A real estate agent needs to do more than just place and follow property listings. The real estate market is a competitive one. Thanks to the recent boom in house prices in Toronto and most of Southern Ontario, there is more competition to sell and rent homes than ever before.As a property agent how do you stand out from the crowd? As a potential home buyer, how do you choose the right real estate agent?For agents, the answer is quite simple, but the process is quite involved. Simply put, property agents need to offer more than just listings. Thanks to MLS an other real estate listings websites, anyone with Internet access can now go online and find detailed real estate listings for any area they’re interested in. In order to succeed as an agent, you need to stand out.But how?An excellent way to do so is to offer additional services to your clients. Rather than just providing listings and details about the property, you can help your clients by assisting them with related services. For example, if someone is buying a new home, they will likely need financing. If you’re able to form strong business relationships with mortgage brokers and other financial institutions you’ll be able to help your clients secure financing.Many clients will also be interested in getting home inspections completed on their new properties. Knowing a good home inspector and helping your clients through the home inspection process will make you stand out from the pack and give you much higher customer satisfaction! The same can be said for home renovations: being able to refer your clients to skilled contractors will make the process that much easier for everyone involved!Rather than just offer clients real estate listings and help them through the offer process, think of related services that you can assist with as well. Building strong business relationships with complementary business won’t just help your clients, but it will also help increase the number of referrals coming your way!For home buyers, the search for a property agent and then the search for the right property can be a difficult – and sometimes overwhelming – task. If you’re looking to buy a home, you’ve probably spent countless hours analyzing real estate listings, hoping to spot the right place!However, for most people, finding the property isn’t the last step! As mentioned earlier, you’ll also need to focus on financing, inspections, renovations and more! Having an agent that can help you through these tasks is a definite benefit!Whether you’re buying a home or an agent listing a home, you know that real estate listings are just the first step in the process. A smooth transition from examining real estate listings to actually buying and renovating a property is paramount!