Estate agent “moving home gifts” normal?

NameUnavailable

When I was an EA we often received little gifts from vendors/buyers (bottle of wine, box of biscuits that sort of thing) but never gave out any gifts.

hazyjo

Got a plant or flowers or whatever off the EA I bought through. Can't remember now. Was quite a nice gesture.

Nearly always buy a gift for both EAs. (Unless they were absolutely useless.)

Monsternextdoor

hazyjo said:

Got a plant or flowers or whatever off the EA I bought through. Can't remember now. Was quite a nice gesture.

Nearly always buy a gift for both EAs. (Unless they were absolutely useless.)

I said this to my OH that we need to get something, even if its chocolate, biscuits or trays of cake.

borkid

When we collected the keys for our recent purchase the EA gave us a bottle of fizz and a new home card.

Windofchange

Have never received anything. Last purchase was really underwhelming. Estate agent met us and our vendors on completion day and she was gone in two mins - bit of small talk and that was it. I’d personally leave a bottle of champagne behind for our buyers alongside a few pages of instructions for the house - boiler, alarms etc. 

onylon

When we collected our keys from the EA they gave us a gift bag with a card, scented candle and soap. I thought it was a bit odd but a nice gesture. They are a small local company so I'm sure they rely on word of mouth to get business.

britishbug

freeisgood said:

As a first time buyer, I’ve often wondered if when you buy a home do you actually get they moving in treat from estate agents or do you just get a envelope/keyring?
 I have heard of someone receiving a box of washing up liquid etc when they bought in a new development but is this the norm? Just out of simple curiosity. 

What is the strangest / nicest/ funniest thing you’ve been given? Or nothing at all? 

I didn’t even get an envelope :-/ 

Ramouth

When I bought my first house (19 years ago) the agent gave us a voucher for the local sandwich shop which was hugely appreciated as the house needed a fair bit of work before we could move in and it was nice to have lunch sorted.  

With our recent move our selling agent gave us some change of address cards.  The agent we were buying through did absolutely nothing after negotiating the price.  We got the keys from behind the drainpipe!

someone

It's more common with house builders and mortgage companies. Sometimes it's reserved for first time buyers. I think the thinking is people who move house are more likely to in groups of friends also considering moving house. It is therefore effective marketing.

Just uttering the sentence "our mortgage is from nationwide and they sent this really nice gift box when we moved in" is by financial service standards a strong endorsement!

Can work the opposite way, at work we had a very large decadent hamper sent to the office one Christmas by a supplier . It drew attention to quite how much we was spending with the supplier with little results and the contract notice was served rather promptly.

Irishpearce26

The estate agents we bought from gave us a moving in box which included some essentials like tea, coffee, biscuits, cleaning products but also had vouchers for discounts from some relevant partners when you buy a house. We left a bottle of wine and some key information on the house when we sold. Its little touches that make the difference when thinking of moving in the future plus word of mouth is really powerful when people are making decisions.