Utilizing technology can be a game-changer for many Realtors, but relying on communication like text, email and social media could also stifle a young real estate business.
Cathy Alley, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty in Niceville, Fla. will serve on a panel of mega agents during the Alabama Residential Real Estate Conference & Expo on May 4 in Birmingham.
The event will take place at The Club, atop Red Mountain. Tickets and reserved tables are available by clicking the banner below.
Alley has 30 years experience in the real estate industry in both California and Florida.
She is currently Past President of the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors and was the Niceville Realtor of the Year 2015.
Alley has seen many changes in real estate over the years, ranging from contracts becoming more complicated to the onslaught of the digital age, something that has made the consumer more savvy, and at the same time, less trusting of the professional.
“I think there is less trust in the consumer as a whole in the real estate professional…There’s so much information out there on the internet now that everybody’s an expert, and they trust you less,” Alley said.
Alley says to combat this trend, Realtors must go back to the basics when it comes to creating true relationships with clients.
“You really have to develop a relationship with the client you’re working with,” Alley said. “Once you do, I think they trust you. Probably, about 80 percent of my business is repeat and referral, so it’s the new client coming in, who finds you on the internet (that is the challenge).”
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Alley says this has caused some Realtors new to the industry to struggle at times.
“I call the younger Realtors the drive-thru generation, because they want to drive-thru and have it now,” Alley said. “In real estate, you can’t drive-thru and have it now. It takes a lot of hard work, making no money for lots of months and sticking with it.”
Alley has mentored new Realtors over the years, and she said her advice is the same now as it always was.
“I tell this to any of the new (Realtors) coming in who are struggling, I say pick out a subdivision,” she said. “Become an expert in that subdivision and do the old time stuff that we used to do. Send postcards once a month in there. Walk the neighborhood and get to know the people who live in that subdivision…Pick 100 houses, and know that clientele…I do a lot of postcard marketing, and it works.”
