I have a confession to make; my friends and clients already know, but I’m ready to tell the world now. When it comes to the real estate game — I’m a straight-up, old-school stalker.
Like an “I’m looking through your windows at night, stalking you, stalker.” Well, maybe not quite that bad, but close. And here’s why you should be one, too:
1. Gain knowledge — it’s power
Every interaction in real estate is a job interview for future business. You wouldn’t go into an interview for your dream job without doing your research on the company, looking at its website, checking out the LinkedIn profiles of the executives you’re interviewing with.
With all the tools available, there is absolutely no excuse not to. I’ll let you in on a little secret: There’s this great website called Google; you type stuff in, and information about the topic, person or company comes back. It’s amazing! All kidding aside, you can do this — use the tools.
2. Be relentless in pursuit
As an agent, you need to arm yourself with the tools needed to understand all aspects of a possible deal, and find ways to connect with people and companies you want to work with.
Maybe you spent all of your summers vacationing at the same beach town as a prospective client or your kids go to the same after-school soccer league. Perhaps you support the same nonprofit.
If you don’t do your research, you’ll never know you had that in common. And you don’t have only to use the internet — call a mutual friend and get the deets. Spend time with someone.
Take the person to coffee or drinks, and find out about him or her as a human being. Connect first as a friend — and then an agent.
3. Have confidence
As a junior stalker, I highly encourage you to get excited and confident about your abilities. When you know you’ll do an amazing job for your prospective clients, you won’t stop until you get their business; there’s no way you’ll let them work with anyone else. That confidence will shine through.
Be aggressive about helping people succeed in their real estate goals. The more money you make your sellers, or save your buyers, the more they will have to support their families, retire or live the lifestyle they are dreaming of.
Be a stalker, yes, but be nice. Project an air of confidence, and go for it. Build relationships with buyers, sellers and people of influence — build your network relentlessly.
Sam DeBianchi is an estate agent, founder of DeBianchi Real Estate and coach and founder of SamSpeaks Coaching. Follow @SamDeBianchi on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.