My entire business is built on this concept: No matter your business, whether you’re flipping houses or selling retail products, it is very important to create a positive experience for the people that work with you. For a real estate investor, this includes both your clientele and your referral partners. I always strive to go the extra mile to show my clients and my professional colleagues my appreciation and build a relationship that is more than purely transactional.

When I’m dealing with realtors specifically, there are a number of things I do to create positive experiences for them that will encourage them to bring me deals in the future. To begin with, I always give the listing back to the realtor in question once I’m ready to sell the property. This gives them the opportunity to make money when I initially purchase the house, and when it’s being sold at the end of the flip. Additionally, I like to give the real estate agents I work with bonuses for quick sales or when they secure an especially good deal for me.

Another way I cultivate the positive experience for my real estate agents is to take care of a lot of the things: I pay for high-end photography of the property and write up the descriptions to be used in listings. I’ll install the lockbox for the keys (and include two sets of keys in it) to save them the hassle. I get everything ready to go, so all the real estate agent needs to do is put the listing online and wait for prospective buyers to get in touch.

Finally, I actively promote the real estate agents I work with. My in-house social media team creates content that helps to promote the real estate agents I work with. As an example, we have a show called Their Downtown where we feature agents in their local downtown, highlighting the ways they’re great at what they do and showcasing the benefits of living and working in their town. We also produce The Elite Agent, a program where we interview real estate agents to find out why they’re the best and how they’ve achieved their level of success. One additional piece of content we produce is a weekly podcast where we spend 45 minutes with a realtor, interviewing them, discussing their story: Where they’re from, what they like, what their struggles are, and what they’re passionate about.

All of these things, from offering financial incentives, promoting their business, and streamlining processes, create a hugely positive working experience for all the real estate agents that I work with. By providing so much extra value to them and showing them that they are important, I ensure that they’ll think of me when there’s an opportunity arising from a distressed property. If you can make the people you work with know that you value them, you can reap the same benefits.