here's a different angle on the same thing…

“name, i feel odd about bringing this up but last week i had a phone call with a family i worked with last year. we moved them into a killer home but today they were kind of upset with me. see… all this time we've kept in touch and they just realized they've never given me a referral.

“it's no big deal, really. you know by now that i'm not your typical Realtor that keeps telling you “I'm never true busy for your referrals.” the truth is, i am pretty busy and most all my business does come from referrals from past clients.

“but, when this other family found that out they got a little miffed and felt left out. now, i'd by lying if i said i wasn't a little flattered. so, i gave them some pointers on how best to refer me and they were happy again. they might even know of someone who needs my help. of course, that made me happy, too

“here's the thing: i don't want you or anyone else to be “left out” but i don't want to come off sounding like those “i'm never too busy” goofs, either. what should i do?

“if you have any ideas on this then hit REPLY right now and let me know. i'd really appreciate it,”

follow that email with one where you do the actual teaching of how to refer you… a video would be good, actually.

the thing with referrals is to get folks to want to give them to you… even feel “left out” if they don't. big difference from “do you have any referrals for me?”

I would also add training your past clients how to refer you and asking for VERY specific referrals (not “know anyone who wants to buy or sell?”) such as:

[Hi Joe,

Hope you're well and just wanted to ask for your help.

Lately, the question I'm most often asked is, "So... do you think we've reached the bottom? Is it a good time to buy?"

Joe, I gotta be frank, any time you ask someone who has a vested interest in selling real estate, be wary of their response. For instance, NAR (the National Association of Realtors - yep, a membership I pay my dues for) has been saying it's a great time to buy for the last 3 years!

That being said, my response right now is, "It depends".

It depends on a multitude of factors which I won't bore you with here (though if you're curious, see my post on my blog here).

But, RIGHT NOW, there is a select group that is a VERY good time to buy...]

…then I’d go on to briefly tell them @ the deadline for DPA getting cut off and putting homeownership out of reach for millions who have the credit & income but not the down payment. Maybe throw in a blurb @ new tax credit for FTHB and then close w/an honest assesment of not knowing when the market’s going to level out (though like above link to a more opinionated post) and focus on how rates will rise faster than appreciation & how that will decrease purchase ability and wipe out affordability even if values were to drop a bit more.

An honest approach.

Downside: Not evergreen – it does have the 9/31 deadline, at least w/respect to DPA, but it could be thrown in to all drips off of a landing page as a #2 or #3 email over the next 6 weeks. Plus, the email could get a bit too long – which would lead me to the possibility of breaking up into three seperate emails which might help the exposure of the message by drawing out. Not sure, what do you think Mark & everyone else?

San Jose, CA