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Referrals: An Often Overlooked Way to Get Motivated Seller Leads

Shae Bynes
2 min read
Referrals: An Often Overlooked Way to Get Motivated Seller Leads

On Tuesday I spent 3 hours in a mastermind session with ten business owners across a variety of industries and one of the topics we covered at length was marketing and various methods for generating leads for our businesses.  One of the key takeaways I have from the session is that referrals are one of the most effective yet overlooked methods for generating more business and more profits.  It’s one of those things that people know is helpful, but simply don’t take the time to be proactive about making it a strategic part of marketing.

I started to think of how we as real estate investors can proactively generate referrals and thought of a handful of ideas that you may or may not have ever considered.  I’d like to share some of them with you.

Ideas for Increasing Your Real Estate Referrals

  • After completing a deal successfully with a homeowner (at the closing table), ask the seller for recommendations of others in the area who may need to sell their home (and while you’re at it, ask for a testimonial regarding their experience with you!)
  • Additionally, after completing a deal successfully with a homeowner, send a token of thanks (handwritten thank you letter or small promotional item for your company like a pen or magnet) and encourage them to recommend your company to others who need to sell their home. You can wait a couple of weeks after the closing to do this….just at the time when the homeowner has moved on and isn’t thinking much about you anymore.
  • When you have satisfied buyers for your deals, remember that they too can be a great source of referrals for seller leads. So be sure to ask!
  • When talking to a seller lead who responded to your marketing and the deal doesn’t work out for one reason or another, still ask the seller for referrals, e.g. “I really wish we could’ve worked something out here, but perhaps things will change in the future. In the meantime, do you know of anyone who needs to sell their home and can benefit from our services?”
  • When calling For Rent signs to speak with landlords about their interest in selling, don’t forget to ask them if they have an investor friends who are tired of dealing with problem tenants.

When it comes to referrals, we’d like to think that people automatically will do this and that we don’t have to ask.  That’s true in some cases, but not true in many (perhaps even most) cases.  If you want something, you should ask for it.  If you are professional, you’re likable, and people believe you can truly provide a solution, they will happily give you leads if you ask.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to generate more leads. We talked about motivated seller leads today, but we can come up for ideas for generating buyer referrals, private lender referrals….pretty much any referrals!  Just remember the obvious…a warm referral is often much stronger than a cold lead.  It’s absolutely worth spending the time and small expense to generate referrals. If you have any other ideas on effective ways to generate leads via referrals, I invite you to share them in the comments below!

Photo credit: beautydiva

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.