Relationships matter more than ever in today’s market. Strong partnerships with real estate professionals are a start, but mortgage professionals must invest time and energy in engaging with their community at large. After all, the wider your circle of influence, the more business opportunities you have.
But how do you involve yourself in your local community and start building authentic relationships?
With Ted Bogert, Market Leader future home loanhas found a unique way to connect with its community in Orlando, Florida and the surrounding area.
Bogert is the creator and host of “The Ted Show”, a locally popular show that airs on Facebook Live. He invites guests to share their experiences with “amazing stories” as well as discuss business, art, community, relationships and more.
Bogert said, “I … wanted to show the amazing things going on in our community that you wouldn’t normally see.” “It allows me to connect with the community of people who follow the TED Show. It just continues to snowball, and it’s a passion project that gives back a lot.
Through her past experiences with nonprofit work, her current position, and the show itself, Bogert has a network of connections with a wide variety of interesting people in a variety of fields. Bogert is happy to flex that network as a resource for people looking for anything, anywhere — even if it’s not related to his mortgage business.
“I want [people] To come to me, ”he said. “I want them to think of me, be top of mind and know that if they need to find something in Orlando or Florida or really anywhere in the world, I have the connections, because the show is global. Strictly commercial.” perspective, being top of mind is a beautiful thing, even if it has nothing to do with [mortgage], I want them to still think of me first, which goes a long way in a long term relationship.
Here are his tips and lessons for building lasting community relationships:
- Don’t lead the business. Bogert said he doesn’t lead the business in negotiations, even when he’s dealing with others in the mortgage and real estate industry. Instead, he’ll ask what he can do for them and encourage them to share the things they care about. He’ll even feature people on the show from organizations he’s passionate about.
- be relational; No transaction. Bogert aims to create authentic connections through his work on both The TED Show and Future Home Loans.
“If you live and work in a community, it’s important not to be business-minded when it comes to transacting things,” he said. “By showing people my love for our community, our global community, I’m giving them more of a relationship than a transaction. I’m not here just to ask, ‘What have you done for me lately? Sure That you use me for all your hostages.’ I think whoever takes the transactional approach is doing everyone a disservice.
- to be active Bogert said the word he chose to set the tone for his year is “ask.” He said he has all these connections in Central Florida, but historically he has been passive about using them to grow his mortgage business.
“I wanted it to grow organically, which it did. And then I realized that by not asking, I was disrespecting everybody,” he said. “People thought of me, they put me at the top — but I didn’t think of them as hostages, they were thinking of me as a resource.”
Instead, Bogert has begun asking for business from people with whom he has built relationships, and this has opened doors for business and created opportunities that he might not otherwise have had. On the contrary, he is consistent in referring the business to others.
- build trust.
“I spend so much time investing in relationships because they are real relationships to me — not my acquaintances,” he said. “People [I’ve featured] Have become friends in the show. We do business together, and they refer people to me. I feel like I’ve finally built enough trust and rapport, and I’ve earned that opportunity.”
- Engage in community authentically. Bogert recommends getting authentically involved in your local community as a way to build relationships.
“Engage yourself, smart little one — you don’t have to do it all and be everything to all people at once,” he said. “I find that if you start small, you don’t have to call out your entire database and you don’t have to spend days throwing business cards at people. Take the time to really find out what appeals to them.” need and how you can be a resource for them.
Bogert recommends having a mix of real estate and non-real estate related community connections.
“When you get involved in the community, don’t make everything you do about real estate. [If you do,] You don’t have any other footprint in the community,” he said. “I think it’s important for people [avoid having] tunnel vision.”
LOs have to have something outside of the mortgage industry for people to talk to, he said. You should have many interests and have genuine conversations with people about things like family and local trends.
“I don’t like it when I sit down and all we’re talking about is business,” he said. “There have to be other topics that you talk about, otherwise people drown you. It’s very important to be multifaceted and not always led by the business.”
“Authentic relationships are important, absolutely important,” he said. “And I don’t know how to do it any other way.”
