Any successful real estate agent will tell you that the best way to build a growing business is to do so with a strong referral game.
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"Your contacts pass business your way because they know you’re in real estate and that you’re the best person to help buy or sell a home."

Real estate referrals typically come from two places. First, referrals can come from your sphere of influence—meaning your past and present clients, your family and friends, and the people you know. Your contacts pass business your way because they know you’re in real estate and that you’re the best person to help buy or sell a home.

The second way agents get referrals is when one real estate agent passes business to another, usually because the business is in a state they’re not licensed in, or in an area (like commercial real estate) they may be unfamiliar with.

In this article, we’re going to discuss that first kind of referral, digging into actionable ways you can take your business to the next level using the people you know and their connections to fill up your lead funnel. You’ll hear from top producers from across the country and get their best advice on how to implement these strategies.
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Let’s get started!
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1. Invite Your Past & Present Clients to Must-share Events

A surefire way to get your clients talking about you with their friends and family is to invite them to be a part of events that they can’t help but talk about afterwards.

How to Get Started With This Strategy

Strategy cost: $500 to $1,000
Time commitment: 1 day plus follow-up

With COVID-19 showing no signs of slowing down, hosting in-person events is harder right now, but the opportunity is still there. Try hosting outdoor movie nights in a local park, sponsor a nature walk on a local trail, or a food truck for an hour at a beach. And, don’t forget to follow up with anyone who attends to thank them and have a referral conversation with them.

2. Share Your Favorite Spots in Town

Your past clients are less likely to give you real estate referrals if you aren’t top of mind. So, create media—real estate, and non-real estate- focused alike—and encourage people to share your content.

How to Get Started With This Strategy

Strategy cost: Between $3,500 and $6,500 a year, depending on your market
Time commitment: About four hours a week

A great way to tackle this strategy is to use a community website from Parkbench. With a Parkbench website, you can become the hub of what’s happening in your market, hosting interviews with local business owners, and making recommendations for the best spots in town.

Check out the Parkbench website to see if your market is available (they only allow one real estate agent per area), reserve your spot, and start talking up your local community’s hot spots.

3. Stay Relevant by Sharing Important Market Information

Real estate agents who think their clients’ interest in real estate ends at the closing table aren’t getting as many referrals as they could. Remember, buying real estate is an investment. Sharing relevant market information with homeowners gives them a snapshot of how their investment is performing, and makes it easy for them to share when a friend or family member starts wondering about making an investment themselves.

How to Get Started With This Strategy

Strategy cost: FREE
Time commitment: One hour a week

Head over to your customer relationship management (CRM) tool or your email marketing platform and create a template you can use to fill in the most important stats to your clients. You may need to create multiple templates in order to be relevant to multiple client types. When in doubt, create another template and make your communication more personalized. Then, pull stats from your market every other week and fill in your email templates.

4. Crossover Your Prospecting & Referral Game

Some of the most fertile client opportunities come when different marketing efforts hit the same person with different messages. Your own neighborhood is a great place to make this happen.

How to Get Started With This Strategy

Strategy cost: $100 to $500 per postcard mailing, depending on volume
Time commitment: Three hours a month

If you want to crossover your prospecting and referral game, you’ve got to start by making sure your postcard game is in shape. Check out our article all about real estate postcards, and then get started with postcards for any of your campaigns using Prospects PLUS!.

5. Ask for a Referral at the Happiest Moments

There are many instances in a real estate transaction when you get to celebrate victories. The closing table is one for sure, but don’t forget about the moment you find that perfect property for a buyer, or the moment your seller gets a full price offer, just to name a few. These are perfect moments, when emotion is high, to subtly remind your clients how important referrals are to your business and that you’d love to help their family and friends with their real estate needs as well.

How to Get Started With This Strategy

Strategy cost: FREE
Time commitment: 30 seconds

The best way to flawlessly execute this strategy is to practice. Get your referral request down to three or four sentences, and practice, practice, practice. Write it down, deliver it to your friends and family, and be ready to offer it at just the right time.