How to market to Real Estate Agents?

[Meisterin]

I don't know whether my question is relevant for this forum but I thought I will give a go and ask.

I have been running a painting business mainly servicing home owners and some office and commercial buildings for about three years. And about a year into our business a real estate agent got in touch with us and have been giving us jobs on a regular basis and having dealt with the agent my husband I thought it would be good if we could get in touch with other real estate agents in Sydney for the following reasons:

1. The property is usually empty which means it's much easier to paint.
2. Normally interior painting which means there is no delay due to weather
3. Prompt payment.
4. No further marketing expense.

I was wondering if people on this forum had ideas about establishing a good relationship with real estate agents. The particular agent likes using us because we have the following qualities.

1. Prompt Response
2. Quick & Clean
3. Immediate start


To market further I am building a website (for general public and particularly for renters) but I would like to know what kind of approach would work on real estate agents. Once I can break in I am confident that I can keep up with good service to keep them as our regular client.

 

[DaveM]

Give good pricing and you will probably have years worth of work from Somersoft members alone.

 

[Lil Skater]

Many agents (here anyway) are happy for you to drop in with a card and a little about you/your company. I'd take along some before/after photos and if you can get some clients to agree, have their contact number for a reference.

 

[Colin Rice]

Ask for introductions to other REA from the one that already knows you and the work you do. They all tend to know each other.

Get a comprehensive yet short and punchy testimony from the REA that already uses you to include in your marketing pack that you could give to REA after you have meet with them. Use the testimony on your website etc as people usually research a potential service provider via the internet and its always better for some one else to sing your praises.

Do what DaveM said by contributing to the forum in a non salesy way and you will get work that way as well.

And most importantly over deliver on the end result!

 

[Scott No Mates]

Contact the Real Estate Institute of NSW & Fairfax Publications. I get plenty of emails from suppliers/contractors who have contacted the REI or Domain for email distribution lists.

 

[fokas]

Good suggestions all round! I love this forum.

 

[Meisterin]

Thanks so much for all your suggestions.

One other thing I like about doing real estate work was that most of the work was local and within 10-15 mins of where we lived. Compared to the works that were 30 min-60 min away it was really time saving and we found that we could really had lots of time in the evening.

Apart from setting up a website, I would probably have a A4 flyer designed with lots of photos to introduce our service with testimonials from the agent that are using us and see how things go.