A long, long time ago, my parents lugged me to my sister's Commencement from college. I was one of these bratty kids who always asked questions like "Why do they call in a commencement when Margot has finished college?" or "Why do they say you practice law Dad, do you ever have real games?"
Well, a few years have passed since they, and I now know the answers to these questions, at least. The key to any event is how it affects tomorrow. Commencement from college may signal the beginning of a new job or further study. It is a link; not the finale. People "practice" at law which means they conduct themselves in accordance with some reasonably well-articulated rules which we incorporate into our professional life.
Which leads me to the subject of this post--viewing the real estate closing as a form of Commencement for our relationship with the Buyer and the Seller. I have written a post in our Topkins & Bevans Blog about some of the more or less mechanical steps we engage in post-closing (http://blog.topbev.com/?P=33). What I want to speak about here is how important it has become to me, and probably to you, to stay with the parties, to the extent you can, after the Deed is signed and the keys delivered.
How we do this can vary based upon our experience from transaction to transaction. But,if it is really true that our best source of marketing is the clients we already have, does it not make the most sense to stay in front of the people with whom you already have had a successful relationship? At our firm, Topkins & Bevans, we do this with follow up phone calls and hand-written notes. We inform people with whom we have had transactions of legal news, or new laws, which would impact them. We almost always try to get them to concentrate on insurance, financial planning or estate planning issues. Anything that permits us to stay in front of people who have had positive dealings with me and my firm. The closing is history; what we do to cement he relationship is a book still to be written.
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