As a real estate agent, networking is vital to your success. Your network of contacts can provide customer referrals, vendors for clients, and other valuable business contacts that can help you in your career as a real estate agent. Networking as a real estate agent doesn't have to be difficult. Here are a few easy ways to boost your networking:
How to Network as a Real Estate Agent
Set Networking Goals
Your goal in networking should be to grow a network of vendors that you can refer clients to and that can refer their clients to you. Finding contacts who are in a similar or related industry, but don’t directly compete with you, is a great way to do this.
Contractors, architects, interior designers, moving companies, and carpet companies are all great contacts to add to your network. Make it your goal to add at least one new contact to your network a month at a minimum.
Face-to-Face Networking
Networking and visiting potential contacts in person are great ways to develop professional networks. You can do this if you:
Find a local business networking organization and join and attend their events. These events are one of the best ways to market yourself and network within your industry. Examples of these organizations would be a chamber of commerce, professionals' groups such as the National Association of Realtors or other realtors groups, and men's or women's groups.
Make a list of local businesses that could benefit your clients. Stop by these businesses or call and ask to set up a meeting with the owner/manager. Bring a treat for the staff, then talk with them about their business. Ask good questions about what they do and how they find clients. Ask them the best way to refer your clients to their business, and request brochures and business cards from them.
Create care packages for new clients. In these packages, put the brochures and business cards from your contacts, as well as coupons for these businesses. This is a great place to put in branded pens and other items. Adding a $5 or $10 gift card to a local coffee shop is a nice touch. This lets you strengthen your client relationships while also promoting and referring clients to your business network.
Online Networking as a Real Estate Agent
Social Media
Social media is a great way to market yourself as a real estate agent and is also a vital tool for networking and growing your contact list. LinkedIn and Instagram are great ways for you to connect with clients and refer your clients to other businesses. A few ways you can do this:
Share quality content. On Instagram, this can be sharing pictures of homes you have listed for sale and tagging vendors in them. For example, if you had the home professionally staged, tag the person who staged the home and give them a shout-out. If a client completes a remodel before or after moving, ask to share a before and after of the space. This will allow you to make your client feel extra special, but also allow you to be able to share the work of business contacts with other clients who may benefit from their services.
Check-in on social media. If you attend an event, share a selfie or image from the event and mention the hosting company or organization and any interesting new contacts you find that could benefit your clients.
Follow and add people to your online profiles. These could be valuable contacts for your clients.
Website
Create a website for yourself. Highlight your experience, link to your listed properties, and share important info with clients. You can use your website for networking as well by:
Creating a trusted vendors page. List out and link to people in your network. Refer clients to this page and share this page on your social media pages.
Allowing people in your network to write guest blogs. This is a good way to build up content that you can share online to grow your online network. It's also a good way to strengthen your relationship with your business contacts.
The Benefits of Networking
Networking provides you opportunities for growth both personally and professionally. On a professional level, adding business contacts allows you to provide more value to your clients. You can give them info on and contacts for services they may need for their new property.
On a personal level, networking gives you the opportunity to learn more and add to or strengthen your skillset. By talking to and learning more about other people and what services they offer, you can increase your knowledge. Networking also gives you the chance to make new friends who work in related industries that you might not otherwise ever meet.
Networking for Success
Networking can be a lot of fun for you and a wonderful way to develop friendships in your industry as a real estate agent. Once you have grown your network, you can easily maintain these relationships to keep your network strong. A few hours a week dedicated to networking goes a long way when it comes to developing and maintaining business relationships.
Whether you're looking to become a real estate agent or add to your networking skillset as a current realtor, Aceable can help. We offer online pre-license courses for those just starting out, as well as training courses for professionals looking to up their game.