Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their Short List, a collection of tips and recommendations on an essential topic in real estate. This week, we talked with Emilio Palomo on simple ways to keep in touch with past clients.
3. Host events – Every year we have four wine and cheese get-togethers at our office from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. to which we invite past clients. We do not get every client at every event, but we do get most of them to at least one of them.
2. Engage your farm area – My farm area consist of 450 homes with a price range of $750,000 to $1.5 million, and I have been living there for 28 years and sold more than 120 homes in that time; the past clients are invited to my home twice a year for the same type of event (this one, though, is held just for the neighbors, and is separate from the events at the office, which is for clients not in that group). At home, we hold the RSVP to a maximum of 40 people. We find that this is a much more personal way to keep in touch with clients, and is not as expensive as it might sound.
1. Ensure that past clients are satisfied – Very simply, all we do is send a letter after each closing, thanking them for their business and asking them that “If they are happy with the way the transaction was handled, please tell their friends, and if not, please tell me, the broker.” We follow-up with a phone call a week after sending the letter, unless we hear from them before. After that, they go on the list for the one of the wine events.
Emilio Palomo is the broker/owner of Riteway Properties III in Miami. Emilio, who has the CRB, CRS and GRI designations, has been in real estate since 1971, and is a past chairman of the Miami Master Brokers Forum. He is still on the forum’s Miami board, and he continues to work in residential, commercial and property management.
What are YOU an expert in? Take a look at our list of currently available Short List topics, and let us know what you’d like to share your thoughts on!