Million dollar buyer led to lots of referrals

Back in 2003, I worked with a client moving from the northeast.  They were purchasing a second home, and I had actually worked with them in 1999 with no success.  They decided to "put things on hold" for awhile, then they resurfaced in late 2002, having doubled their desired price range to the $1 million range.

It turned out that they had been working with TWO different agents in the interim, since the wife felt that a female agent might be able to understand her better.  However, the husband wanted to contact me again, because he always liked and trusted me when I met them previously.

Well, I wrote down their new criteria, and found the right home on their first visit back to Austin.  They paid $1.2 million, and I ended up having to do the other agent's job quite a bit during the process (negotiating repairs, meeting with his clients to get signatures, meeting with the builder to get information, etc.). 

Well, about a year later, I heard from the seller, who wanted to refer her brother-in-law and his family to ME, not to their original agent.  She felt that we would hit if off, which we did, and he purchased a home from me for almost $2 million.  We also got the relocation account for his entire company, which led to several million dollars in executive-level business.  The original sellers moved back to Austin and also used me to purchase their new home for about $700k. 

All in all, we probably got $6-7 million in referral business because the other agent dropped the ball, and I got to know his clients so well.

The moral is: do your job correctly, regardless of what the other agent is doing.  If you manage to connect with both sides because they are uninvolved and/or lazy, it will double your potential referral base.