Real estate is a people business, and you need to cultivate relationships in order to generate more business through referrals. Mike Hixon offers these tips on how to find buyers.
Interviewer: Today we are talking with Mike Hixon from Hixon & Associates. Mike welcome to the program.
Mike Hixon: Thank you.
Interviewer: Glad to have you here. We are talking about buyers, of course every realtor would love to know how to get more buyers, so let's go ahead and just address the question, I am an agent I would like to find more buyers, I would like to find them with financing in place and ready to purchase, I mean I guess that would be the $65,000 question, right?
Mike Hixon: Team up, yeah, yeah. That's a good question. My sources use the lenders that have had people come to them, they come to us and say, 'Hey look, I am looking to get the financing ball rolling and then I get that phone call from that lender and they say, 'Hey, we've got a buyer, they are ready to go, I have got him pre-qualified or pre-approved and they are looking for a house, keep them below this dollar amount' and we are ready to go. Another good resource is your website; not a ton of leads come from my website, but you know if you get X amount of numbers per year it certainly is worth putting your "shingle" on there.
Interviewer: Yeah. You know at the end of the day whether you are going to farm a neighborhood or you're going to do an e-mail farming system, whatever it's going to be this really boils down to a relationship business, talk a little bit about that.
Mike Hixon: Relationship is what it's all about; I mean referrals are huge for me, there's a magazine that does some surveys that go out every year and for the second year in a row, I'm proud to say that I will be in that magazine, that comes directly from your clientele, so the relationship you build with your clientele, they are telling other people and if you don't do a good job they are telling a lot more people.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Mike Hixon: But thank goodness to the folks that I've dealt with, have spread my name around and referrals is huge. So that's how you take care of your business.
Interviewer: Obviously in the last several years there has been far more sellers than there have been buyers, I mean everybody's a little short on the buyer end. And maybe people, agents say I have got a lot of listings but I'd really like some more buyers. Any tips that you can give them to kind of balance that equation out a little bit?
Mike Hixon: Cloning! That's how..haha. How do you get those buyers? Well you know, it comes back to, you know back in the good old days you just really had to hit those prospect lists, you know you got to call people up and say, "Hey I've got a great house, do you know of anybody?' There is a prospect list that comes out that Metro List provides you've got to call every single one of them. And just remind them, 'hey if you haven't seen it yet, I got a new listing on the market and it sounds like it meets the criteria for your buyer'.
Interviewer: Obviously everybody's looking for those buyers and you have to figure out a way to kind of set yourself apart, how do you do that in today's economy and business?
Mike Hixon: I just think exposure is the key.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Mike Hixon: I mean you've got to get your name out there.
Interviewer: I tell people you just can't have enough conversations.
Interviewer: I mean when you're sitting getting your haircut and the gal or guy that's cutting your hair, ask him, where do you live? Do you rent? Do you buy? Are you in the market for buying? I happen to be a realtor, how about your family, what's your family doing for a house...?
Mike Hixon: That's right.
Interviewer: I start a conversation with the grocery store clerk, you know.
Mike Hixon: I was just going to say, I was wearing my pin the other day in the grocery store line and happened to be on the phone...
Interviewer: Yeah.
Mike Hixon: And the conversation came up, I said, "Sure! Here's my card, give me a call".
Interviewer: Absolutely, that's how it goes.
Mike Hixon: That's exposure, yeah.
Interviewer: Mike thanks, good information, appreciate it.
Mike Hixon: All right, thank you.
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photo credit: Greenbelt Alliance
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