Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 2 Written Communication

This article is part 4 of our mini series, “Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business“. You can visit the other parts of this series by clicking the links below:

Building A Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 1 Asking for a Referral
Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 2 Written Communication
Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 3 Scheduled Mailings
Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 4 Follow Up

Written communication – for some reason there are a lot of people who think the age of the letter is dead. That written communication means texting LOL or CU L8R. Texting is a valuable tool, email is vital to your business. But a simple hand written card can do more for your Real Estate business than you could ever imagine. People are so bombarded by junk mail and bills in their mail boxes, that it is pleasant surprise to receive a letter. We’ve come to expect Birthday cards or Holiday cards but there aren’t a lot of people who simply send letters.

Sending a letter is an excellent way for you to say thank you, it was a pleasure meeting you, great to see you again, or I look forward to seeing you soon. It is also a way to let your client know that you not only heard what they said, but you are working to find a solution – It was a pleasure speaking with you today. I understand that you are having a communication breakdown with your lender, I have included a list of three lenders that I recommend, I also took the liberty of calling Mr. Smith at ABC Mortgage and letting him know what was happening with your current loan process. He will be calling you Monday morning, but a pre-qualification letter is in route now.

Sending a letter is also a vital piece of your referral based Real Estate business. Every letter or card that goes out is a request for a referral. How? By including a request either in the closing or post script of your letter or on the envelope as a seal. The seal is the easiest, but not necessarily the best way to ask for a referral.

To quote Mission Impossible “Your mission, should you decide to accept it” is to purchase a quantity of blank cards, or stationary, and postage for mailing. Make or purchase return address stickers, and referral request stickers. And finally to mail out at the very least 5 cards or letters per day.

No whining. It’s all been said before. I have no time. My hand writing sucks. I don’t know where to start. It’s too much trouble. I have to make a special trip to the post office. My schedule is too full. Etc, etc, etc. Whining doesn’t get your referral business running. So knock it off. You are in control of your time, and your life. Do something for you.

Time – write cards out while you are waiting for clients, during an open house, while you’re watching TV or right before you go to bed.

Sucky handwriting – Print, take your time, and remember practice makes perfect.

Where to start – acknowledge phone calls, send thank you’s, send a card to a client you haven’t spoken with in several months, or send a note to someone you just met – it is a terrific way to begin a relationship.

Too much trouble – I guess that all depends on whether you want to succeed in a referral business.

Trip to the post office – have you been under a rock. Everybody sells stamps. There are mail boxes all over. And you probably have a spot to put out going mail in your office. This really is a lame excuse as excuses go.

So now that that’s taken care of… write.

It is worth the time and effort you put forth to send out 5 little letters a day. My advice is to start with cards, all they take are a few lines and they’re done. Remember to include two of your business cards. As a Real Estate agent you know the value of communication, written communication of this kind is a precious commodity, use it to grow your Real Estate Referral Business.

Special note* If you are interested in making labels for return address and/or Referral request, make a trip to your local office supply store for the labels then you can follow the step by step directions in Microsoft Word for labels. It is easy to do, remember to save your file, so next time all you have to do is print them out.