“Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend”
Whether you are an apartment investor or commercial real estate investor, one thing that can have a positive impact on your business is referrals. What I am talking about is an existing or previous tenant that refers a new tenant to move in or lease a commercial space.
Most investors do not think about this strategy in their business. It is a mistake to overlook this strategy, especially if you are an office or retail real estate investor. One good referral can literally mean thousands of dollars in your pocket.
There used to be a time in my business that to get a referral, I would simply “hope” that I would get one from one of my tenants. I was never proactive about getting or asking for a referral, but just hoping that a referral would be a natural byproduct of good service. So it was kind of a cross your fingers and maybe you will get a referral from a tenant.
Well, after years of getting little, and even no referrals at times, I began looking at my business more closely. I was beginning to discover this was the one of the best ways to get new business. I decided this area needed more attention.
The main reasons are:
- There is little or no cost in getting the referral.
- There is little time involved in getting the referral.
- Referred tenants are already predisposed to rent space from you.
It would be smart for you to think of working more on the referral side of your business. Any time you can have little cost and big payoffs it should be exploited as much as possible vs. just hoping for the best. In the near future I will share how to actually create a system that automatically generates referrals rather than leaving it up to chance.
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