Networking for Estate Agents
For anyone in business we will sure have attended a business networking event or two during our journeys. From the local breakfast meetings to larger and more specific events run at major cities, business networking is a great way to:
- Increase your brand awareness
- Increase your personal profile
- Increase your connections
- Improve your confidence
There are more positives besides all the above, the higher you network then the better the connections you will be making. We are able to choose from general business networking where we can bump in to all sorts of professionals from an arrange of business sectors or with a bit of research we can find more target events where the exact connections we are after are likely to be present.
As an estate agent, we can either look to network as an estate agent or network with estate agents.
As an Estate Agent:
A great way to build your profile locally and the awareness of your / the estate agency you work for then choose general networking events locally. Most times these will be the likes of BNI and similar concepts. With a simple search on Google or Facebook / LinkedIn you will be able to hunt down the closest business networking events to you and plan to attend a selection monthly. You are likely to be charged a fee to attend up to paying a membership / annual fee.
Having attended many of these back in my early days of business I can confidently say that the likely attendees will include a person from within the legal sector, a web designer / marketeer / photographer, homeotherapist, business coach and sometimes an estate agent. To build your confidence and networking experience then attending regularly the same meeting is a useful action though if you are looking to expand your network then the same old faces with the same old pitches will not be for you.
Larger networking events can happen locally also, sometimes these will be day or usually evening events. A larger turn over of new faces will be present so ideal for the continuation of expanding your network.
With Estate Agents:
Networking for estate agents, to me, means connecting with other estate agents / property service suppliers (and sometimes even consumers with an interest in property) in order to grow your business and your network of fellow professionals. Estate agent to estate agent is very different to what we discussed above as in this setting you are not looking so much at selling your services and instead looking to build your knowledge.
Estate Agent networking usually takes place via regular meetings in most cities across the country and especially London for the larger occasions such as awards / exhibitions / shows etc. The other location where estate agents can network is online and primarily via social media or industry specific websites with chat forums enabled. Facebook for estate agents is a great place to initiate your online networking such as the Facebook estate agency group which has nearly 10,000 members – Here you are able to ask fellow estate agents key questions and advice on current topics, marketing challenges, staff issues and much more. In such groups / pages you are likely to build your knowledge on key industry topics as senior professionals like to share their experience and further their legacy. Another great place to check for groups of estate agents is on LinkedIn with an example here of over 18,000 property professionals in one place.
Events take place specific to elements within the business sector of property / estate agency and this includes landlord meetings, proptech, investment groups and more.
There are also several social networking groups for those in property to include The Doyle club, Property Connect Networking, The Fox Club to name just a few. These events might be slightly more costly to attend and taking place within a finer establishment such wine bars, restaurants and private member clubs. They usually have a committee set up with at least a chair and treasurer plus likely to hold separate charity events plus a Christmas and or summer party. Sometimes these network events are part of a licensee / franchise concept thus replicated in other main towns / cities across the country. They will also likely have a social media account / page / group where you can keep updated on what’s happening and making it easier for you to connect online with fellow members (sometimes groups are set as private so to keep members to only those paying to attend the physical events that are put on).
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