“Real estate is a relationship business” is a popular real estate adage of unknown authorship. “And with senior Americans, real estate is a relationship business” was cited in print in 1999. The saying means that a personal relationship is usually needed to sell a property; a home is a major purchase and many people don’t feel comfortable with a stranger.
 
Not everyone agrees with the adage. “‘Real Estate is a Relationship Business’ - Not exactly… (A Rant)” was written by Jennifer Allen-Hagedorn in 2009, arguing that realtors are professionals, regardless of any relationship.
 
   
Google Books
Targeting the Over 55 Client:
Your Guide to Today’s Fastest Growing Market
By John A. Tuccillo, Buddy West and Betsy West
Chicago, IL: Real Estate Education Co.
1999
Pg. 82:
And with senior Americans, real estate is a relationship business.
   
Chicago (IL) Tribune
Minority Real Estate Lender Is Alone At Top
Capri Capital, The Largest Black-owned Private Commercial Real Estate Investment Firm In The U.s., Is Also The Only One Advising Pension Firms.
April 07, 1999|By J. Linn Allen, Tribune Staff Writer.
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“Real estate is a relationship business, done at the country club and the golf course, and we haven’t had access to those places where a lot of those deals get done historically,” said John Rogers, president of Chicago’s Ariel Capital Management Inc. and one of the few independent African-American financial managers in the country.
 
REALTOR Magazine Online
The Sales Doctors
The “doctors” make some house calls to diagnose three companies’ sales problems. Could their treatments bolster your bottom line?
APRIL 2000 | BY ROBERT SHAROFF
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Danielle Kennedy sold more than a billion dollars’ worth of real estate before becoming a full-time writer and speaker on sales and marketing topics. In 1996 she was inducted into the Sales and Marketing Executives International Hall of Fame. Among her books are How to List and Sell Real Estate in the 21st Century, Double Your Income in Real Estate Sales, and Seven Figure Selling.
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Kennedy: Selling real estate is a relationship business, and relationships don’t happen unless they’re cultivated. Right now, Eric doesn’t attend closings. He should. It’s the little things that count when you’re building up a referral base—the closing gifts, occasional visits, and cards and calls for birthdays. He could also do more with testimonials from past customers. They are a terrific—and inexpensive—marketing tool.
     
REALTOR Magazine Online 
50 Stellar Ideas to Rev Up Your Sales
AUGUST 2000 | BY ROBERT SHAROFF
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48. Make new friends, and keep the old. “Selling real estate is a relationship business,” says Danielle Kennedy, author of Seven Figure Selling and other sales tomes, “and relationships don’t happen unless they’re cultivated. It’s the little things that count when you’re building up a referral base—closing gifts, occasional visits, and cards and calls on birthdays.”
 
Google Groups: WestRoxburyMA
Video of Ridgecrest Green discussion
k d
10/30/07
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This blog is called Dahubbub.com.
 
In it you will not find much about buying or selling real estate, but you will find quality content on neighborhood news, histories, education, parks and recreation, lifestyle, arts and entertainment–all distributed on a
neighborhood by neighborhood basis. For this site our aim was to build relationships, because as any good Realtor knows, real estate is a relationship business.
 
Active Rain
“Real Estate is a Relationship Business” - Not exactly… (A Rant)
BY JENNIFER ALLAN-HAGEDORN
Education & Training with Sell with Soul
October 28, 2009 07:06 AM
We hear this all the time - heck, I say it all the time! “Real Estate is a Relationship Business” - meaning that the more people who know you and like you, the more real estate you’ll sell. As opposed to the good old Numbers Game philosophy that the more people who throw away your monthly marketing postcards or ignore your newspaper advertising, the more real estate you will sell.
 
And of course, I believe that - at least the part about how the more people who know you and like you, the more real estate you’ll sell.
 
But is real estate really a relationship business?
 
I say no.
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Our buyers and sellers have the right to expect that we know our business. Which is… how to manage and facilitate the exchange of real property. Not how to persuade our Dear Friends to provide us with easy paychecks.
     
Google Books
Information, Technology, and Innovation:
Resources for Growth in a Connected World
By John M. Jordan
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2012
Pg. 228:
Real estate is a relationship business. Whether an individual is hunting for scarce properties in a hot market or scarce buyers in a cool one, good real estate agents embed themselves in deep social networks. The trust required for buyers to make what is typically the biggest purchase of their lives does not translate to a browser-based form.
 
Twitter
Mad-Hop REALTORS
‏@MadHopREALTORS
Real estate is a relationship business - will it stay that way?  Here’s a short article on “Technology Can’t Do… http://fb.me/2gZkTCzBG
9:38 AM - 3 Apr 2014
 
D magazine (Dallas, TX)
Blake Anderson: Five Success Strategies for the Long Haul
By Christine Perez OCT 30, 2014 AT 9:15 PM
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Create long-lasting relationships.The old saying that “real estate is a relationship business” is a cliché for a reason … it’s absolutely true.