Networking with Attorneys, Financial Advisors, Etc.

[Christian Ehlers]

Hi! Wondering if any other agents out there have had success getting multiple referrals/listings by reaching out to Probate and Divorce Attorney's, Financial Advisors or other professionals in similar fields? What are you doing to be useful to them and provide value, as I don't want to just nag them to "get lunch/coffee" and then ask for referrals.

As a real estate agent I have lenders do this all the time and I don't want to do the same to these busy professionals without something very useful to offer. Curious for any tips/advice. Also I'm 24 so I don't know many lawyers or anything personally...

[Bruce Lynn]

Just a couple of ideas, but of course your experience could be different.

A couple of years ago I took a list of all the filed probate cases with real estate in Tarrant County, TX which is where Ft. Worth and Arlington are located.  I then sorted by attorney and was totally shocked.  I think the busiest one had about 6 probates for the year and then it went down from there.  Maybe another had 4, and I would say 80-90% of the 200 or so attorneys were only handling 1 or 2 cases.   Not sure how that works out for Divorce lawyers, but I expect it could be the same.   I called a lot of them and most I actually talked to seemed like they didn't have much of a relationship with the family or executor.  Not really in a position or had interest in referring.   I almost think based on the responses, it would probably be better to go direct to the family or divorce couple themselves.

Financial Advisors I've never worked, but I know with my own, I think he would be slow to recommend real estate to his clients.  If they divert money away from him, he's making less money.  Less trading, less AUM if they're charge 1-2%, etc...so I would think it would be few and far between that they're recommending any product that can't be bought thru them for a profit.   I could be totally wrong.

I'd think for the most part it would just be better to go after the end users, vs looking for referrals from those people.