A "Referral Tree" of Business

This blog is really a blog of Gratitude!!  2014 was an absolutely incredible year, with closings totalling $40+ million dollars!  My heart is full, and I am so eternally grateful for our success.  I do not pretend to take credit for this level of success personally.

 I am a bit of a numbers "nerd", and not ashamed to say so.  I keep track of where my numbers come from, the sources for the sales, and the clients my team and I are working with.  I cannot even begin to express my thankfulness when I write that 70%+ of our busines is a result of repeat clients and direct referrals!  For that I thank my clients, friends, and my God!

This weekend serves as a prime example of how my business has been blessed by the referral of past clients who have become my close friends!   I have been busy working with a wonderful young family who is moving back to Houston from having lived overseas for the past rew years.  They are just fabulous, and we have had a great time searching for, and finding, a fantastic new home for them.

To explain how I came to work with this wonderful young family, I have to go back about 8 years ago when I answered a simple phone call to go on a listing appointment.  I was fairly "young" in the real estate business at that time, and knew going to make a presentation to an executive in the oil industry may or may not turn out well for me.  Regardless, I decided to give it my very best effort and simply be honest with providing information, guidance and the level of expertise I could provide at that time.  For some reason, the executive decided to hire me to represent him on the sale of his home.  I sold his home, and that was the beginning of a long term business relationship and friendship with him and his wife.

I just finished closing my 6th transaction with this same executive, and I can honestly tell you that he had his wife have become very special friends to me and my family.  They are some of my greatest cheerleaders.  The number of people they have referred me to has created an ENORMOUS "referral tree", and I am so grateful.

I never, ever take a referral for granted!  And I pray that I never, ever take a single client for granted.   I am thankful for each and every single one.  I can honestly tell you that this same story has been repeated across several wonderful clients-turned-friends that I have had over the years.   It makes my job not a "job" at all -- but an incredibly rewarding experience!!

So -- what is the "moral" of this story??  I don't know if there is one, other than me saying a huge thank you.  I want my clients to know how thankful I really am for them!!!

A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, our pastor made a statement in a sermon about David that really stuck with me.  He said "Sometimes your destiny is changed on regular day".  (I may not have the quote precise, but the meaning is there.)  The best lines of business referrals that I have did not begin with any "pomp and circumstance" -- but rather with just a simple meeting.  Some of my best referral lines have come from folks I met because I simply answered the phone at the most inconvenient time.  Some of them have come from an open house I was hosting, and they were the ONLY ones that showed up the entire afternoon.  Others have come because I sat down at a table and gave an honest opinion of value when asked about what a home was worth.  And you know -- it was all SO worth it!  And I am so very thankful!