How To Build A Real Estate Network | Wholesaling & Flipping Houses

Networking is a powerful marketing tool in every profession and real estate is no exception. In the words of a renowned investor, Warren Buffet, ‘’If you are alone you will move fast but if you are more than one you will go far.’’ Basically, you will go far with a great real estate network. This guide explains how you can establish a strong real estate network for yourself & your company.

The Greatest Investment You Can Make is in Your Real Estate Network

Networking is an essential strategy when it comes to a real estate business growth. Perhaps, you are just joining the real estate industry. Maybe you are an accomplished realtor. Whatever the case, professional networking should be a crucial component in your business plan. The more people you interact with, the higher your chances of attracting more deals. Basically, your real estate business will benefit from networking in many ways.

Real Estate Networking will enable you to acquire important contacts to grow your business. In real estate, people are either selling or buying. The more exposure you have to buyers and sellers, the higher your chances of becoming an important member of this community. By attending the real estate network events, you will meet seasoned investors that will offer you advice and share secrets of making it big in this industry.

In the real estate business, you will need service providers like lenders, title companies, and contractors from time to time. One of the best places to find these people is at networking events. A well developed real estate network will enable you to easily get referrals for the best service providers. Additionally, a solid network can help you get real estate deals ahead of the rest.

Networking Will Jumpstart your Real Estate Career

Although real estate is one of the most lucrative careers today, it takes effort to start reaping its benefits. One thing that is for sure is that you can’t become successful in real estate if people don’t know you and what you have to offer. Through networking, you develop contacts and ideas for promoting your business.

The people that you meet at networking events are either buyers or sellers. By interacting with them, you will easily get your first deal and even acquire future clients. Your presence at networking events gives the impression that you are ready and serious about what you do. That alone is enough to convince investors to give you a try.

During your interaction with different industry players, you can find people that know individuals or groups that may be interested in your offer or ideas. Even if you don’t get a client from your first networking event, you still come out with important contacts for future investments. Through these contacts, you can get valuable information for jumpstarting your real estate career.

How to Network and Create Connections in Real Estate Investing

To grow your real estate investments through networking, learn to create and build useful contacts. There are many ways to network and create connections in real estate investing.

Some of the key ways to do this include:  

• Joining the local Chamber of Commerce

Local real estate network meetings by groups like chambers of commerce present some of the best places to generate connections. Such groups are very proactive in promoting the businesses of their members. Some of the benefits of chamber of commerce membership include monthly events, credibility, community events and other opportunities.

• Investments and networking clubs memberships

These clubs have regular business-oriented events. An example of a networking group is the Business Network International.  Joining networking clubs provides an opportunity to meet accomplished industry players with higher purchasing power.

You can also network and create important connections in real estate investing by attending conferences and joining volunteer or charity programs. Online social network platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp also have provisions for creating groups where members can interact and share ideas. By joining online communities that focus on real estate investing, you can get many business connections. Interactions during everyday travels offer opportunities for creating connections.

What Local Schools Don’t Teach You about Building a Network for Real Estate

School is important in equipping you with the necessary skills to maneuver in this industry. However, you won’t learn everything in school. In fact, some of the best lessons are learnt outside the classroom.

One of the things that local schools will not tell you about building a real estate network is to put relationships first. To successfully build a network, you must show the people that you interact with that they are important than the deals that you are after. You are likely to attract many buyers and sellers if they know you have their best interests at heart.

Local schools recommend that you attend events and seminars that are organized by other real estate investors. However, you can significantly build a proper network by creating your own events. Organizing your own events gives you an opportunity to build your brand and position yourself in the industry. If you can’t create your own events, team up with seasoned experts in the industry to attract more people.

Another thing that local schools won’t teach you about building a real estate network is that you should have fun at it. Don’t always focus on converting people into clients at your first meeting sessions. Instead, take time to know people first and make friends before bring in the business aspect.

The Importance of Business Cards

In the current digital age, most business activities are automated. However, printed business cards still play a critical role. This is particularly true when it comes to developing and building a business network. Business cards enhance the legitimacy of a brand while promoting brand awareness and expanding the bottom-line in many ways.

Although Smartphones have overtaken most communications, they do not make exchanging business contacts easier or faster. Some people require a lot of convincing to even give you their contacts. Instead of enduring all the hassles, simply hand over your business card to such people.

A business card provides your business a legitimate appeal. Without much research, your business card tells people who you are, what you offer, your location and contacts. Professionally designed business cards show people your readiness to do business even without making an introduction.

Unlike emails or other automated communication channels, business cards do not have downtime. They can be accessed anywhere and anytime when people want to use them. Handing out your business cards will create several business opportunities. In case the recipients contact you later, you can use the chance to show them why they should join your real estate network.

Where/ How Can I Find Real Estate Networking Opportunities?

There are many places where you can find networking opportunities. Basically, opportunities for real estate network can be acquired through interactions at the events by the local chamber of commerce, investments and networking clubs, online and even everyday travels. However, obtaining membership to these clubs and attending the events is not enough to get the best networking opportunities.

You should do more research about different events that are organized by the clubs and their attendees. This will help you know who is credible and who will be useful in your network. When interacting with people, look for those with good vibes and potential of success. Try to associate with people whose goals are aligned with yours. Contacts with mutual goals and causes provide a great way to swiftly develop your portfolio.

To find worthwhile networking opportunities, talk to people about what you are looking for. Whether it is at chamber of commerce events, investment and networking clubs, daily travels or online, let your contacts know the particular audience that you are targeting for instance. Though they may not be what you are looking for, they might refer you to contacts that fit your desired network.

You can also get better networking opportunities by interacting with people that challenge you. Seasoned investors can offer you referrals as well as expert opinions that will facilitate your endeavors.

What is the National Association of Realtors?

The National Association of Realtors is the largest trade association in America with over 1.2 million members. Founded in 1908, the association brings together active licensed real estate professionals, called realtors. Members of the association include various players in both residential and commercial real estate. These include property managers, brokers, salespeople, counselors, and appraisers among others.

NAR membership comprises of individuals, state and local associations. In addition to having more than one million members, the association represents 54 states or territorial bodies as well as 1,400 boards. Guam, U.S Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are members of the NAR.

The organization was created to standardize practices in the real estate industry and to unite realtors with an aim of exerting combined influence on matters that affect the industry. Today, the mission of the National Association of Realtors is to enhance profitability and success of its members by influencing and shaping the real estate industry. It advocates for the right of its members to own, use and transfer real property.

The association also focuses on developing standards for efficient and ethical business practices in the real estate industry. Principles of real estate firms must be the first to join NAR. After that, all appraisers, agents and brokers that are affiliated with them join but their membership is optional. Members of the local associations have automatic membership privileges.

Joining the National Association of Realtors is a great way to immediately build your real estate network.

Keeping Up With the Real Estate Market

The real estate market is constantly changing and the only way to stay ahead of the curve is to stay updated on the prevailing market trends. Keeping up with the market gives you better chances of making informed real estate investment decisions. But how do you keep up with the trends in the real estate market?

One of the best ways to staying updated on the real estate market is by using predictive mobile apps or software. An example of such resources is the Mashvisor. This software analyzes residential and commercial properties in the US market. It uses algorithms to estimate their performance in the market.

Having local investors with knowledge about the workings of the real estate market in your real estate network can also keep you updated. Local investors will not only provide useful information but also assist you in obtaining great deals in the market. This is why building your network is so important!

Offline and online publications can also keep you updated on the real estate market. Unlike printed copies of real estate books, press releases and magazines, the internet has the latest information. Trusted online platforms for real estate news like Realty Times and Forbes offer reliable information on the prevailing conditions of the market.

How Can I Generate More Real Estate Leads?

A serious realtor is constantly on the lookout for new strategies for generating more leads and expanding their real estate network. While there are many ideas on how to go about it, not all can work for you. That means you must be keen to pick and practice ideas that will effectively help you get more real estate leads.

The internet offers many options for generating more leads. One of them is using the Facebook Messenger Ads. Facebook Messenger Ads allow you to start live conversations with people whenever you click an ad. Listings on leading real estate websites can also help you reach out to a huge audience. You can also generate more real estate leads through interactions on online social media platforms like LinkedIn.

Developing your own website can also help generate more leads and expand your real estate network. However, your website should provide something unique from competitors. For instance, you can offer more exclusive content like e-books that target your audience.

You can also opt to simply buy leads. This entails buying the contact information of potential clients in a particular geographic area from market leaders. After obtaining the contacts, you choose the best means to reach out to them. For instance, you can use text based concierge service, hand written notes, or strategic calling. Organizing and hosting community based events can also generate more real estate leads.

How Important Is It To Stay in Touch With My Real Estate Network?

Keeping in touch is of utmost importance when it comes to establishing and expanding a real estate network. When you communicate with other realtors often, you get information about the working efforts. You also get information that enables you to make better decisions. Though you can figure out some things alone, there are details that you may not get your hands on without staying in touch.

Keeping in touch offers you a chance to share ideas with other players in the industry. This enables you to widen your knowledge base. Good contacts will give you heads up in case of something that requires your immediate attention. This will help you avoid mistakes and get opportunities before others notice that they even exist.

In addition to other realtors, you should keep in touch with potential clients. This shows them that you truly value them. It’s also great step towards in enhancing customer loyalty. People want to know that someone is watching their backs. Staying in touch with clients shows them that you are truly committed to their welfare. This enhances their chances of share information with others thereby helping you expand your network.

How to Increase My Real Estate Business

Although there are many strategies for growing a business, not all will expand your real estate network. Here are the major ideas that will help you grow your business.

Building networks with local realtors

Forming relationships with local realtors is a great way to get more referrals. These referrals can be lucrative business opportunities.

Social media marketing

Promoting your business on social media platforms is also an easy and inexpensive way to reach out to the online community in real time. This will enable you to attract more potential clients and increase your business profitability.

Proper staging

When selling a property, focus on making a killer first impression. Instead of showing people photos of empty houses, get furniture and other essentials to make the home look more appealing. This will lead to fast sales, thereby ensuring growth of your business.

Expired and For-Sale-By-Owner Listings

Expired listings are quite competitive. These can be a more reliable source of business to your company. FSBO listings tend to attract more attention from real estate agents. These can also give you an upper hand.

Other ways to increase your real estate business include reaching out to leading investors, just sold scripts, attending real estate events, and secondary transactions.

Tips to Build Your Real Estate Network as a New Real Agent and Investor

As a new entrant in the business, building a real estate network can be one of the most challenging tasks. One of the things that you should focus on is forming alliances with like-minded players in the real estate industry. Conduct research on the industry leaders and interact with them for mutual benefits.

Though you yearn to sign off your first deal, don’t focus your efforts solely on that. Start by interacting with people on a social level to gain their trust then reveal your reasons for creating the networks as you proceed. If you sound or seem to business-minded, people will think you only want to get their contacts.

Real estate events are the best place to create and build networks. As a beginner, attend as many events as possible. Attending these functions will offer you the opportunity to meet different people with interest in real estate. These can easily become part of your network.

Whether you are starting off as a real estate agent or an investor, being part of the local community is critical to getting reliable contacts.

How to Effectively Use Social Media for Real Estate & for Your Advantage

Social media is a powerful tool for creating and growing a real estate network. There are many social media options to take advantage of. One of them is posting photos and videos on Instagram to generate leads. Instagram has over 700 million users that access the site conveniently from their mobile devices.

Maintaining presence in Facebook is also critical to social media networking. With more than 2 billion users, Facebook is undoubtedly one of the best social media platforms. To effectively grow your network, post content frequently.

Tweet about your listings frequently to enhance your promotional efforts. When tweeting, use hashtags that resonate with your networking goals.

Creating your personal real estate brand on LinkedIn is a must. Unlike Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, LinkedIn is mainly for professionals. It has fewer users but it’s quite a robust engagement system. LinkedIn includes provisions for private messaging, discussion forums and blogging.

When using social media to develop your real estate network, be proactive in management. After posting stuff, reply to comments and respond to concerns addressed to you as soon as possible. There are different social media management tools that you can use.

Photos and videos are more appealing than words. Instead of sharing posts with many words, incorporate photos and videos to make your updates more engaging.

The Proper Network Etiquette of a Real Estate Professional

There are many real estate networking strategies that a professional can implement. However, this doesn’t give you the freedom to just do things your way. In fact, there rules for developing a real estate network that you must observe to be successful.

The key rules for proper networking etiquette include the following:  

Keeping things friendly but professional

As you go about your networking endeavors, act friendly but don’t deviate from your business goals. Keeping things professional shows people that you are serious. It also enables you to influence a similar behavior on them.

Being open and trustworthy

When building a real estate network, you don’t want to give people a reason to doubt you. So, engage potential contacts in open discussions and explain why they should be part of your network.

Building equal relationships

As you network, focus on developing a network with mutual benefits. For instance, when asking for referrals or help from someone, show them how they can benefit from taking such a step.

Not expecting too much

Networking is a two-way traffic. However, don’t expect too much from the people you interact with. When asking for something, be sure that you can also offer the same.

What Are the Best Ways to Find Buyers and Sellers?

There are different approaches that real estate businesses can use to get buyers and sellers. Property listing sites is one of the best. By checking online property listings on reliable websites, you can get residential and commercial properties for sale online. Additionally, buyers post their requests on property listing websites with details of the type of properties, location and prices of the properties they need.

Using the social media is also a great way to find sellers and buyers. Seasoned realtors have pages and groups on social media where they interact with clients. Apart from posting on your social media accounts, check accounts of your competitors and those in your real estate network. This will give you information on potential sellers and buyers.

Real estate networking events provide a convenient platform where sellers and buyers meet and interact. Attending these events will enable you to meet sellers and buyers while getting contacts for future business. In fact, some people attend these events purposely to buy or sell properties.  If you impress them with your offer, you might strike you a deal with them.

Engagements in local community activities can also help you find prospective buyers and sellers.

How Can I Reach Potential Clients Through My Real Estate Network?

Marketing is the major way of attracting more people to your real estate network and increasing your business opportunities. Here are unique marketing strategies that will help you attract more clients:

Creating shareable social media posts

When you create posts on social media, make them sharable for the audience. This can significantly increase your audience base and help you attract more clients.

Include customer reviews

Include reviews in your website, blog and social media pages to generate referrals and give your business a sense of legitimacy. Also show clients that you are available to address their concerns.

Be active in local activities

One way to spread the word about your existence is through interaction with the locals at their comfort zones. If there are local events coming up, make your appearance or presence known through sponsorships, volunteer work and other corporate social responsibility programs.

Build trust with your audience

Don’t focus on selling and buying only. Instead, offer exclusives to show your audience that you care about their wellbeing. Share articles and ideas to enlighten your audience about important issues in the real estate industry that affect them.

Real Estate Networking Events Near Me

Attending networking events is one way of establishing and maintaining a proper real estate network. Therefore, know how to find real estate events in your local community. The internet is the most reliable place to get news about upcoming real estate networking events. Event organizers advertise events on their websites, social networking platforms and even online news platforms.

By frequently checking the websites and social media pages of trusted real estate event organizers and news outlets, you can get information about networking events in your area.

Keeping in touch with other realtors in your area will also help you obtain information about real estate networking events near you. Some event organizers don’t advertise their events on websites, social media pages and news outlets. Instead, they communicate to the people they want to attend personally. Staying in touch with other realtors will enable you to get information that may not be available to the public.

In addition to real estate professionals, establish relationships with the local community. Local contacts will also enable you to learn about upcoming real estate network events near you.

Successful Real Estate Network Building Techniques

To be successful in the real estate business, you must know how to effectively network. A networking secret that is shared by most successful realtors is having a great team. Building relationships with competent and trusted realtors will enable you get referrals and build useful contacts for your real estate network.

Successful real estate individuals have professional websites and blogs. Having your own website and blog gives your business a professional appeal. It also helps in attracting more potential clients and growing your network.

Social media is another powerful networking technique that is used by successful realtors. It provides the opportunity to share ideas and generate leads. What’s more, it makes it easier for people to reach you.

Seasoned investors & realtors have a habit of attending real estate conferences and events. These events provide a chance to interact with professionals in the industry and potential clients, while expanding the real estate network.

Regardless of their geographical area, successful real estate players keep in touch with the local communities constantly. Active community involvement will significantly grow your knowledge about the area while expanding your client base. You can engage the local communities through sponsorships, volunteer programs and partnerships with local businesses.

You can now easily create a worthwhile real estate network that will take your business to the next level!

(Photo source: Emirates)