28 Jun How to set up a real estate database and keep your listing pipeline full for the rest of your career – by Ray Wood

Here’s one simple reason why you need to become a ninja at setting up and nurturing your real estate database:

In real estate, relationships are our currency. The more good relationships we create and maintain, the more listings we’ll win and the more sales we’ll make. But I think you probably know that already.

Imagine you’re collecting names and contact info in a bucket. Whenever you need a listing, you just reach in and grab one.

So every agent knows they need to set up and maintain a solid real estate database but there’s a conflict here because real estate typically attracts people who are not scholastically gifted and I’m a pretty good example.

It’s true that year 10 were two of the hardest years of my life. I just couldn’t see the point of studying the Egyptians and learning Italian when there was real estate to be listed and sold. I was the kid who looked out the window thinking “what if?”

I wanted a car and holidays and money and a girlfriend to spend the money on. Like lots of agents I know, I was young and in a hurry!

So what I had to do was apply all my energy to learning what I needed to know to become successful. Fast!

The first thing I learned was building an ever-growing list of contacts was my goldmine. The more contacts I made, the more listings I won and sales simply flowed from there.

So my advice is to follow my lead and set yourself up with everything you need.

I’m saying ANYONE in real estate looking to boost his or her results by following the following process

Here’s my 5 step process to set up, maintain and build a real estate database that will keep your listing pipeline full for the rest of your career.

1. Sign up for a real estate CRM (your bucket). You need something cloud-based, that’s easy to use. It needs a great mobile app so when you’re sitting on the couch and remember you need to call a contact in your database, you can locate their phone or email in seconds. (Why not a get a free trial with LockedOn. It comes with loads of features but is very easy to use and you’ll love booting it up every morning to see what money making tasks are waiting for you)
2. You need to know how to drive your CRM. Even if you have an assistant, you need to understand the process and how you can get maximum benefit and results from your system. If you don’t understand how it works, how are going to leverage it’s power. Please keep in mind, your competition will be ‘wowing’ your potential clients with awesome technology. You just need to WOW them better.
3. Now you need to fill your bucket. I call this the ABC rule. Sorry Alec Baldwin that stands for Always Be Collecting. Top Agent Adrian Bo has more than 12,000 contacts in his database. He says it’s the most valuable asset in his business.
4. Communicate like the bad-ass ninja you are! Use your CRM to send smoking hot email updates, CMAs, hard mail letters, make personal phone calls and text messages. Reach out and connect and let them experience your awesomeness. If they don’t like or appreciate who you are and what you offer then no probs. They can unsubscribe anytime they like. You will NEVER be super-appealing to 100% of your contacts. It completely defies human nature.
5. And don’t be too real estatey. Look for non-real estate things that might be of interest to people in your area like a new coffee joint or some pending local government by-law that might affect owners.

Last week I was speaking with a new agent. She was struggling and I was asking her questions to see how I could offer some help.

When I asked her if she was using a CRM she said no. She told me she planned to but needed to make “a few sales” first.

Sorry but this is backwards thinking. It’s like expecting a fire to throw off heat and light without adding any wood. Start with a good CRM and learn how to drive it.  It’s the secret to your success.

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