How To: Build a Referral Only Business

I was recently on an email thread where high producing and newer agents were discussing how to build their SOI business. It’s a great email thread with lots of good ideas (and plans for collaborating and sharing more good ideas.) Lauren Y was on the thread. Lauren has built a referral only business in a very short amount of time. She’s easily in the top 1% of agents with regards to how consistently and frequently she’s referred by her clients.

Lauren responded with the following advice. I asked for her permission to post this here. Her response is off the cuff, unedited, and you can tell she’s clearly passionate about it. This is some of the best advice for building a referral business that I’ve ever read!

My biggest piece of advice is to go above and beyond for your clients while you are working together. This means:

Educate them. EDUCATE YOURSELF. Take CE seriously and take advantage of market updates and classes offered by local title companies. Become a real estate expert, which means a heck of a lot more than just opening a door and negotiating a deal. Teach them how to be homeowners, refer them to good vendor partners, explain home maintenance and some tips and tricks you use yourself. Understand property taxes and our property tax system. Know about lending options that exist, especially unique financing. Always make your client feel like your only priority. That means never being on your phone, always being a few minutes early to appointments, being available above and beyond the call of duty. Never express your annoyance – no matter what and NEVER respond to an email / text / call if you’re angry. Wait till tomorrow. Give the same level of customer service to a $200k buyer as a $2M seller. WORK WITH EVERYONE – not just a certain price point – you never know who will refer you to who. Do MORE than just setting up an MLS search. Become their advisor but make them feel like your friend and follow up with them consistently after closing (the annual review thing is awesome) but sometimes it’s as simple as, “Hey, how are ya? I was thinking of you!” Provide value with insights to the market. Be educated about more than just real estate – the job market, the economy, interest rates, development, local / state / federal politics that affect real estate. Read your Texas Realtors and Texas A&M magazines every month. Take advantage of the reduced rate ABJ subscription through ABoR and read Community Impact. Network with other agents and create positive relationships not only with agents but real estate adjacent services so you always have a trusted expert to lean on. Advocate for your clients – show that you don’t care about your commission and your only goal is their happiness and helping them achieve their goals. Be a bull dog when you need to, don’t avoid tough conversations and always maintain your integrity. GUIDE THEM and have confidence in yourself – it’s contagious. Really LISTEN to your clients. Provide value every step of the way and there are SO many ways to do this. Referrals are also the best clients in the world because you are starting your relationship on built in trust. It’s a SLOW BUILD but is worth it! And lastly don’t be some version of yourself that you think realtors “are” – BE YOURSELF. Creating raving fans is always my goal because that is the absolute cheapest and most effective marketing in the world and these are the things I have always done – which allowed me to create a referral only business in a short amount of time – New Year’s Eve of 2022 will be my 7th anniversary of being licensed 🙂

Year 1 – $3M

Year 2 – $5M

Year 3 – $7M

Year 4 – $12M

Year 5 – $15M

Year 6 – $13M (managing broker year, referred a lot out)

Year 7 – $29M (one $13M deal so that is an anomaly but my RELATIONSHIPS are what got me that deal and got me through it)

Besides cakeballs I don’t spend a dollar (and never have) on marketing! Word of mouth is your best friend. I’m definitely not saying that marketing isn’t effective, I’m just sharing my personal experience. Every single person on this chain is a superstar and has the makings to do the same. I’m so excited for y’all!!

PS – check out the attached screenshot I just took right from NAR.