The end of the year and the beginning of the new year are only days away as I write this post.
I was thinking about what to write about this week and felt that I should concentrate on something that can a make a big impact in the bottom line of real estate agents. Towards that end I decided to take a look at the latest NAR Profile of Home Buyers and sellers which was released back in November. If you don’t already have a copy of this document, it’s high time that you did. Go here to locate it: http://www.realtor.org/prodser.nsf/products/E186-45-13?OpenDocument&Login (Note: You have to log into purchase it for $19.95, otherwise the retail price is $249.95!)
Pay particular attention to to Chapters 3, 4 and 7 which deal with The Home Search Process (in other words, how they found the home they bought), Home Buying and Real Estate Professionals (in other words how buyers found the agent that they used) and Home Selling and Real Estate Professionals (in other words, how sellers found the agent that they used).
Lots of fascinating info to glean, not the least of which is the value of referrals. The report claims that most people found their agent through referrals from friends and family. Although some people did use an agent that they had previously used it’s a small percentage when compared with referrals.
Why is this? If you assume that most of us do a sterling job for our clients and when the transaction closes there is a lot of good will, why is it that they don’t come running to us for their next trisection?
In my opinion it’s because as an industry we are horrible at staying in touch over any length of time. We get busy with other transactions, we don’t know how to stay in touch, we don’t know what to say and so on.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a SIMPLE way to stay in touch? One that didn’t require any real investment of time or energy after the initial set up? What if you implemented such a system? Wouldn’t that have a positive impact on your bottom line? I think so…
I think I found such a system, and I think it would work for most of us. I am referring to Pat Zaby’s InTouch. Here is info about the program from his website:
InTouch is an automatic contact system creating top of mind awareness through personalized email campaigns and social networking.
InTouch will email an article personalized to each of your contacts, link it along with four other timely messages to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and post the same article to your blog each and every week – all AUTOMATICALLY! InTouch also emails birthday and anniversary greetings throughout the year.
InTouch is an integrated strategy to deliver a mixture of homeowner information to build repeat and referral business. This is the most cost effective, efficient way to maintain top of mind awareness that will result in more listings, sales and referrals.
The objective is to educate, entertain and enlighten your contacts be better homeowners from when they buy to when they sell. The communication mix includes information, strategies, tips and recommendations about values, maintenance, taxes, financing, insurance and contractors.
If this intrigues you, go check it out at http://www.patzaby.com/Products/InTouch/. You can also watch a short demo video here: http://www.patzaby.com/products/intouch/Demo/
If you have some other method of staying in touch with your past clients that you want to share, please leave a comment about it so that we all can benefit.
