What lies ahead for us in real estate? The same thing looking forward or looking back—change! Our business is a never-ending cycle of change. The agent who adapts quickly will be the winner. You don’t have to throw out all the rules of how you do business, but you certainly should adopt some new ones to enhance what you are doing. You should still believe in the basics, but add some new basics to your routine.

Clients come first

The first basic in any business is whom you know. Well, you know your past and current clients very well and they know who you are. You should be capitalizing on these people by being in touch with them monthly. Believe it or not, they do not think of you all the time so remind them. You are missing referrals if you are not in touch that often. At least once a year you should be calling them—they need to hear your voice. You should also send them a handwritten note once a year—that personal touch means a lot. Now, here is the new basic, email them! People really like to read personal email messages. Send them a very short note once a month. How easy can it get? And, if your email gives some information on the marketplace, tell your clients to “feel free to forward to any of their friends.” Let them be your sales team.

Prospects from open houses

We all know that we should be in touch with people who come to our open houses, but we don’t always get names, addresses, and phone numbers. How about asking for just their e-mail address? It is truly amazing today how many people will give you that, and not the right phone number. E-mail is nonintrusive. They will read your brief e-mail when they want to. With a phone call, they feel obligated to answer, and it is more of an intrusion on their time. If you send information that they find useful about the market, they will e-mail you back and usually they end up giving you all the information you need to turn them into a client.

The For Sale sign

It is pretty basic to have a sign on a property you have for sale. Does your sign have your web address and email address on it? It should! Many people would like to contact you by email today after first visiting your web site to see property. Make it just as easy to email you as it is to call.

The Farm

If you have been working a farm for any length of time, you should be getting business from it. You know that a basic is consistency so you keep on sending information monthly by U.S. mail. How about asking your farm if they would rather receive the information, say your newsletter, by email instead of regular mail? With all the scares about the U.S. mail today, this might just be the time for you to convert this basic over to email.

Prospecting for sellers using the Web

Let your web site capture sellers as well as buyers. Offer market analyses by email. They don’t have to see you or talk to you. It doesn’t take much to incorporate this into your site and you will be capturing more email addresses to add to your data bank. Most of the time people are “just curious” about the value of their home, but many times they are genuinely interested in selling. Why not be the person they call. Have lots of information on your site that they will find valuable for marketing their home—virtual tours of local schools, virtual tours of local attractions, all the local listings found on your site. Using the web means that you must actually tell people about having a web site and registering it in many search engines. The result is a basic—more people know your name and know that you sell real estate.

The bottom line is that what lies ahead for all of us is to keep doing what you are doing if it is working and add the wonderful advantages that technology gives you. Not to mention how much money you will save in the process! Embrace the changes of our business and keep the basics.

Published: February 28, 2002

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