Do you have a portfolio of real estate transactions you've completed to show to your clients and prospects whenever you feel it's appropriate? If you don't, it will probably be a great idea for you to put a portfolio together and have it available for marketing and in-person presentations.

When people are deciding which real estate agent to work with, it's helpful for them to know your track record in having successfully completed similar real estate transactions with others. When you have a portfolio available for people to look at, this helps them to feel that you know what you're doing as an agent and that you will do a good job of representing them on their upcoming real estate transaction also.

You can assemble your portfolio in a binder or you can assemble it to be delivered and viewed electronically. Either way you will want each page to represent one single transaction that you have successfully completed for one of your clients. Have a nice color photo of the property on each page as well as the address of the property and the pertinent details about the physical aspects of the property.

You probably will want to leave off the dollar amount that was paid for the transaction for a number of different reasons. One of these reasons is because as your prospect is looking at each page they may not feel great thinking that you could similarly be disclosing financial information that they consider private about their upcoming transaction to other people in the area in the coming weeks and months ahead. Another reason is because the longer you are in the business, the more the property values in your territory will change. You don't want people looking at your portfolio reading transaction amounts that have no relevance to today's market. This can serve to invalidate the relevancy of your portfolio as your prospects are looking at it.

To increase the effectiveness of your portfolio, something that you will also want to do is include a quote on each page from the clients that you represented during that particular transaction. Make this quote very visible and prominently displayed on the page and mention the name or names of the people who gave you the testimonial. Adding a quote like this to each transaction in your portfolio is a very important addition for you to include.

When you are soliciting prospects for business everything you say and do is constantly being evaluated by them. These people are trying to determine if you are someone they should be doing business with. They are about to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives and they need to know that you are someone who they can trust to assist them with the process of making this decision. When these people are looking at your portfolio without any quotes from your clients, they are simply looking at the physical details of properties that you have successfully closed transactions on. This can definitely be helpful to them in knowing that you are capable of successfully completing a transaction with them. However, when you add individual quotes from the people you represented on each of the transactions in your portfolio you are now adding a much more powerful dynamic to the experience of a prospect looking at your portfolio. When your prospects read these quotes they are now connecting with the wonderful experience that the other people had through working with you. This is much more powerful than simply having your prospects see that you have successfully completed transactions on properties in the past.

What your prospects are really looking to determine is what the experience of having you represent them in a real estate transaction will be like. And there is no better measure of this than what other people who have worked with you have to say about you. So when you add great quotes from people to each property displayed in your portfolio your prospects are then getting a more complete experience of how good it will be to work with you. This will sink in more and more with them as they turn each page in the portfolio, see the photo and information on each transaction you've completed, and read the praise about you from the people you represented in the transaction. By the time they have looked at each and every page in your portfolio they may very likely conclude that you are the best choice that they could ever make in a real estate agent.

Keep in mind that what is causing this to happen is the combination of the individual quotes on each page with the photo and information about the property itself. This causes your prospects to be completely immersed in each transaction in the portfolio along with the praise that you received from the people you represented. This then has your prospects feel that if they immerse themselves in a transaction with you that they will very likely have great things to say about you also. However, you will substantially weaken the effect if you instead have a separate section of testimonials in your portfolio and not include the quotes on each individual page along with the photo and property information that relates to it.

So what do you do if you already have a lot of transactions that you've already completed but you've never obtained quotes about the service you provided from the people you represented in these transactions?

Well, this could be a great opportunity for you to get back in contact with these people once again. It may be time for you to reconnect with a number of these people and see if they have any new real estate needs at this time. When you talk with them tell them that you're assembling a portfolio of real estate transactions that you've successfully completed and that you're obtaining quotes from everyone you've represented about their experience of working with you as their agent. Ask them if it would be acceptable for you to submit three potential quotes to them about you and have them select the one that best describes their experience of working with you. This allows you to write the quotes exactly as you would like them to appear and eliminates the possibility of your clients giving you quotes that, while being well-intentioned, are rather bland for your marketing purposes. Also, when people have three different quotes to choose from they are much more likely to find at least one of the quotes acceptable to them.

Whenever you feel it is appropriate you may consider taking your clients out to lunch or dinner in conjunction with obtaining your quotes from them. Socializing with your clients is a great way to solidify your relationship with them and in this case it's also a great way to show your appreciation to them for assisting you with your marketing. It's also a great time to ask them for referrals, too.

And of course for transactions that you will be closing in the future it will be a great idea for you to obtain quotes from your clients about their experience in working with you immediately after the transaction has completed. This is when they are most likely to be in the peak emotional state of associating great qualities with you.

In summary, when working with new prospects they want to know that you are someone who will do a great job of representing them in their upcoming real estate transaction. Showing these people a portfolio of your past real estate transactions together with quotes from the people you represented on these transactions is an extremely powerful way to have your prospects conclude that you are the best choice that they could ever make in a real estate agent.

Published: October 15, 2003

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Jim Gillespie, Ph.D., is America's Premier Real Estate Coach℠. He has over 20 years of experience in real estate sales and is a past president of three different real estate companies. His FREE real estate E-newsletter with tips and creative ideas to help agents make more money is now read by over 35,000 agents nationwide. You can subscribe to his FREE E-newsletter by visiting RealEstateSalesCoach.com or contact him at Jim@RealEstateSalesCoach.com.