#23: Networking Networking sometimes gets a bad rap, and a lot of people hate it, myself included. I remember when I was a new real estate agent, I would go to the Chamber of Commerce meetings and I would meet a lot of other real estate agents. If you network correctly, it can be a huge source of listings and deals for your business. Let's talk about some things you can do differently when it comes to networking. Networking is all about building relationships and connecting with those people on a consistent basis to stay in front of them. However, with the example of the Chamber meetings, networking doesn’t really work if there are more Realtors than anyone else at the event. Pick and choose effective networking events. One place I would recommend looking is Meetup.com. Meetup.com has a whole bunch of local events people are throwing all over your area for all different reasons. There are real estate events, investing events, and everything in between. Head to the site and play around, and if you find something that excites you, go to it just to check it out. Take this example: My wife and I were in Santa Barbara, California, living there for a month in the summer. We went to a little hiking meetup because we wanted to meet people in the local community. Only three other people showed up, but we got to know them pretty well. We hiked with them for about two hours and exchanged contact info at the end. It was an easy and fun way to start some new relationships. So if you don't have enough relationships with people in a certain area, get out there and do meetups. If you're a cyclist or someone who kayaks, or if you surf or whatever it might be, go to the Meetup app and find a local event. Even if there's only one other person there, that one person could eventually be looking for an agent to help them buy or sell a home. Here’s another example — a real estate agent we were working with did a little booth at an art walk. He brought his books, some brochures, and some local CMAs about the market. He got two listings from that — from just sitting at an art walk! The bottom line is that building relationships requires different thinking than just, “I'm going to go to an event. I'm going to network with 100 people.” You need to think outside the box. Do things like opening a booth at your farmer’s market or at a local art walk, and just advertise yourself as a real estate agent. Right at the end of our street is a little retail place that does an art walk every Thursday, and I've never seen a real estate agent there. But I have seen a lot of homeowners who
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