Ways To Grow Your Real Estate Referral Network
Building out a referral network is key in any sales career but even more so in real estate. As your business grows you will receive and give more referrals in many different related businesses that are related to real estate in one way or another.
Establishing connections with occupations such as – CPAs, real estate attorneys, marketing agencies, photographers, escrow agencies, title companies, lenders, other agents and brokers and much, much more will ultimately allow you to grow your business exponentially faster than on your own. Strengthening these relationships once they are established and passing referrals to them with the built-in expectation, they are to be passed back to you will help grow your business immensely. Building a referral network is one of the ways for real estate agents to make more money.
Why You Should Build a Referral Network
Whether you are just starting your career in real estate and just received your license in the mail or are a seasoned veteran doing millions of dollars of business every year, expanding on your referral network will increase your business without having to increase your marketing budget or much more time expended on your part.
Being strategic in connecting with a few professions that regularly see real estate referrals come across their desk like the ones mentioned above would have a dramatic effect on your business and even could be enough to sustain your business by itself if done correctly.
Perhaps you already have a network in a certain field that relates to real estate, but if not, identify a profession and then identify 3-5 professionals in your area and reach out to them to start a relationship and help you to close more real estate deals.
How to Build Your Real Estate Network
Going through your average day you are already connecting and working with professionals that see real estate referrals, they either pass these referrals to other agents or simply do not value them and do nothing with them. Educating these professionals on what you do and offering them your services will help them show more value to their own clients as they expand the services they offer as well.
Coming from a place of giving is always noticed in any sales-based position. Your clients will notice it, if you are giving them valuable information about their property versus simply asking them to sign a contract to sell their home.
In the same light, business associates will always notice if you trust them with your own clients or refer them clients they can do business with. Take one of these close associates out to lunch to learn more about their business and to see what types of clients they are looking to do business with.
Conquering Your Networking Fears
Meeting these professionals organically can be a daunting task and it is possible they already have established relationships with other agents. One way to getting straight to professionals and businesses that are looking for connections like you is to join groups where this is their sole intention to pass referrals to one another. Groups like BNI (Business Network International) and Toastmasters are both groups that focus on referral passing.
Another option is creating your own referral network with professionals you already know, you must simply just promise each other that when a referral comes in for their line of work that it will be passed to them. Creating standards and minimum requirements of the members will help everyone contribute to their full potential.
Referring other professionals in your every day life requires one to be actively involved in looking for individuals looking for services and then having the network and ability to connect them to the right professional. Many business people make an entire career of just connecting the dots between “needs” and “haves” very successfully.
Connect Outside of the Real Estate World
Connecting outside of the real estate world to related businesses is the most obvious network system to build up, but a referral network that most agents do not create is one inside the real estate world to other agents. Agents in other geographic regions (ie. city, state, country) will of course need help in your area to connect their client to a trusted source that they can rely on, that will take care of their client moving forward as they move out of their region and into yours.
Connect with these agents at trade shows or conventions that your brokerage holds if it is a national brokerage. If not, simply connect to them organically by creating a template message and reaching out to as many as you can with the same promise of referring clients to them if they move to their area.
By building and nurturing these relationships in numerous areas around your state and the country, you will be guaranteed to increase your deal flow.
Use the Commercial Real Estate World
One side of the real estate industry that most agents ignore, or do not even address is commercial real estate, mainly because of the difference between commercial and residential real estate. As you begin to build your business you will build clientele with residential needs but many times these same clients will require commercial services. If they run their own business, if they help make decisions for where they work on leasing new space, if they are looking to buy real estate as an investment, if they are looking to develop land into real estate and so much more.
Don’t lose out on these deals simply because you don’t specialize in commercial real estate. Connect with www.CommercialConsult.com and let them put you in touch with the right commercial broker for your client’s need. Offering these above and beyond normal services to your clients will separate you from other agents and will allow you to retain clientele better.
Building your network of real estate professionals and affiliates is just as important as building your network of clients that want to buy and sell. These established relationships over time will allow you to grow your business in ways you didn’t even know possible.
You will never know if the family law attorney you meet next week will have a lead for you of a divorced couple selling one house and buying two, or that client who you just helped buy a home is looking to buy a commercial property in the range of $20 Million dollars.
Be open to all opportunities that come your way, just be prepared to handle them as they come in.