Recent NAR statistics show that over 40% of Buyers and Sellers selected their Realtor based on the recommendation of a friend or family member, a Referral. Aaaah, lovely referrals! Don't you just love it when your phone rings, and someone is just so happy to talk with you, because so and so said you were the BEST REALTOR EVER and they can't wait to meet you??

Given the feeling that you get when this happens, WHY are you still flushing money down the drain on things like Just Listed/Just Sold Cards, flashy postcards that get thrown in the trash, or worse yet, newspaper ads that never even get read? And oh yes, those email flyer ads that get blasted to a gazillion agents. Who opens those, anyway, besides your seller? I know, doing things the way you've always done it feels good. Familiar feels comfortable. What if you took the money you are spending on those, and invested in a system that would generate more referrals? A system that would truly make your past clients think about referring you each and every time they heard from you? A Just Listed card doesn't remind them to send you a referral. That tells them you just listed a home. So what? Their neighbor is a car salesman and just sold a new Honda, did he send them a postcard with a picture of it? Noooooooo. (thank you Joe Stumpf for that analogy, www.ByReferralOnly.com)

We are half way through 2009. If your leads are slow right now, or you spend a lot of time and money chasing new leads, I urge you to put a plan into action to increase your referral rate to AT LEAST 50% by the end of the year. It won't take much, certainly not more than you're already spending trying to generate cold calls from prospects.

A Virtual Assistant company can help you implement the system on a regular basis, and stay on top of the project. At A Virtual Genie, we never charge you for advice. We have seen many agents try different routes to success, and we know what works! Our services are surprisingly affordable, and after you get that first referral, you'll find our services are priceless.