Are You Generating Your Own Leads or Are You Relying On Your Company?

 In the Real Estate business, a constant stream of prospective buyer and seller leads means the difference between being able to pay the bills comfortably or struggling to make ends meet. 

Something happened this past week that really hit home for me the importance of working with people you find as a result of your own efforts.

First let me say that I totally love the broker I work with. Even though it's a fairly good sized company, they still give us all a feeling of
family and I treasure them for that. The situation that happened made me realize how much in control of my business I wasn't when I accepted a corporate relocation lead.

When I got the call to see if I wanted the lead I was told that the relocation company would pay a certain amount for me to show the folks being relocated a home to rent. The required time was a maximum of six hours, in one or two days and they needed to see between four and six possible choices so they could make an informed decision.

No problem, I thought. I've worked with many rental clients and once they give me the area and criteria for the home they want, we can usually find it in an afternoon of hunting. Six hours, piece of cake…NOT!

When I got their "wish list" it had the usual bedroom and bathroom count stuff. They wanted a 3 car garage and hopefully a pool. Easy, peasy.

They wanted no more than a 30 minute drive from the husband's work. Again, no problemo. What I should have paid more attention to (and believe me, I will next time…if there is a next time) were the words "picky" and "leave no stone unturned". They weren't joking.

I met with the wife early in the week armed with a list of nine homes (that she had pre-screened from a list I'd sent days earlier), a full tank of gas and high hopes that we'd find a perfect rental home by the end of the six hours. Uhhhh…no.

Mrs. X (name changed to protect the picky) had her heart set on "the one". A home she'd found online that was way bigger and $600 a month over the HIGH limit of the rent they said they wanted to spend. Oy…I knew I had my work cut out for me at that point.

She knew (because she kept mentioning it) she was only contracted to have six hours from her husband's relocation department to find a suitable home (and believe me, we found some VERY nice ones…the FIRST day), but she asked if we could look for one more day.

Not wanting to disappoint my company, this family and myself by only doing the minimum required, I agreed to meet with her the next day…which became the next…and the next. At one point she asked me to drive her to a dry cleaners because the one at her hotel was too expensive, then she left me waiting for her for 20 minutes in 100 degree heat while she went in a store to "grab a sandwich" (the restaurant food was too expensive) and then ended her house-hunting session by leaving all her lunch trash on the floor of my car!!

No, she didn't ask if I'd mind throwing it away for her. She just got out and left it. Classy, huh?

Long story short, after four days, 20 hours, 21 homes viewed, $125 in gas burned and 45o miles on my SUV, they finally decided which home to RENT. Rent, not buy. They only plan on being in it a year…Lordy!

Now the reason for this long, drawn-out story is to make my point for how important it is to create a targeted marketing plan, a system if you will, to find and attract the clients YOU want to work with.

A big part of that plan should be using Social Media as a way to reach, connect with and build a relationship with your soon-to-be clients. When you're "beholding" to your company to give you leads, you're putting the success of your business in someone else's hands.

When you attract clients by building relationships with them using Social Media as part of your marketing strategy, the control; both of your income and your time, is all yours.

I know you guys have some stories like the one I just lived through 🙂

Share it in the comments below. We'll all have a good giggle together.

Until next time…

To Your Success,
Sonrisas (smiles),

Beth 🙂