Life's too short to work with whiny, negative, abusive and condescending real estate agents. You know who some of them are already! But, how do you reasonably determine if you can create a partnership-like relationship if you don't know them very well?
The days of walking into a real estate office and asking if anyone has a referral are gone. You need a reason to approach them-like with a lead generation system both of you will benefit from.
As I've said a gazillion times before, if I were to start in the mortgage biz today, my main focus would be the "single property websites." (See my website at
There are many different "partnerships" you can propose to agents (FSBO campaigns, first-time buyer marketing, seminars) but I'm using this system as an example of the types of questions you need to ask. However, these questions can be used for any partnership you want to create.
So, how do you determine which super awesome real estate agents you should offer your super awesome system to?
Well, there are really two ways (which serves double duty that I'll explain later) to determine if you want to work with them in the first place.
First, treat it like a job interview-after all they will be working with you to generate leads and turn them into closed deals. You can ask them any job interview questions you like, but here are the five things to consider after the interview is over:1) Do you like him/her?I worked with an agent who sold about 150 homes a year-and I ending up closing about 50% of her deals. However, she was abrupt, condescending and at times, downright mean. I cringed every time she called. The best day of my life is when I "fired" her-told her that I did not want to do business with her anymore. Do you work with agents like this?2) What strengths does each of you bring to the table?After explaining the single property site concept to the real estate agent, figure out who is going to do what? One of you might be better at follow up? Or making phone calls? Or the technical side of the system? Figure who is going to be responsible for what task ahead of time, to avoid arguments and frustrations.3) Do they do what they say they are going to do?Single property website partnerships required follow up on the part of both of you. If you've got to carry the entire load, not only will you resent them, you'll be doing all of the work. While you'll really not know for sure, ask them for an example of "how they have worked with other partnerships and how the job was split up between him/her and the other person."4) Do you respect each other's time?At the beginning of your partnership, set time boundaries- when each of you is available for phone calls and appointments. The agent I fired called me day and night, sometimes at 1 am!5) What deadline will you have for implementing?You may agree that you like each other and want to try to implement the system. Nothing happens until someone takes action. Set a date/deadline when you plan to launch your first property website.Okay, you've gotten thru the first steps-but wait, there's a couple more critical questions. You've got to make them want the system and want to work with you too!
Question #1 - If I were to offer the
Question #2 - How do you envision us working together to generate leads?If they answer with negative comments (instead of the positives), drop them. Life's too short to screw around with whinny, negative agents.
Or if they just don't see the benefits, first determine if you explained it in a way they would understand it. A word of caution-don't give them all the bells and whistles about the system-just give them the six major things it can do for them and you. If they simply don't get it, drop them as a partner.
I'm sure you there are more questions you can ask, but these questions get to the heart of determining if the partnership has a snowball's chance of creating closed deals!
