As a multifamily real estate agent I've witnessed numerous times how empathy has earned real estate investors a big win not just in the deal they are working on, but on future transactions.
All too often in the real estate investment world buyers and sellers are only looking out for themselves. Others notice that way of operating and tend to shy away from future transactions with those real estate investors. The amateur investor criticizes the other party's actions or decisions without ever considering what their needs are or reasons for their actions. The Elite Investors ask questions. They don't pass judgment. They look deeper to understand what the buyer or seller's true concerns are in order to create a win-win for both parties. When both parties feel like they are being heard and that the other side is truly trying to accommodate one's concerns or goals, it not only makes that transaction smooth, it dramatically increases the probability that one of three things will happen: 1. either those two parties will want to transact again, 2. they will tell others about how wonderful it was to deal with the other side, or 3) both 1 and 2 above.
This isn't rocket science information to understand, but the implementation of it consistently over a long period of time is a rarity. Take it from a real estate agent with over 20 years of experience and hundreds of transactions under my belt.
I'll conclude with this, 79% of my closings (and probably a similar percentage among other brokers) are done with the same investors over and over again. Why is that? Because when real estate agents and brokers find real estate investors that consistently do all the right things, including portraying empathy, we latch on to those investors tightly and bring them more and more deals.