Here’s something that probably sounds wrong coming from a Realtor: I don’t give closing gifts.
No gift basket. No cutting board with your last name burned into it. Nothing waiting on the table at closing.
I want to tell you why, because it isn’t about being cheap.
The real work happens long before closing day
A closing looks simple in the final photo. Everybody’s smiling, somebody’s holding keys. What that photo doesn’t show is the months before it — the pricing conversation you didn’t want to have, the staging decisions, the buyer feedback that stung, the inspection negotiation, the appraisal that came in low, the title issue nobody saw coming, the insurance deadline that landed on a Friday afternoon.
I’d rather you remember that I was there when it got hard than remember what was on the table at the end.
I answer the phone
Real estate doesn’t happen between nine and five, and the stakes are too high for you to sit there wondering whether I saw your message.
Being responsive doesn’t mean I make up an answer on the spot. Sometimes the honest response is “let me check with the title company and call you right back.” What matters is that the question is mine now, and you’re not carrying it alone.
Sometimes you need me to disagree with you
Good service isn’t telling a seller whatever price wins the listing. It isn’t telling a buyer that every house is a good house.
It’s giving you a straight opinion, showing you what it’s based on, and then respecting your decision.
That means saying the uncomfortable thing out loud — that the market may not support your number, that this repair won’t return what it costs, that this waterfront feature needs a much closer look before you fall in love with it, that this offer looks better on the surface than it actually is.
This doesn’t end at closing
A lot of my clients turn into friends. We end up sharing meals and holidays, and I’ve sold homes for the same families three and four times over.
They send me their parents, their kids, their neighbors — not because of something I handed them at a closing table, but because of how they were treated for the ninety days before it.
And yes, we still celebrate
Buying or selling a home in Florida is a genuinely big deal, and I’m never going to be the person who won’t toast it with you.
I just want the celebration to be about what we pulled off together. Not about the gift.