Quick: Name two services only an agent can offer a real estate consumer. If you said, “helping buyers find a house and marketing listings,” you’re correct. But you’re also selling yourself short. There are a multitude of small details that you take care of for your clients that you may not even consider unique to your role as an agent.

Sure, some of these may seem basic. After 10 or 15 years selling real estate, however, it’s easy to become complacent and forget some of these basic but critical – and unique – services you offer.

Explain Complicated Terms and Processes

OK, I suppose a real estate attorney is capable of explaining complicated terms and processes, but her services come at a fee – quite hefty usually – and yours don’t. The real estate terms we throw around daily sound like gobbledegoo to the real estate consumer, especially the first-timer.

An average guy or gal trying to buy or sell a property on his own doesn’t benefit from an agent’s expertise, experience and advice. They also go into a transaction ignorant as to the meaning of basic, yet critical, terms and concepts. Any agent who has had a first-time buyer ask her the meaning of “escrow” understands this.

Do you have a glossary of common real estate terms on your blog or website? If not, maybe you should consider taking the time to add one, and then urge new clients to read it over.

Help Pick the Best Closing Date

Think about that moment when you’re assisting your buyer with the purchase agreement. Finally, it’s time to pick a closing date. “When do you want to close escrow?” you ask, typically to be met with a blank stare.

Many agents routinely insert a date 30 days from when escrow opens, because “that’s standard in our area.” Your client, however, may not be “standard.”

Is it better to close at the beginning of the month, the middle of the month or the end of the month? Some say to close mid-week while others say Friday is the best day. Should you council your client to avoid closing during the fall and winter holidays?

There are specific reasons for each scenario, as you well know. For instance, your first-time buyers that just spent every cent to get into the house may appreciate your explanation of why it might be best to close earlier in the month. Although the prepaid interest amount will be higher, they won’t have to worry about a mortgage payment that month or the month after.

Closing folks are pretty busy at the end of the week, so many agents suggest closing in the beginning or the middle of the week. Someone moving into your area for job relocation, however, may appreciate closing in time to get the keys on a Friday so that she has the weekend to move in and get settled.

Of course there’s always a chance that something might happen – a natural disaster or something doesn’t verify – to hold up funding when you calculated it would occur, so prepare your client for that.

The bottom line here is that this is a valuable service that you supply your real estate clients and one that, if they were doing it without an agent, they wouldn’t otherwise receive.

The Final Walk-Through

Any real estate agent who has represented buyers has seen how casually some of them treat the final walk-through, offering barely a glance as they walk through a home one final time before they have no recourse with the seller.

All real estate agents also know about some of the shady tricks pulled on unwitting buyers. Without you to tell homebuyers about these, they’ll blissfully close escrow and be stuck with a substandard refrigerator when they expected that the stainless steel side-by-side they had their eye on when they toured the home would be included in the purchase.

Savvy buyer’s agents know to get the serial numbers of all appliances and HVAC systems that will be included in the sale. A good home inspector will do this for you. Your buyer isn’t saying, “throw in any stove,” she’s saying, “that Wolf range, serial number XYZ123, is mine.”

Do buyers understand, without an agent’s assistance, that the home is to be left clean? Do they know where to look for new damage that may have been caused when the sellers moved? Not without your help they don’t.

So, next time you hear your industry being slammed, hold your head high and remember all the times you’ve pointed out features of a home the buyer didn’t notice, how well you negotiated contract terms for your clients, and how often you were able to steer them to trusted lenders, home inspectors and tradespeople and away from being ripped off.

Alone, these items may seem insignificant. Make a list of them, though, and you’ll see just how valuable you are to the real estate transaction.