Do you know where your former customers are? One of the real estate basics is that agents need to remain in touch with previous clients to assure repeat and referral business in the future. But it’s well known that sales basics tend to erode in boom markets – such as the one we’ve been enjoying since the mid-’90s.

Real estate 2001

In late May, the National Association of Realtors reported that while existing-home sales slipped in April, they remained above forecast levels. The median price for an existing property was $144,700 nationwide, $8,600 higher than a year ago. Continued low interest rates, low unemployment, and the highest home ownership rate ever bode well for the near future as far as housing is concerned. In fact, NAR predicts 2001 sales to be second only to the record 5.21 million in 1999.

And The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. Census figures, suggested recently that the influx of immigrants could even create a housing demand that exceeds the supply.

Former customers

What all of this housing activity means is that real estate agents – both those new to the industry and the old timers – have been exceptionally busy these last several years: acquiring listings, making sales, and helping buyers find new homes. Transactions have never been so easy to come by. In the meantime, what has happened to your former customers?

If you’ve been too busy with current business to look back, you should consider renewing older business relationships. Ideally, you should keep your name, photo and contact information in front of all earlier customers – through regular mail-outs or specialty items. After all, you cannot know when a customer’s personal situation will induce a move – even months after purchasing a new home. The standard statistic for homeowners selling and buying a new property is every five or six years. If you entered real estate since the mid-’90s, you may not have acquired much repeat business as yet, but if the statistic holds true, many of those original customers will soon be considering a change of homes.

The same applies to customers of veteran agents. If you’re an experienced agent, you may thus have two sets of former customers: those you worked with since 1996, and those you worked with before.

Getting back in touch

Former customers are an invaluable source of future business. A personal telephone call will reestablish connection. Reviewing the earlier transaction and calculating the homeowner’s equity beforehand will provide conversation leads. After that, you can remain in touch with the former customer through mail-outs and specialty marketing. Also, it’s not only the customers themselves who might lead to future transactions. If they are baby boomers, their aging parents might need the services of a real estate professional to downsize or acquire referrals to retirement properties in a different part of the country. And the earlier customers’ grown children may be looking to become first-time buyers.

It’s not too late to get back in touch with former customers. And it’s never too early to begin practicing one of the most lucrative real estate basics: generating repeat and referral business.

Daryl Jesperson (ABR, CRB, CRP) is president of RE/MAX International, Inc., a real estate franchise network of tens of thousands of associates in thousands of offices worldwide. RE/MAX International is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colo., 303-770-5531. Visit the RE/MAX Web site at remax.com.