Make Your Pitch With Credibility

When you connect with referral partners, make sure you have something to say

Insider

Contributing Writer

Last month, we focused on getting in contact with some important groups to help kick off the year properly. Now that we’ve established when to talk, I’d like to lay out some important items to discuss with each of your groups and the reasons to stay in touch.

It’s important to note that your outreach should not be one-sided. You shouldn’t only be looking for new business, but rather sharing helpful information that could be useful to who you’re reaching out to. The key to building relationships is to make sure you’re always providing value.

Realtors

With Realtors, it’s important to stay in touch not only for referrals, but to keep tabs on what’s happening in the market. Realtors are keeping a pulse on buying trends and what homebuyers are looking for and they can be a very important resource for helping forecast where your business is going. It seems hard to imagine the market needed more buyers, but it’s critical to understand where the concerns and roadblocks are to convert renters to homeowners.

When speaking with Realtors, keep them informed on your business, what you offer and how you can help their buyers get into homes. It may take a renovation loan to convert their undesirable inventory or aging home into a dream home. They will often be more open to helping you when they understand how you also can help them.

Borrowers

I mentioned last month that 71% of borrowers forget about their lender. When you’re planning to reach out to your borrowers, ask yourself why they’re not coming back and that could help you find a solution to gaining more repeat business.

Borrowers are now staying in their homes for closer to 10 years, as opposed to the standard five to seven that we’ve come to expect. With that in mind, most of your previous borrowers are still in their same home and likely not looking to move. We’ve seen the benefits of refinances over these past few years, but offering other options like renovation loans can help you meet the needs of your borrowers while drumming up repeat business.

This also helps with providing solutions to the inventory issue, as most houses on the market tend to be older. According to Eye on Housing, the median age of homes as of 2019 was 39 years and 38% were built before 1970, which tells you that there may be a sizable population of people that need to renovate or upgrade their existing homes.

Builders

When checking in with builders, it’s important to share what you’re seeing in the industry. Many builders are focusing on large homes, but there’s a shortage of first-time homes in many areas. It may be helpful to share the needs of buyers and borrowers, so builders are more aware of the needs in your community and understand how to meet them.

At the same time, talking to your builders can help you get a pulse on new builds and what to expect for the coming months or year. This gives you a small glimpse into the future and can help you plan and prepare.

Relationship Building

For all groups, how and when you reach out will look different. The way you reach out to borrowers will be fundamentally different from how you communicate with your Realtors. Connecting on social media is an easy way to stay connected with any of these groups, but if you want to see results, it goes beyond a simple “follow.”

As far as frequency goes, start by reaching out to your realtors and builders on a quarterly basis, so you stay top of mind. For borrowers, begin by reaching out once a year, since their needs are different. Once those relationships are formed, you may notice that certain individuals like to communicate more often, while some will prefer to hear from you a bit less. Be attentive to each person’s communication preferences and adapt accordingly.

The same goes for your method of communication. Some will prefer emails; others will want phone calls while others prefer to meet in person. You can start with a simple email, then determine the best method to maintain that relationship based on how people like to communicate.

Getting in touch is the first important step, but what you have to offer in your communication is key. Keeping in contact with your realtors, borrowers and builders is the best way to keep in touch with market trends and enables you to make the right connections.