Referrals in the Rain

Okay, so maybe you're relatively new to ActiveRain. You're still trying to figure things out, and you're wondering whether it's really worth your while to invest the time and money to participate on this network.

For some of you, you may have the benefit of being affiliated with a national brokerage. Your 'brand' has brokerage offices all over the country, affording you a built-in referral network already in place.

For the rest of us, our brokerages may be limited to regional or even local coverage. We don't have the benefit of having locations and potential referral partners throughout the country.

But regardless of where your license falls, for the most part, when it comes to recommending referrals, we're all just shooting in the blind. Even for those who utilize designation referral directories, like CRS (Council of Residential Specialists), or other similar networking groups, there is still a significant amount of 'unknown' when it comes to passing our valued clients onto relatively unknown agents/brokers.

Enter The Rain!

I began my involvement here on ActiveRain just shortly after they launched the platform back in June of 2006. We were a smaller, more intimate group back then, just a few hundred strong. But the relationships we developed were wonderfully deep and meaningful, and have, for the most part, remained incredibly strong.

I've had a very unique vantage from which to observe the growth and successes of ActiveRain. First, as a leading point scorer, enjoying a longstanding reign as the Top Featured member in my respective State, to becoming one of an elite core of volunteer moderators, then eventually being hired on as paid staff for ActiveRain.

One of the primary benefits of 'active' membership are the relationships that are forged with like-minded professionals. Many of these friendships have become almost like extended family, but without the annoying overstayed welcomes. Through our interaction of reading and commenting on each other's blogs, exchanging emails and occasional phone calls, we've become trusted and respected allies in life. It leads to the natural result - referral partnership.

Such was the case just this past week. I had recently become reunited on Facebook with an old friend of mine that I knew when I lived in Hawaii. He had interviewed with an employer in the Dallas TX area, and asked me if I could recommend a good agent to assist him in the home buying process there.

Well, as anyone who has been on ActiveRain for any length of time knows, when you mention the Dallas TX real estate market, the first name that pops into your head is Steve Shatsky of Prudential Texas Properties.

Steve has always been a huge source of encouragement and support for me, especially when I served in my capacity as a Community Manager for ActiveRain.

And so it was with great delight that I was able to finally return the favor, in some small measure, by giving him my friend's referral.

It thrills me that I can pass this referral onto Steve Shatsky. But it thrills me even further knowing that my valued friend is in the very capable hands of a highly respected professional.

And therein lies one of the primary benefits of participating on ActiveRain.

Now, Go, and do likewise!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed professional real estate broker providing Relentless Representation and Knowledgeable Empowerment for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, HomesByHarbors.com, SoundBiteBlog, Everyday CK, @KitsapAgent and Crabbing in the Hood, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com