For this former schoolteacher, old-school communication is the key to success in residential real estate
When Sandy McRae, CRS, started her career teaching high school English, she made herself a promise that when she stopped feeling the same level of enthusiasm about teaching, she would step aside. So when she reached that point after 19 years, she started working in real estate at what she thought would be a temporary job.
Twenty-three years later she’s still at it.
“I’m loving it more every day! It’s the best decision I could have made,” she says. And she still crosses paths with some of her past students when they come to her as buyers or sellers.
McRae works at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services/PenFed Realty in Wichita, Kansas. Over the last three years, McRae’s daughter has joined her, so they are a mother-daughter team. “She has many fresh ideas,” McRae says of her daughter. “She has an interior design background, so she’s good at staging. And she was a graphic designer, so she also creates our marketing materials.”
Communication is key
According to McRae, the most important thing for a REALTOR® is communication skills, and that’s why teachers make good REALTORS®. “Communication is key to our success in this business,” McRae says. “That’s what buyers and sellers expect—that we will keep them apprised of what’s going on and teach them about the process. A good REALTOR® is also caring. You are like a counselor, catering to their needs and concerns.”
If you have a listing and there’s been no showing activity, McRae says it’s still important to communicate. “Don’t feel that you don’t have to call your client if there’s nothing to share—the seller expects to hear from you, and wants to know you share their concerns. My mantra is to communicate with all sellers every week, and more often if necessary, so they don’t feel they’re alone.”
And it’s the same with buyers: “If they are automatically notified of new listings and there haven’t been any in a week, then you need to let them know it’s just a time when there are few new homes coming onto the market,” McRae says.
McRae says that the second most important thing in real estate is to have great systems in place to manage the business. Specifically, an agent needs a good CRM system that provides a way to track contacts. “This is especially true after you have been in business for a while because there’s more referral business—and business from past clients,” McRae says. “You have to stay in touch with them or you lose them. You need to constantly work your past clients and sphere of influence to grow your business.”
On a mission
McRae says it’s her mission that if someone she knows thinks of real estate, they first think of her. To accomplish this, she often reminds people that this is what she does. McRae says it’s easier now through social media. Before that, she would either rely on newsletters, or just pop by to say hello or drop something off to a potential client. “I design a marketing plan to make connections with people in different ways,” McRae says. “For example, I provide pies at Thanksgiving to anyone who has given us a referral. I send holiday cards. I send flower baskets in May. I do something almost every month to keep my name in front of people.”
“Our business logo is family-focused real estate, so we always try to involve families,” McRae says. “My daughter is a young mom with three children, and she knows that involving children is important. So we have packets of fun activities the children can do when we go out to look at houses. At a contract meeting, we have a contract packet for the kids to color. Depending on the kids’ ages, we ask if they can make the bed every morning before a showing, and then we ask for reports from their parents, and leave “bucks” on their bed that they can cash in for prizes at the end. We try to engage the whole family in the process.”
To sum up, McRae says: “There’s no one magic pill for being successful as a REALTOR®. It takes being involved and staying in touch with what’s current, making sure we’re the voice of real estate to everyone we know. If they have a question, they know we’re here to answer them.”
