Cultivating leads through referrals from people you know or past clients can be a HUGE source of your income as a real estate agent, especially the longer you’re in the business. Many agents in the business for 10 or more tend to focus their lead generation more on referrals than prospecting, simply because they’ve grown such a huge pipeline and past client list.

You should always be asking people you know for referrals. Send out holiday cards to current leads and past clients with business cards included, wishing them a happy holiday and asking that they hand your cards out to anyone they know with a real estate need.

Another important way to generate referrals is the referral tree. This method gives you an excuse to call people and not have to worry so much about the Do Not Call list because it’s more of a personal call than a business call. You’re basically calling a friend or someone you already know and asking them for people they know that you may not. The script to use and what to say is surprisingly simple:

“Hey Dwayne, it’s Dave, how’s it going with you? I’m trying to grow my real estate business here, and if you don’t have a real estate need yet, I was hoping you would give me the names of 2 or 3 people you know that I don’t, just so I can give them a quick call and introduce myself, let them know about me.”

Not everyone will give you this info, but once someone does, you then call the 2 or 3 people they gave you. “Hey Stacey, you know Dwayne right? Yeah, he’s a buddy of mine and gave me your number just so I could call and introduce myself. I just wanted to let you know I’m in the real estate business and I hope that if you ever need anything, you’ll come to me. If you don’t have a need at this point, would you mind giving me the names and number of 1 or 2 people you know so I can call and introduce myself to them?”

Eventually you’ll run into SOMEONE with a real estate lead if you spend the day doing a referral tree. And all those people you talked to who DON’T have a current real estate need? Well, you just added a ton of people to your pipeline. If you couldn’t get an address or email out of them when on the phone, go online, check out WhitePages.com and do a reverse name or phone look up to get their address.  Click here to get a simple Referral Tree form to keep yourself organized.