Somehow, over the past few years, the noun “partner” has turned into a very common verb in the business world. It definitely sounds better than the stuffy old, “form a strategic alliance.” But either way you put it, it’s a great way to do business. Partnering with someone who has a different skill set and background is almost mandatory for an entrepreneur. It just makes sense. You can’t do everything alone.
In the real estate investing business, we make the most of partnering opportunities. We have learned that the best results come from working together, whether you build that team within your own office or you collaborate with other independent professionals. There are huge payoffs from thinking like a team leader and finding the right team players when you’re trying to close a deal.
Imagine yourself as a baseball coach. You know which people you need on your team: pitchers, catchers, infielders, and outfielders. But you have to work with other people as well. If you want to win games, you have to collaborate with the scouts, the rest of the coaching staff, the administrative people, and even the media. You’re establishing relationships with different people with different skill sets so you can get the fans in the seats and get the players into the World Series.
And so it goes with closing real estate deals. Sometimes you’ll need the help of an attorney, sometimes you’ll need your accountant’s advice, and sometimes you’ll need to talk to that private lender who always seems to come through for you. When you’re a real estate investor, what other people do you need on your team?
Your first step is to find a go-to person who has been around in the real estate game for a while. This is your partner for those trouble spots you’re going to find in almost every deal. Even better, find someone with experience in coaching new real estate investors. Now, that may sound like an opinion rather than fact – especially since I’m a real estate coach – but I promised to tell you what I know about making more money than you ever dreamed, and this is the way to go. Think of it as an extremely cost-effective continuing education program.
Don’t forget to partner with your own employees! You may only have one assistant in your office, but that one assistant can be your greatest ally. Make sure they know everything about how to help you best and how to help the deals flow. You never know when they’ll need to be the one to keep a deal from blowing up.
You’ll also need to build a relationship with someone who knows how to solve title problems. You never know when you’ll run into an issue with one of your properties, and you’ll need to be able to untwist those situations before the deal closes. Get to know an attorney or a title expert who knows the system, and save yourself a lot of grief down the road.
Partner with people who give you referrals and keep in touch with them to make sure your leads keep coming in. Give them incentives in the form of referral fees or commissions, encouraging them to tell you when they find someone who might need your help. If you’re a coach, these are your talent scouts. If you don’t have the big deals, you can’t make the big money.
The best referral sources are often real estate agents. Partner up with some of the more active agents in your area, and talk to them about the win-win situation in taking their problem properties off their hands. Realtors are involved in at least three-quarters of all real estate deals, and they usually hear a little something about the rest of them. And they don’t mind earning extra commissions when your deals close!
When you’re building partnerships in your local market, never forget that the benefits of knowing these people are mutual. The real estate market is rough all over, and there may be a time when they’ll need a short sale expert on their speed dial as well. Once you’re able to establish yourself as the go-to person for problem properties, their trust in you will increase to the point where they introduce you to other people you may never have met without them.
Your quest for great partnerships will be an organically cultivated adventure. It really does take a collaborative mindset to function as part of the real estate scene in any area, especially in a struggling market. Build the best real estate team you can, become a part of your community, and invest in these partnerships to get the most profitable results for you and for every homeowner you meet.
If you need to know more about building partnerships in your real estate business, check our our blog post about building your real estate business on our Strategic Real Estate Coach website!
|
|