Relationships as Marketing

My wife and I recently purchased a new home, and we absolutely love the agent we worked with. She always made us feel like we were her only clients.

She doesn’t do much “traditional” advertising or marketing, in terms of putting her face up on billboards, social media, or similar ways that real estate agents often get their name and face out there. What she does an amazing job of, however, is cultivating relationships.

She’ll be the first to tell you that her existing clients are her number one source of referrals. It’s obvious that she cares about her clients, and she regularly goes the extra mile to connect with them. Long after the closing dates on our selling/buying of our homes, we regularly receive little notes and gifts from her for birthdays, mother’s day, when our newborn arrived, and more. She even stopped by to meet our newborn a few days ago.

In all these cases, on a very simple level, she’s spending her money and time to nurture these relationships, rather than spending on billboards and bus stop benches. We, as happy clients, will recommend her to anyone that asks us for a real estate referral. That kind of relationship is gold to her, and I think this strategy is first class.

PS – I haven’t listed our wonderful agent’s name here, as I never asked her if she’d be ok with me telling this story, but if you’re looking for an agent in the Portland area, let me know 🙂