Seamless home preparation with White Glove
If your home needs a little bit of work before sale, this is the video for you. I speak with Ila Corcoran about White Glove, powered by Zoom Casa.
The Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty White Glove program is designed to provide luxurious and comprehensive home preparation services with professional project management and no upfront costs.
It's a terrific way to spruce up your home if you're short on time, or would rather save yourself the hassle of managing multiple vendors to get your home looking its best.
In this video, you’ll learn:
How Zoom Casa and White Glove help both sellers and buyers in the real estate process
Why even small upgrades can make a huge difference in how quickly your home sells
The surprising (and generous) pricing and terms for Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty customers
Realogics Sotheby's International Realty recently partnered with Zoom Casa to roll out their brand-new White Glove home preparation program. On the heels of this incredible debut, I was able to connect with Ila Corcoran and explore all the exclusive services White Glove has to offer.
Joe: Hello, I'm Joe Patterson with Realogics Sotheby's International Realty. I'm a real estate agent in Seattle and the greater Seattle area. I'm really excited because our brokerage just unveiled a new partnership with Zoom Casa. Ila Corcoran is here to tell us what Zoom Casa is and why our White Glove program is such a valuable service to clients in the Seattle area. Would you mind introducing yourself and Zoom Casa?
Ila Corcoran: Thank you so much for having me! My name is Ila Corcoran and I'm the business development manager with Zoom Casa. Recently, we partnered with Sotheby's to roll out our brand-new White Glove program, powered by Zoom Casa. It's a really great tool for sellers as well as buyers. This program helps buyers sell their homes for top dollar and also allows a new owner to customize their new home to their liking. How ever we can help you, we're here. We're a concierge service—much like at a hotel—so anything you may need, we can provide.
Joe: That's awesome. The reason why I'm so excited about this program, first and foremost, is because, in Seattle, we have a lot of older houses. Many of these houses haven't been updated, which can deter potential buyers when they arrive and are expecting to see modern fixtures and upgrades. I feel like Zoom Casa's White Glove program is really going to resonate here in Seattle. Can you tell me about how you guys operate? What does the process look like when a client or realtor calls Zoom Casa?
Ila: It all begins with an agent submission. The realtor will submit a listing online and it comes directly to our team to look over. We then pre-approve the property to ensure there's enough proceeds to pay for any services because we allow for all our services to be paid at the close of escrow. Which really makes our program even more accessible because there's no money due upfront. We are covering everything, we're managing everything, and we're also the design support to help you make the right choices to get an amazing return.
As you mentioned before, Seattle has a lot of older homes and typically 5% of the homes are perfect, while maybe 5% of the homes are bombed out and need to be sold to an investor to be completely redone. Then there is that middle 90% that are homes that have been lived in; they're maybe a little older and need a little sprucing up. For the 90% that fall into that middle category, we wanted to be their solution. We want to provide support to help sellers get the return they're looking for and open up the buyer pool to as many people as possible.
Once an agent makes a listing, our team will call within one business day to get the process started. Typically, that's a design consultation. We have a team of professional designers who've been trained to prescribe the right scope of work that will help a home perform. And that means maximizing the budget rather than spending more, right? We want to make those conscious decisions that are going to help the home perform, rather than cost the seller an arm and a leg. Our design team is trained to support both agent and client and get the ball rolling. Maybe next steps mean calling a painter and getting them scheduled. Maybe next steps mean having a stager come take a look. Whatever those next steps are, our design team will call you within one business day to line those up and get the process going.
Joe: Wow, that's great. So, your program is introduced by the real estate agent and then becomes a collaboration between real estate agent, your project manager, and the design team. Who has final say? Is it a collaborative team process?
Ila: It's very much a collaborative process; it's a bespoke offering. Every home is drastically different. And every client is different, too. Even if two homes are similar, the clients are different people with different needs. We try to be as collaborative as possible while curating the entire process to the needs of that particular property and client. But, ultimately, the client is the one with that final say.
We set up those next steps and we get all the bids. Let's say a home needs painting and staging. We put those together into a proposal for you—as the agent and the client—to review, and the client then makes the decision whether or not to move forward. This is all provided at no cost with no obligation. The client gets to take a look and evaluate that proposal, full of all the bids and suggestions from the designer, before making the final decision.
Joe: You mentioned that there's no obligation to the client. That's pretty fantastic. I'm surprised there's not any sort of retainer. Is that because you're working with reputable brokerages, like Sotheby's International Realty?
Ila: We've partnered at the brokerage level and at the brand level with Sotheby's. We've rolled this out across the country. We are on the east coast, we're on the west coast, we're in the South; we've really built this presence. White Glove is a proprietary Sotheby's offering. There's no White Glove anywhere else.
We created this business model to really help sellers and agents. Our process begins once the agent has obtained the signed listing agreement, so we know these are serious sellers. These are sellers that have signed with a reputable Sotheby's agent and chosen to take a look at our White Glove service. Because of the relationship we've built with Sotheby's, and because of the reputable agents that Sotheby's has, we can offer these services with no obligation to their clients.
Joe: You mentioned that the program's expenses are paid out of the closing costs. Are there any additional fees that you guys add on for the design services? How do you guys get paid?
Ila: I get this question all the time: "How are we getting paid? How is it factored in?" And the best way to explain it is that we are partnering with reputable agents and we are offering sellers home improvement services. And so, vendors partner with us in order to be available to those clients. We ensure that our partners are licensed and insured. We vet them and we pay them on time. We know our vendors are a huge part of our program's success and so we treat them really well. In turn, they offer us their very best pricing.
Let's say a vendor has three, four, maybe five projects with us at a time; they have no problem being paid sub-10% of what market rate would be and we can wrap in our margins, and ensure that no markup is passed on to the client, while still meeting our margins. Typically, we're being paid anywhere from 10% to 20% within the bid and we negotiate that directly with the vendor. We don't require them to buy-in to join our platform, and we'll work with any preferred vendor that you may have, as long as they're vetted and approved. We negotiate that directly with them and ensure that it's all wrapped in and as seamless as possible for the client.
Joe: Let's say we're working with a client and maybe their brother-in-law or their uncle owns a roofing company. Would this client be able to put forth that vendor, have you guys vet them, and then use that company that they know and trust, if everything works out on your end?
Ila: Yes, absolutely. We think that having a great experience with a vendor makes all the difference. Regardless of how great our services are, we're the liaison, and the vendors are the ones that are really doing the work. We want every client to have a good experience and a huge part of that is allowing clients to work with people they've already built relationships with. So, if we can vet them and approve their license and insurance, they can be approved regardless of their relation to you or the client. We have those requirements—those license and insurance requirements—as criteria, so not anyone can use the platform, which is intentionally set up to protect everyone, especially the client. But yes, as long as a client's brother-in-law or whomever is licensed and insured, they can absolutely be a part of the process of being an approved vendor for our service.
Joe: What are the limits? With Sotheby's, we sometimes work with homes that are priced in the millions. There's a lot of homes, especially along the lake, that have really big price tags but haven't been updated in 20-30 years. How do you guys determine how much you're going to do for a home that doesn't have that much equity?
Ila: That's a great question. There are a few other concierge programs out there and we've really made a conscious effort to be different. We try not to put those limitations in terms of maximum or minimum or required scope. We can get a call from an agent where the home just needs staging. Or we may get a call and the home needs a lot more. And the higher the price tag, the higher the cost will likely be.
We take a really holistic approach to underwriting: we look at the equity in the home; we do a soft credit poll, just to ensure the client is who they say they are; and just generally assess risk. That really allows us to do our underwriting and pre-approve the client regardless of the price point. We put this underwriting process in place to support the homes that may have less equity; the homes that may be fully paid off and the credit score becomes significantly less important because the owner has an abundance of money to play with; and the homes that may have a little less but they meet our threshold and they have a good enough credit score. We can tailor our services to the client.
We also have multiple solutions. We've partnered with financial partners to ensure that if, for example, a client doesn't get approved, we can offer them another solution, and they can still use our services by using a more flexible payment plan. It's hard to determine how it will go because every client and home is so different, but we really try to offer as many flexible solutions as possible in order to meet the needs of clients at varying price points and equity ranges.
Joe: I think you've touched on a really important point: there's no formula for real estate. We have to be very intuitive with the way we serve each individual client and each individual home to make sure the client has a great experience. You also mentioned a couple of other programs out there; how do you guys differentiate yourself from the competition?
Ila: It's super important to have differentiating factors and, to be honest, we have quite a few. There are various other programs in the marketplace, including some that function similarly to a general contractor and some that are really just financing tools. Many of the programs you may come across are really just cash advance program. They don't have a design team; they don't have project managers. It's not a bespoke curated offering. It's just a credit card or cash advance that many sophisticated sellers can easily access on their own if they need to.
The goal for many sellers is to get the return that they they're looking for and, in order to get to get to that goal, they need support. That's why we have a professional team that doesn't just front the money, we put our thoughts behind the process. We have designer-curated improvements that are engineered and curated for that particular property to help it perform. We're also a third party, so we allow your agent to focus on selling the home. We're separate from your brokerage, we're a partner. And so, we don't provide a conflict of interest, which is really helpful to the client because the client has the peace of mind knowing their agent and brokerage is a fiduciary and representing their best interests. They don't have a vested interest. We do, so we can handle that part.
We also vet our vendors. In many cases, other concierge programs have very limited vendor vetting. It's really important to us that we know who's walking into each home; that we can verify who they are; that we can approve them; that we can hold them accountable if we need to; and that we can be in touch with them and know what's going on along the way. That's a huge part of what we do, and not all programs are going to offer that.
I touched a little bit on the fact that there's no conflict of interest when you work with us. Other programs are funded by brokerages. The brokerage has a vested interest and that may bleed into the decisions they make when representing a client. We also don't have dollar scope limits. Nearly all other programs—whether it's a general contractor-like program or a concierge-like program—have some sort of minimum or maximum, especially given the current state of the market; programs have been scaled back and reduced significantly. This puts a lot of limitations on which homes actually qualify. With a general contractor, their markup is substantial and that translates into the cost. Many general contractors also have a minimum as well.
Those are some of our key differences. We also do offer a satisfaction guarantee because we are involved in every step along the way. We know who these vendors are, right? We've approved them, we have their number, we can hold them accountable. If we manage everything, then we know who's supposed to show up when, and if they don't, we know who to call and replace or speak to as needed. We can really ensure a homeowner's satisfaction is at the forefront of our mind because we're there every step of the way.
Joe: Do you have any concrete examples or maybe any case studies that you could share to help give people an idea of budgets or details or anything to that effect?
Ila: Absolutely. Let me share with you a really successful project we had recently. This was on the west coast in Southern California. I'll go ahead and read a quote from the agent, "Throughout the whole timeline they maintained professionalism and ultimately were able to have honest conversations with the homeowner on what needed to be done. Once the house was listed, we had multiple offers within the first week. After my experience, I highly recommend White Glove powered by Zoom Casa as well as the client and I were extremely happy with the whole selling process."
This turned into a two-week project. We were able to help the client save a lot of money because this actually occurred right when the lockdown first started. So, we went to the seller and said, "Hey, we got this quote for staging but, at a time like this, no one's going to be really visiting the home, so let's opt for virtual staging." This was a more cost-effective option and, like she said in her testimonial, she had multiple offers within the first week. People were able to look at the home, virtually, and still make offers and still see the potential, even though they weren't able to safely walk the home due to the current state of things. We were able to be flexible and really curate the approach based on the needs of not only the client, the property, and the buyers in the area, but also the needs created by current events.
The renovations totaled about $24,000 and they sold the home for $600,000 with multiple offers in that first week. It was a home that had a lot of things. There was a renter living inside previously and they left a few things behind. They left the home in a bit of a disarray, so we were able to clean it up, get that virtual staging in there, and give buyers a vision of what this home would look like when they lived in it.
Another home we had sold for just north 3.7 million dollars. The renovations were about $70,000 and I'll read another testimonial from this agent as well, "White Glove powered by Zoom Casa was my lifesaver. I was given an estimate of six weeks of completion and was surprised with a five-week completion. The entire team consists of consultants and ultimately champions." Which was super nice of her to say! We were definitely there for her as much as we could be; our designer worked the home and a lot of what was done was just brightening up dark spaces. And, to my recollection, I don't believe they were in the country during the process. We were there to manage everything, work with the agent, help them get this done, brighten up the home, and help it sell as quickly as possible.
Joe: What if someone is from a boutique independent brokerage? Maybe not even in Washington or Seattle. If they're interested in working with Zoom Casa, do you guys have any sort of minimum requirements? What would that look like if they actually wanted to get in touch with you to explore this option for their own brokerage?
Ila: We only do brokerage-level partnerships. We don't do one-offs with individual agents. We are somewhat particular. We try to be careful as to who we align with, as anyone does when they're searching for partnerships. So, that's just something to keep in mind, but we do partner at the brokerage level. If a brokerage has a serious inquiry, we may be able to have a conversation, but we won't partner one-off with independent agents and we won't do any discount brokerages or eye buyers.
Joe: Did you have anything more to add? Maybe a question you or I didn't touch on?
Ila: I think the only thing I would throw in is a reminder that the previous examples I gave have a dollar amount that's significantly higher than our median. A lot of homes just need refreshing, so it's not expected that you're going to come to us with a $70,000 job or even a $20,000 job. We'll gladly take a $5,000 or less job based on the home's price point and what it needs. I just like to remind people that White Glove isn't only for minor renovations or expensive redesigns; we're here for both. In some markets, our median job price is significantly lower than others. That really speaks to what the price point is there, what the market is like, and what the needs of the homes are. Our goal is to be a solution at every point in the market. Regardless of who you are or what your home looks like, if you need us to help you curate the right improvements, we want to be there to help you regardless of what your home looks like now or how much it will cost.
Other than that, I think we covered a lot of important aspects of the program and we're really excited to be working with you especially and any of your clients.
Joe: Thank you so much, Ila. If you want to learn more, I encourage you to reach out to either Ila or I. I'm really excited about this and I think we're going to be hearing a lot more about Zoom Casa in the future. This is definitely the start of a really long and incredible partnership between Zoom Casa and Sotheby's International Realty.
Ila: I'm so thankful I was able to spend some time with you talking about the program and I look forward to meeting with your clients and discussing this further as well!