Sales success can come in many different ways, but there are fundamental actions real estate professionals can take to boost their chances of being on top. They share their success secrets.
Homesnap talked to real estate agents who performed well in 2020, showed growth in their business and grew in popularity among fellow agents.
Here’s what these agents did to remain competitive.
- It’s all about the relationships.
“It’s not the first call that’s the real challenge,” says Kendall Bonner, broker-owner of RE/MAX Capital Realty in Florida, “it’s consistently following up with people.” She uses Follow Up Boss to remind her who to call when to call them, and what to discuss with them. Next, she says, “Step two was to create templates and shortcuts.” She says her success secret is that she uses templates in her customer relationship manager (CRM) and shortcuts on her iPhone to quickly send out commonly used messages. “It was definitely a small thing that saved me tons of time. Because I personalize these automations, no one knows that it took me five seconds and three clicks to send them their personal message.”
- Reputation matters.
Some agents get attached to clients. Sarah Rendard, a broker with Windermere Realty Trust in Oregon, said it’s important for agents to build relationships with colleagues too.
“It’s not just about having a good reputation among your clients so that they will refer you to friends and family, but it’s also about focusing on industry relationships,” Renard said. “The cooperating agents are so important – when they see your name on a listing or offer you want them to be excited about working with you. Additionally, it’s important to have good mortgage brokers that you can refer your clients to, know who your trusted lenders are that have strong financing with a quick close, and finally having a good rolodex of contractors so that when you need an inspection or your buyers and seller need a quick fix, you have people you can call and will answer the phone.”
Building community
Without a doubt, many people felt lonely during last year’s lockdowns. Using other methods to reach out besides Zoom and Google Meet is imperative, said Racheallee Lacek, Realtor with Piatt Sotheby’s International Realty in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“A sense of community is an important focus this year,” Lacek said. “Agents bring families and communities together, and the sense of support given to others has become the foundation of our business. Even if we have to do it virtually, we still want to bring a sense of community. To accomplish this, we focused much of our marketing on the personal—that includes branding, custom note cards, as well as agent features in local publications. We’re also hosting virtual meetings and networking events at least 3x a week.”
In an already productive year, more agents can likely use these methods to assist them. Real estate is a relationship business no matter if it’s in person or online.
