by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
Renee Burrows is a real estate agent in Las Vegas whom I respect. I met Renee through Active Rain and have visited with her and her family when they visit Pacific Beach in the summers. I’ve watched her develop from an agent who was struggling with the down Vegas market into a transaction machine, putting buyers into homes in the Valley of Fire.
Renee shared her internet conversion system, written when she was building a “team”, behind the Members’ Only wall on Active Rain. What was interesting to me is that Renee eschewed the “team” approach for a referral-based system. She reduced her fixed costs and has the flexibility to refer buyers to agents whom “buy-in” to her servicing system. If business slows down, Renee handles the buyers herself.
I liked the fact that she chose ubiquity by syndicating her blog posts and listings to over 100 sources on the internet. Renee writes a lot of time-sensitive market reports so I think ubiquity trumps the fear of being penalized by the SERPS for potential duplicate content:
You have to be an internet marketing generation machine (or have a department) to start having the leads filter in to you! I have my hands in so many cookie jars: craigslist, point 2 agent, active rain + outside blog (both syndicated to numerous sources and by numerous I mean 100-200, not 10-20,) facebook, twitter, print (flyers, business cards, postcards, door knocking, etc.) Now I don’t own major Las Vegas NV SEO keywords, but I do own quite a bit of long tail real estate (you get higher quality leads this way!)
Marketing to the masses can produce “wasteful” contact and Renee has installed a few “fences” for prospective customers to hop:
Since I have a good number of leads coming in, they come in several ways: phone and email. I use a good spam filter to filter out the spam (of course) and it requires a verification code to be entered for me to receive the email in my inbox. I also use an evoice receptionist that allows me to create separate extensions and it allows up to three phone numbers to ring at once.
The easiest “fence” to install is financial capacity to purchase a home. Rather than to accept that capacity at face value, Renee insists on written proof of that capacity, via proof of funds or a full loan approval prior to setting up an appointment. I have no doubt that she loses some people with that initial hurdle but she certainly finds qualified and motivated buyers from the sheer volume:
After they are determined to be fair game, they are asked if they will be financed or all cash. They are asked if they have a pre-approval or proof of funds. If they don’t have a pre-approval lender, we ask if a lender can contact them to get them pre-approved. Sorry, no one ever calls a lender, I take the initiative just so we know where we are.
The potential buyer is then advised that they will need to be fully approved or proofed PRIOR to making an appointment.
All prospective buyers are given the option of being placed into an automatic MLS search:
They go to the MLS for an email drip campaign of homes hitting the market, they go to Home Buyer’s Marketing and they go into another system campaign (which I am in the process of changing so don’t ask for it) for another drip campaign on tips and hints for purchasing a home. ALL of those means are CRMs.. The main and best CRM that I use is Home Buyer’s Marketing (which I will refer to as HBM from now on) or on the consumer side it is called “Home Buyer’s Scouting Report”.
HBM allows me to keep in touch with the active buyers in the database by sending out broadcast emails. It also allows me to view several indicators on whether a buyer is “HOT OR NOT”. I put together something called a “HOTLIST”.
This is what I found to be the best part of Renee’s system. Renee checks the statistics provided by her CRM to discern who is engaging in activities that indicate interest- she calls it her “hot list”. She concentrates on that hot list and it produces a plethora of qualified buyers for her.
Renee was kind enough to allow me to share some of the cloaked content with the Bloodhound Blog Crew. If you’re interested, she describes it completely, along with printable flow charts, on Active Rain. Prior to criticizing any potential chinks in her armor, know that Renee acknowledges that this system is designed solely for her:
You have to figure out what works for you: your market, your niche, your area. My systems for internet marketing will not work for everyone. My systems are built for me.
I’ve seen Renee’s results. She’s working her butt off but she’s making money in what could otherwise be described as a complete disaster of a market. We all know the old adage; “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
Sometimes, a shotgun works better than a rifle. It has for Renee Burrows.
Keith Lutz says:
Ah, Renee, I have read some of her posts over on AR. Time to subscribe to her blog. She has the same approach as me, except I did the Team approach, and sit back and collect my referral fee. (Since I am in a company where we keep 100% commission, it is easier to do)
January 15, 2010 — 2:36 pm
Renee Burrows says:
Thanks for the love Brian. You were actually the one that gave me the idea for the permissive based lender contact way back in the day!
January 15, 2010 — 8:59 pm
Matt Barker says:
Great post. Getting buyers “pre approved” prior to looking at houses is the best thing any agent can implement into their business plan for 2010. Some buyers will go elsewhere, but think about how many buyers you have assisted that find a home and can’t purchase due to financing issues. Take control of the process…the drama in your life will go down and your income will go up.
January 16, 2010 — 11:27 pm
Wayne Long says:
Looks like a great system Renee. The important thing is that you HAVE a system to find and qualify leads and turn them into buyers.
January 17, 2010 — 6:18 am
Bob Rutledge says:
In the past lead generation with a rifle was the rule, today using a shotgun is more realistic. Gather as many people as possible who are willing to raise their hand and then sift them through a filter. A bit more work but huge results. Great post!
January 18, 2010 — 8:12 am
Patrick Hake says:
One of the best things I was taught as buyer’s agent was to always get a client pre-approved for a loan before setting a showing appointment.
It is such an effective way to qualify leads, both for financial and motivation purposes, I have often considered having my advertising number forwarded to my lender directly.
I have also set up a referral based team.
While you don’t have complete control over the agents, because they are not your employees, you do have a lot of influence based on the amount of business you provide them.
I personally prefer this method of team building over hiring buyer’s agents, because it is completely voluntary.
If I need to, I can sever a relationship with an agent by simply not calling them with leads anymore, rather than firing or counseling them.
I make it clear to agents that I send leads to. If you do a good job, I will keep you busy. If not, you won’t hear from me anymore.
January 18, 2010 — 9:41 am
Chris Johnson says:
The important thing is that you HAVE a system. Then you can tinker or not as the case may be.
January 18, 2010 — 1:53 pm
Steve Trang says:
Sounds like a good system to have in place. I don’t have as many different jars to grab from. I’ve gone for the SEO dominance route. Perhaps it is time to adjust my strategy.
January 19, 2010 — 12:30 am