Habits of Successful Real Estate Agents: Networking, Referrals, and Client Retention
Previous: Contracts, Offers, and Sales Techniques
This is the second half of Chapter 10, and it shifts from deal mechanics to the business itself. How you build systems, get referrals, network effectively, and keep clients coming back. If the first half was about winning individual deals, this half is about building a career that compounds.
Systematize Your Business
Bob is big on systems, and the reasoning is simple. You need to make sure you always take the correct actions with each client and in each situation. Your method can be as basic as a checklist or as detailed as a full operations manual for your team.
His go-to example is an escrow tracking schedule. Every time you put a new property into escrow, you or a team member creates a list of items to complete and the timeline for completion. Things like verifying contract signatures, confirming the buyer’s deposit, scheduling inspections, tracking seller disclosures, and monitoring loan approval.
It’s not flashy, but it prevents things from falling through the cracks. And when your files are up to date, you get paid immediately upon closing instead of waiting around while someone hunts down missing documents.
As your transaction volume grows, Bob recommends hiring a transaction coordinator or assistant. His math is straightforward: if your time produces $60 per hour in results, it makes sense to pay someone $15-20 per hour to handle the routine tasks. That frees you up to do more of the high-value work.
I think this is the part where most agents stall out. They try to do everything themselves because they don’t want to spend money on help. But that mindset caps your income at whatever one person can physically handle.
Referrals Are Your Future
Bob doesn’t mince words here. If you want a long-term career in real estate, referrals are not optional. They’re the lifeblood of the business.
He tells the story of Art Scott, one of the most successful agents he ever worked with. Art went from being an oil well rigger to becoming a top-ten sales agent for both Century 21 and RE/MAX. And the foundation of his business was referrals, always his number one source of new business.
But not by accident. Art actively farmed for referrals at company conferences, award ceremonies, through email campaigns, and postal mail. At national sales conferences, every attendee found a package from Art on their chair offering a memorable referral fee of 34.567% of his commission. That oddly specific number got attention. And because Art’s closing rate was high, those referral agents actually got paid, which meant they kept sending him business.
Here’s the thing about referrals that Bob emphasizes: you must ask for them. Don’t assume happy clients will automatically send people your way. They might mean to, but your next deal will always be more important to you than it is to them. So ask directly. Every time.
Farming for Referrals Locally
Bob describes farming as a plan, not an accident. A farmer’s crops don’t come in without preparation and planting, and neither will yours.
The strategy for investment property specialists is to let every agent in your office and your town know that you’re looking for referrals to clients with investment properties. Most residential agents don’t know how to handle investment deals. By offering to take those referrals, you’re helping their clients get served while those agents collect referral fees they couldn’t earn on their own.
For out-of-town investor referrals, Bob recommends always trying to find a referral agent who is an investor themselves. Agent investors understand what their investor clients need. He includes a detailed agent profile sheet in the book for vetting potential referral agents, covering their experience, property types, local team members, and whether they handle 1031 exchanges.
On referral fees, Bob has had good results with a 30% fee for both incoming and outgoing referrals. But the amount is negotiable. His view: if you give and receive enough referrals, the fee percentage becomes the least of your worries.
Soliciting Listings: Another Art Scott Story
Art Scott worked at a stand-up desk, started early six days a week, and had a daily goal for prospecting calls. If he hit his number, the team took Art to lunch. If he didn’t, Art took the team.
One of Art’s habits was calling expired listings on the morning they expired. Sometimes he called so early that sellers would ask why he was calling at that hour. His response: “From the lack of results you’ve had selling your property thus far, it looks like you need an agent who gets up earlier and works harder to get your property sold.”
Within a couple of hours of that call, one of Art’s assistants hand-delivered a complete listing package to the seller’s door with a marketing analysis, recommended sales strategy, and a new listing contract ready for signature.
Did it always work? No. But enough of those sellers decided they wanted a team that hustled like that. It’s a perfect example of providing a level of service that average agents simply don’t.
Becoming a Listing Agent
Some brokers believe that becoming a great listing agent is the most important skill for a long career in real estate. Bob doesn’t disagree. If you represent a buyer, you might not end up in a transaction. But if you have the listing, you’re always involved.
That said, Bob’s own approach was slightly different. He and Robert created many transactions where they represented both buyer and seller, often between existing clients. Many of their investment property listings were pocket listings, meaning the properties weren’t actively on the market but were available for the right offer. In investment real estate, insider deals between agents and principals are not only legal, they’re the preferred way of doing business.
Sales Is a Relationship Business
Bob quotes the old saying: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. This sounds like a motivational poster, but in practice it means asking the right questions, listening to your clients, and treating their interests as your own.
The Helms team earned an 18-year reputation that got them contract awards simply because other agents were happy to be in a deal with them. That kind of reputation is built one transaction at a time, and it snowballs over the years.
Networking and Leads Clubs
If you don’t like networking, Bob says to get over it. Networking events put you in front of investors, contractors, lenders, and other specialists who can help you grow your business and your personal portfolio.
Robert Helms adds a useful tip for people who are naturally shy: the people you’re meeting for the first time don’t know you’re shy. The first impression you make is the only one they have. Step out of your shell, give them your elevator speech and a business card, and follow up with a “nice to meet you” email.
Bob also recommends leads clubs, organized groups where each profession gets one representative and members actively refer business to each other. He and Robert received regular referrals from a family law attorney in their leads club for probate property sales. The group met weekly for breakfast and worked seriously at providing leads to one another.
For investment property specialists specifically, Bob recommends joining local Real Estate Investment (REI) clubs and NARPM (the National Association of Residential Property Managers). Both put you in rooms with active investors and property managers who can become clients, partners, or referral sources.
Retaining Clients: The Number One Complaint
This might be the most important section in the whole chapter. Bob says the primary complaint from clients who chose not to work with the same agent twice was this:
“I never heard from him again after the transaction was completed.”
That’s it. Not bad service. Not a botched deal. Just silence.
The fix is embarrassingly simple. Stay in touch. Send market updates, birthday cards, copies of closing documents at tax time, notices about relevant seminars. Walter Sanford, a real estate trainer Bob references, keeps copies of every client’s closing docs and mails them fresh copies in January to help with tax preparation. It takes minimal effort, and almost no one else does it.
Bob’s advice: if in doubt, send it. A newsletter, a blog post, a market report. Anything that keeps you front and center with your existing clients. Because the cost of keeping a client is always less than the cost of finding a new one.
And that’s why this chapter matters. The habits Bob describes aren’t complicated. Build systems, ask for referrals, show up, network, and stay in touch. But the agents in the top 1% are the ones who actually do these things consistently, week after week, year after year.
Next: Final Thoughts on Be in the Top 1%
This post is part of a series retelling “Be in the Top 1%: A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Getting Rich in the Investment Property Niche” by Bob Helms (Robert P. Helms). ISBN: 978-0-9983125-9-0. Published 2018.