In the real estate business, your clients are critical to your long and successful career. Do you wish you had more time to build relationships and show properties instead of doing administrative work? This doesn’t have to be a dream. It’s possible to spend more quality time with your clients today!! Let me explain how.
When you first got into real estate, were you told to make a list of everyone you’ve ever met, dead or alive, and craft an email or post card to send out announcing that you were now a real estate agent, ready to help them buy, sell or invest in real estate?
This is a common practice that many brokers still use as a way for new agents to get the word out about their bright and shiny license. Does it work? Well, let me ask you … if you got an email from someone you went to high school with announcing they could now sell you real estate, would you pick up the phone and call them to list your house? No? You’re not alone.
Real estate is all about relationships. If someone you trusted, respected and had a relationship with told you that they were a licensed REALTOR, would you be more prone to contact them to list your house? Probably, yes!
There are some agents out there who are really good at building and maintaining relationships. These agents seldom have to buy leads or spend hours on the phone calling people they’ve never met to see if they could help them buy a home. Instead, they have past clients singing the agent’s praises and telling their friends about the great experience they had working with this agent.
Sure, people read online reviews. They are important in this era of online shopping and social media, but it’s word of mouth from a trusted source that holds the most weight with people.
I remember as a kid having people come to our door selling vacuum cleaners or encyclopedias. They went to every door on the street and maybe sold one product a day. But the Avon Lady, whom you knew, with whom you had a relationship and whom you trusted to provide you with a great product — now that was someone you would buy from, right?
If you have the Next Door app, you know that every day someone in your neighborhood is asking for a recommendation for help with something — plumbing, house cleaning, babysitting. People want to know what others have experienced before spending money on a service or allowing someone in their home. Even more so, they want to hear about this experience from someone with whom they already have a relationship.
Now, when you’re making one of, if not the most, costly decisions of your life — buying a home — you definitely want to make sure that you can trust your real estate advisor. You are going to listen to the advice and experience of a close friend before trusting someone who calls you in the middle of dinner.
That is why building and maintaining relationships is one of the most important things a real estate agent can do. Starting with their very first client, the smart agent builds a mutually trusting relationship, being honest throughout the transaction and guiding them through the decision-making process. But this interaction doesn’t end when the client takes possession of the home. It continues on, throughout the years, as the agent continues to build rapport and trust, so that not only does the client become a friend, the client refers their friends to this agent.
This kind of relationship building takes time and effort, and it is imperative that an agent with a long-term career goal of working with buyers, sellers and investors makes it a huge part of their work day. The return on investment in your time and effort pays off exponentially the more clients you serve. It’s like that old shampoo commercial where you tell two friends about this wonderful product, and “they tell two friends who tell two friends and so on.” Soon everyone is buying this shampoo, or, in your case, everyone is calling you to help them buy, sell or invest in real estate.
With relationship-building such an important part of your career, you need to focus a lot of your time making sure you have your clients’ trust. When you spend time on administrative tasks, you’re taking time away from the most important thing you can do to ensure you have a long and profitable career. Isn’t it time to call My KY Real Estate Assistant to take these administrative tasks off your hands?
Call us today!