What’s the most effective way of earning a realtor’s business and referrals?
For Affiliate Service Providers

Real estate agents are highly sought after by real estate affiliate service providers. The reason being, they are known to be influencers in their community and are respected as trusted advisors by their buyers and sellers. For that matter they have control in directing the services needed in marketing properties and closing transactions, making them a great referral source. Many marketing services, photographers, website developers, printing services, property analyzing tools and platforms are looking for ways to connect with the local realtors. When the realtors put a transaction together (open escrow), closing services such as escrow companies and title insurance services, termite repair services, home inspection and home warranty companies, handymen, contractors and dozen other owners of goods and services go after their referrals.

To earn the realtors’ (anyone’s) referrals, quality service with competitive prices is expected and assumed. Quality service and competitive prices are the 2 main essentials of driving business, however it’s not enough when it becomes “the norm” among hundreds of service providers.  So, here is the challenge; what else can a business do to earn the realtor’s referrals and business? The simple answer is “Add value to the realtors’ business”. Now, let’s elaborate and figure out how. how you can achieve this.

How to add value to realtor’s business to earn their referrals?

Well, there are two vastly different approaches to gain a realtor’s business. There’s the good and honest path, and there’s the illegal and unethical path.  I purposely allude to the unethical ways to make sure the reader, whether a realtor, service provider or the consumer, is aware such practices exist, sometimes intentionally and other times unknowingly. Let’s get the unethical path out of the way.

• Buying Business – Revenue sharing with realtors on services paid for by the buyers or the sellers represented by the realtors is illegal and unethical. In other words, buying the realtor’s business by paying a referral fee, whether by cash or gifts over and above the limits set by law is a No-No. Such practices, known as buying one’s business, drive the cost of goods and services up to the person paying for it, the consumer and come with legal and financial consequences for parties on both, the giving and the receiving end of the practice.
• Negative Talk – Putting down your competitors may not be illegal or even unethical if you are speaking the truth, however, talking negatively about others does not sit well with most reputable businesspeople and will not earn you much business. Avoid putting others down at any cost.

Now that we got the bad route out of the way, let’s list a few effective ways to get business from real estate professionals.

• Socialize – Getting in one’s social circle and befriending them is definitely one way to get referral business. Find those who share your hobbies, vocations and interests and start hanging out with them. Develop partnerships with them in and around such activities and spend time with them. This is a soft and an indirect way of selling your services. People like to do business with those in their closest circles.
• Entertain – People love to be entertained, and realtors are no exception. Wining and dining realtors is a common practice. Going to ball games, shows and dinner outings will definitely earn you some realtor’s business. In certain industries, you may be prohibited in paying for the cost of such activities. However, no laws prevent you from organizing such activities, as long as everyone is paying for their own fair share of the expenses.
• Be a Legend – Holding classes and educational meetings, webinars and conducting podcasts on topics related to your field relevant to real estate practice portrays you as an authority, an expert, a legend in your field. People like to do business with legends.
• Make Them Legends: Setting up realtors as legends in their businesses is as or more important as being a legend. Conducting real estate workshops for consumers and inviting local realtors to speak in your workshops will definitely prove your speaker as an expert in their field in such neighborhoods and helps them earn the audience’s business. If such activities come with financial expenses, be sure to have the realtor to take part in paying his/her share of the expense to make it compliant with the law.
• Joint Advertising/Marketing – Realtors love to partner up with other service providers in joint marketing and advertising. Should you choose to take part in such activities be aware of the following:
  • There are rules and regulations to be observed when engaging in such activities to make sure no violation is committed. Joint advertising helps bring business to both parties and is commonly practiced among lenders and realtors.
  • Be selective in the advertising/marketing campaign you take part in. Some of these activities cost a lot of money and don’t have a good success rate.
  • Be selective with the realtor you partner up with. You want to make sure the person has a good reputation in the community, has experience in the business and is good at capturing, connecting, converting and closing the leads.
• Advertising & Branding – Advertising your services and putting your name out in the real estate community definitely helps the realtors recognize you when you approach them with a sales call.
• Problem Solving – Real estate transactions are extremely complicated, and often don’t go smoothly or as planned. Realtors face and must overcome many challenges in many different ways before the transaction closes. When such problems occur, you want to be the “go to person”, even if the problem is not related to you, your company or your service. Problem solvers score big with realtors and realtors never forget them. Be sure to at least, offer a leaning shoulder and a pair of listening ears when the realtors have challenges in their business.

Approaching realtors for their business is considered a B to B (business to business) sales, is different form a B to C (business to consumer) sales and comes with certain expenses and its own rules of engagement. There are B to B coaches available all over the place and you may find them in our coach’s corner at a very affordable cost. Most people reach the top of their game through the help of coaches and mentors, and I highly recommend it to those who can afford them. Sometimes these coaches can double, triple or quadruple your income with small tweaks in the way you approach your clients and referral sources.

I love the quote from the famous UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden:

“A good coach can change a game, a great coach can change a life.”

Here is an extension to the above quote, by yours truly:

“A collection of great coaches can change a community”