I'm a new agent and I have all my friends and family listed in my contacts. I want to send them an introduction letter that looks professional. Does anybody have any good content to put in it?

I advocate sending a handwritten note as the first contact with your friends & family. I think handwritten is more personal & shows that you put more time in to it.

Make it a quick note.. "I'm building my real estate business & can use your help. Please contact me if you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell" enclose some business cards. You can go a step further & create "referral cards". I have my new agents do this. It's a simple preprinted card:

Name _______
Address ________
ph _____________
Relationship __________

& they ask their friends or family to keep the card & send it back when they meet someone looking to buy or sell. Make sure to include a return addressed, postage paid envelope for the reply. People hate throwing away things that are pre stamped so they will keep the cards forever. Make sure to follow up with a phone call after sending the card.

The referral card idea is a great one and I'm going to use it! Thanks Tanya.

Interesting. I'd rather include a few cards and have my friends/family give them to their friends who are looking for real estate related help.

I would never give my friends information to anybody that would then cold-call or otherwise solicit to them. Personal choice.

Oh, I know attorneys do very nice quality introduction postcards.

X,Y,Z firm is proud to announce that ___ has joined the firm.

They also typically place an ad similar to the postcard in a local legal paper.

From what I've heard, your friends and family won't know for a long time that you are in the business. Even if they do unless you show them that you are for real they won't connect you with real estate and therefore won't refer you because they don't think you are going to take it seriously. Therefore a professional introduction letter is imperative.

That's a passive approach Aimee. You need to be aggressive in this business & that means asking for business & getting your COI to work for you. The WORST thing a new agent can do is hand out their business card & not get the person's info. If they are anything like me, the business card goes in the purse or pocket & thrown out eventually (where did I meet this person? And why do I have their card?). If you get their info then you keep them on a drip campaign so you are in front of them when they are ready to make a move. If you give out the card in hopes they will call you, they won't.

It's not a cold call. It's a warm call. Your friend or relative knows someone who is looking to buy or sell. When you followed up the referral card with a call you've trained them on how to use the referral card. They come across a lead, they ask the lead if it's ok for my ____ to call you, then they send the card or call you with the info. You call & say "So & so is my _____ & said you may be looking to buy or sell"

How do you put a quote in your posts that is bold like that?