Blog / Leadership
Care Factor Counts with Lindy Harris
With Lindy Harris, One Agency
Regardless of the economic cycle, people will always still buy and sell property. Opportunities exist but it is only the agents who understand that real estate is about genuinely caring about people, who will succeed.
Lindy Harris is one such agent. Working in Singleton, a small mining town in regional NSW going through a tough stretch, her understanding and love of people has seen her become one of Australia's top female, high performing, real estate professionals. She says, “My best month ever has been 23 sales and 17 listings for the month. Real estate is not a half game."
Lindy believes that you have to, “…make sure that you care, that you care about your clients, you care about what they're up to. While the numbers are great, and you should know your numbers. for me it's not so much about that, it's about the satisfaction that I get out of seeing happy buyers and sellers alike."
If not now, then when?
Finding she was stagnating three years ago, Lindy decided to take the plunge into starting her own brand, just before she hit the big five O. She says, “I was nearly turning 50 and thought, ‘Well, if I don't do it now, I'll never do it’. I wanted to get out there and open up my own agency and have a crack at it. I wanted to improve myself in an industry that I love. I wanted to make sure that I could have a go and do it my way."
Listening to leading
It’s a tough gig transitioning from listing to leading but Lindy knew the value of structure in a business. She says, “Frameworks changed my business, it changed my mind thought pattern. I had to make sure that there was structure within the business."
Lindy adopted and adapted Frameworks. She says, “We've got it in the office and it's there for everyone to see. So we know, if we're falling down in any part of the business, we can go to that, realise the reason why and pull it apart and start again. So it's there, it gives the office structure, it gives my sales people structure."
"Make sure that you care, that you care about your clients, you care about what they're up to."
A STRUCTURED WEEK
While the emphasis of work for each day is not set in stone, generally in Lindy’s office, the focus on particular days is as follows:
Monday
Focused on buyers.
Lindy says, “You know on one given day it can be anywhere between four to six appraisals on that day, which is huge. At the moment, my success rate is about 99%, I very rarely don't win the business, though if I don't win a business, I always want to know why. So I'm always wanting to find out how else I can self-improve and what was the something else I could have done better."
Tuesday
Listing day
Wednesday
Focused on buyers
Buyer call session from 5-7pm. Lindy says, “My focus is to talk to as many buyers as I can. Obviously though it's the quality of the conversation, not the quantity. They love it at that time of night. They know that I'm still there, I'm working and they care that I care. They care that I made the time to actually phone them and to find out where they're at, if they found anything. I love nothing more than to say, if I don't have the listing for them, ‘Look, I've just seen a property come on with a competitive agency, and I feel that it would be really good. Have you seen it?’ And they love that."
Thursday
Listing day.
Friday
Focused on buyers.
Saturday Lindy says, “We haven't been doing a lot of open homes. I prefer to do one on one - it's more my style of selling. But if we do need to do an open home, we could do two on any given day. Before I leave my office every Saturday afternoon, I make sure that I've spoken to every vendor. I like to, whether it's a text message, email or some point of contact. I don't want to get a phone call from a vendor on Monday because they haven't heard from me."
Buyer management
Lindy loves working face to face with buyers. She finds out exactly what buyers are looking for, where they want to be. She says, “I like to meet with them, see what their needs are, and put them in a property. The satisfaction of doing that at the end is brilliant."
Bonding with clients
Lindy stays in touch with all her clients and keeps that line of communication open. She says, “Stay in touch, don't ever lose sight of that. If someone bought or sold off me three years ago, I still remember the first sale, of opening up the business and who that person was. I still stay in touch with them.
They’re always just a phone call to say, ‘Hey I've just driven past the house, it looks great’."
She doesn’t forget people who didn’t buy from her either. Lindy says, “I love nothing more - even if somebody doesn't buy a property through me and I know exactly where they've ended up - if I'm driving past, I'll drop a bottle of champagne off to them. I'll call in and visit them and congratulate them on the sale, and a lot of times, the agent that sold them the property doesn't even do that. So I love that side of it."
Connecting with the community
Lindy is synonymous with Singleton. She spends around $50,000 a year on community development projects in the area. “We are doing One Big Easter Egg Hunt, which is going to be carried at the local market that happens every second Sunday. We're also doing a reflection garden at the local hospital and I sponsor the local football star.” Lindy’s not just a taker – she gives as well and the community can see that.
Zig Ziglar said that, “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you." The people of Singleton like and trust Lindy Harris.
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