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Strategies for the Retiring Lone Ranger Realtor
You worked your Real Estate career as a lone gun. You helped the client, then rode off into the sunset to find the next deserving home buyer or seller. No looking back, and no regrets. Now, it’s time to retire from the business and a regret or two may be lingering. The Lone Ranger Realtor may be leaving a lot of money on the table as the golden age approaches. If you’re a Lone Ranger, you may not have much to pass along to the new gun in town. The money left on the table is yours, but how do you get it back now?
Bringing Them Back to the Fold
You left them all behind, the good clients and the bad, the clients who loved you and the ones who were happy to see the back of you. Now, it’s time to collect them back up. If you are serious about retiring and trying to have a business to sell in any way, shape or form, you need this list of names and contact information. Here’s the trick. It’s a lot of work, but…. you don’t have to do it yourself. Hire a student, a grandkid, someone (and this may be a trick in this day and age) who knows how to work a telephone. Get them to go back through all your old files and track all those people down. It goes like this:
Hello Mr./Mrs. Client – this is Mary calling on behalf of Lone Ranger Realtor. We want to apologize for not being in touch more recently to help you with your Real Estate needs. I am calling to update our files with your contact information; do you have a minute for me?
Is this going to work with everyone? Will you be able to find them all? Of course not, and some of them may not even remember who you are. But, many will, and those are the people that you want on your list.
What Works?
Hopefully, after all these years, you know what works and what doesn’t work. Where do your clients come from? If you haven’t been tracking this information, now’s the time to start. If you are planning in retiring tomorrow, this may be information that you simply won’t have time to collect, but if you have a year or two and, for a change, you are thinking ahead, start collecting it now. Knowing where your clients are coming from is essential in passing on a useful business to an up-and-comer.
Taking a Gamble
You don't want your retirement dividends to be a gamble. There's never been a sure thing in Real Estate, so you want to make a good choice when it comes time to hang up your holster. If you’ve collected your names and contacts and you have your processes outlined, it’s time to find a good up-and-comer to take over your business. You’re going to be collecting referral fees from this person for many years to come (hopefully), so it’s essential you choose someone who has shown some success in the business and is hungry enough to work the leads from your contacts. If you hand your business on to someone who is too busy, they may never even get to your stuff. You may want to consider charging a fee up front in addition to ongoing referral fees. People value what they have to pay for.
Ready, Set…. Relax!
You’ve handed it all over to the up-and-comer and now you want to sit back and let the referral dough roll in. No problem. All you have to do now is park your license with a non-association/board affiliated Brokerage (like Lesley E. Moll, Real Estate Brokerage). Not only does it save you on your fees, since you don’t have to pay any OREA, CREA or local board fees, but the commission splits tend to be much more lucrative with no minimums. You can still refer people you meet to your chosen protégé, but you don’t have to deal with the stress and headaches of midnight offers and deals going south. It’s not your problem anymore. It’s time to put hang up your holster, take off your white hat and put your horse out to pasture. You’ve earned it.