Building Realtor Relationships

Mortgage professionals aiming to form lasting relationships with real estate partners can do the one thing that agents value more than anything: help them generate buyer and seller leads, which they can use to fill their pipeline. Building relationships where customers and business partners become your best advocate is key to a successful mortgage business. Realtors should recognize and remember our brand, relate to your values, and recommend you to others.

Be sure to know your best agents. If you don’t know where to start, a good idea is to go through all of your closed deals and see where the bulk of your business came from. With this information on hand, you are able to hone your strategies for 2021 and prioritize the partners to focus on. Developing strong partnerships require some basic steps that are often overlooked. Here are six simple tips to help mortgage professionals build future referral sources.

• Be Proactive

For Realtors, it is frustrating when they have to contact you to see the status of a file. Don’t wait for someone to call you. Intent has an in-process workflow that notifies your business partners at milestones in the loan process via text AND email. The process is entirely automated and ensures that you won’t ever forget to update your partners.

• Be Honest and Set Expectations

Real estate agents understand that not every lender can originate every loan. If an agent comes to you with a buyer and you are not confident you can close it, express that to the referral partner right away so they don’t have expectations that won’t be met.

• Create Value

Provide relevant information and education that can be of value to your real estate partners. Intent sends weekly and monthly emails to your real estate partners on your behalf providing them with valuable information, such as the latest news in the real estate industry.

• Look for Connections

With technology playing a large part in sales, make sure to take advantage of social media to contact agents. Make a list of the 10 agents that you want to work with and start creating those relationships.

• Do Your Research

Realtors are more likely to speak with you if you have a product that fits the clientele that they concentrate on. For instance, if you have a strong jumbo-loan product, search for jumbo listings in your target areas and contact those agents concentrating on that product.

• Be Prepared

Decide what sets you apart when it comes to helping real estate agents grow their business and have that ready when you connect with new agents. Try to arrange a meeting to go over the ideas you have for working together.

Referrals, however, do not come from real estate agents alone. They may come from home builders, CPAs, your professional sphere, phone and internet leads and a previous customer database.  These are referrals that you could send over to your best agents, for example. This is a great way to add value to them and build a stronger partnership. In addition, you could look through your database for former customer and potential buyers and ask or refer friends, neighbors and family.

If your current agents aren’t selling you, take some time coach them up. There are a few things you can do:

• Write out 5-10 of the most important parts to partnerships so you and your agents are all on the same page
• Ask what tools they need
• Send them books you like
• Ask to meet about building your partnerships quarterly

Lastly, make sure to show your appreciation. When was the last time you just sent a video message to your agents for being awesome? When was the last time you did something for your agents to say THANK YOU? While you must be careful of RESPA, you should always take care of people and show your gratitude.