Every real estate training class, article, webinar, or book will introduce to you the power of effective networking in real estate. Having an expansive list of leads and potential clients puts you ahead of the game and gives you the upper hand on where to look for your next deal. Many agents turn to family, friends, and local events to look for clients to add to their pipeline and begin marketing to. However, many agents have not successfully leveraged their own network of realtors that they’ve met or worked with over the years. Your industry peers are equally as important to leverage as potential clients.
Learn From Each Other
The real estate industry is continuously evolving with new ways of marketing, new laws, and changing best practices. Take the time and make an effort to connect with realtors who you admire and look up to. Offer to take them out to lunch or coffee and pick their brain on industry best practices or helpful tools and systems they’ve learned over the years. Top real estate agents share that at one time in their career, they’ve asked someone to mentor to them. By connecting the new with the experienced, both parties end up reaping the rewards. When established properly, agents can learn news skills under the direction and advice of a seasoned expert and vice versa, the seasoned expert can learn new skills and tools from the person they are mentoring.
Beyond business objectives, it’s important to leverage your network for social well-being purposes. Taking the time to get together and talk for reasons that aren’t related to strictly business is a great way to decompress while strengthening your peer relationships. Sometimes the feeling of competition can put a strain on relationships with your local realtors.
Collaborate on Marketing
Digital marketing has now become the #1 way real estate agents receive and manage inbound leads. With the power of social media advertising, realtors can target potential buyers and effectively walk them through the funnel. An important aspect in marketing, is marketing yourself! Pair up with other agents who you admire and take a cross marketing approach. You can each leverage each other’s online network to double your exposure. Create a plan on how together, you can establish yourselves as thought leaders in the industry and both add content that is engaging and beneficial for the viewer. Or if one of you is having a hard time getting traction on a property, having other realtors share with their network is a great way to get new exposure. Top real estate agents have also began to group together to create successful podcasts on industry news.
Refer Leads to Each Other
Referring leads and clients to other realtors can sometimes be a tough line to cross and make many realtors stay away from the thought altogether. Other realtors find it valuable in helping them leverage their network and strengthen both their peer and client relations. In real estate, there are times when you have done your best with a client, but have been unable to help them any further. Although, it may hurt to give them up, it’s important to place them in good hands and even help out your industry peers. They may do the same for you one day. However, it is extremely important to asses the situation and only make the referral if you think the client and realtor are a good fit. If things go South between them, you don’t want any responsibility or damage to your reputation. Really be sure to have complete clarity on what the client wants and give detailed notes to the new realtor to best prepare them for the relationship.
Industry Events
Networking within your industry means more than meeting with other agents. Industry networking events are a great way to meet vendors, developers, and designers, who are all important to engage with to diversify your experience and knowledge. Top real estate agents say that building a solid list of vendors is great for client relationships. You can offer solutions instead of sending them to look online, and of course it helps establish trust and commitment with clients which leads to great referrals. Pro tip: A great home inspector is a powerful tool to help you limit your liability and build trust with your network.
Many realtors let the fear of competition get in the way of leveraging their most powerful network; their peer realtors. These fellow industry professionals provide valuable insight and opportunities on new market information and innovations that you may be unaware of. Working together can also help with your digital content strategy and broaden your online reach. If you’ve been slacking on building your realtor network, use LinkedIn to connect with new peers, join online groups, and learn about local real estate events.
