finding the right legal counsel to whom you can refer your clients is the perfect place to start building that referral base. 

A client who is selling a deceased parent’s home may not just need a real estate lawyer, but a probate lawyer to handle the distribution of assets and fulfill the wishes of their departed loved one. Individuals who are planning for all future possibilities during a home purchase or sale may also require estate planning services.  

By highlighting areas like this where real estate and law overlap, you can share a trusted partnership that will support your clients with added value in an arena they may otherwise view as daunting or difficult to navigate. 

One Firm, Many Possibilities  

The last thing a family needs during a crisis or major milestone in life is further complications in the legal realm. For this reason, when searching for a legal firm you can trust as a referral for your clients, it’s best to choose one that can handle the wide range of needs an individual or family may encounter over their lifetime. 

Being able to access multiple services from one provider is a wonderful benefit in and of itself — and it can be a true game-changer for your clients to have a legal team on their side that will give them the dedication and support they would afford their own families. Once you find an attorney practice that meets both of these criteria, make the most of the opportunity by recommending their various service offerings to your clients in need.  

Shepard Law: Excellent Legal Referrals for Real Estate Agents

The team at Shepard Law has been serving clients in the Charlotte metropolitan area since 2011. We believe that family comes first — always — and with a combined 35+ years of legal experience in just one decade, our attorneys have been able to move mountains for individuals and families of all ages and backgrounds. 

Shepard Law offers renowned real estate law and probate services, along with everything a family may need as they consider guardianship, distribution of possessions, and other essential estate planning matters. With Shepard Law on your side, your clients will feel safe and secure — regardless of the life events that might come their way. 

Reach out to Shepard Law to learn more about these exciting real estate law connections. And check back in for our next article, where we’ll guide agents looking to create lifelong client relationships built on trust and connection.