I know, I know… Some of you reading this right now are going “I know about this already” but the problem is most agents do not know how to nurture a sphere of influence at all. 

Im going to give you a quick strategy to get the most out of your sphere of influence.

  1. Go thru your phone and your facebook account. Make a list of every person you actually know. The ones you have met in person.
  2. Now go thru that list you made and we are going to make a 2nd list of people. These people are the ones that you have actually sent you business in the past and ones that are what I am going to refer to as “Power Connectors”
    1. Power connector – This is a person that regularly come in contact with a lot of people. Typically this person is a trusted figure in the community or area.


Here are a few examples: (of course there are more than this)

Pastors of a local church
Small convenience store owners

Civic group organizers

Hardware store employees or managers

Local Handyman

This is just a few examples. Of Course there are a lot more. Be creative and think about who you know and who do they know.

Ill give you a few examples from my career.

Convenience store owners

 I met a couple that owned a small convenience store. This store didn’t sell gas but it served breakfast and lunch. The occasionally served dinner. The couple actually worked in the store and the husband was the cook. They were genuinely very nice people.

I sold a property for them and as a common practice of mine, I looked them up to see what other properties did they own in the county. Turned out they had a large tract of land and another house that was a rental. I ended up doing a couple of transactions with them on properties they personally owned. 

The crazy thing was, they knew EVERYBODY in the area. They would hand out more of my business cards in a day sometimes than I could in a month! Every Time I was in the area, I made sure I stopped by. We shared pictures of our kids, life stories and I built a personal relationship with these people. For years these people sent me at least 2 to 3 transactions a year.

Political Consultant

For years, I was very involved in local politics. I think all agents should be to a certain extent. It is a great way to get exposure and oftentimes there are only 1 or 2 candidates running for a local office. It is a great way to meet influential people in your area.

This one political consultant in my area helped a lot of candidates and had been doing it for years! He knew everybody that was anybody! We often had and have the same political views also. 

After I got to know him, I would volunteer and give money to whoever his candidate was that he was helping. He knew that if he called me, it didn’t matter if it was giving my time to make calls for a couple of hours, door knocking a neighborhood or just giving $100…. I was there and he could depend on me. 

Over the course of our relationship, he continuously sent me people that needed help buying or selling a house. He was and has been one of the top people that would send me business in my area.

The Home owner Association (Hoa) Manager

I met a guy years ago that worked for an HOA management company. This was back when the market was in a downturn and the economy was not very good. We actually met because of a bad tenant that was in a property that I was managing. 

The story was, this tenant of mine kept going out to the community swimming pool late at night and using it as his personal bathroom. I’m sure the call the Hoa manager made to me was equally as awkward and embarrassing as me getting the call and then having to call the tenant about it. 

The thing about it was, as bad as it was, we had a sense of humor about it and bonded over the bad situation. I ended up evicting the tenant and building a relationship with the HOA manager. 

During this time, short sales were almost normal. Over the next few years, everytime the HOA board met about delinquent HOA fees. He would bring up my name as someone that could help these people behind on HOA fees and behind on their mortgages. 

The advantage was, if the owner sold through a short sale, the HOA would get something out of the sale of the property. If the bank foreclosed on the property, chances are the HOA would not get anything at all.

So every month or so, he would pass out my number to a handful of struggling homeowners in several communities and give me a glowing recommendation as someone that could help them. 

The Mobile Home Park Manager

Homes and mobile homes on leased land in my area is a pretty common property type. The great thing also is, it is a niche that not many agents want to specialize in. 

They managed about 500 home spots in this one community. Through several transactions and a lot of phone calls and questions, I got to know the people in the office. One thing I constantly made sure of is any back lot rent that was owed would get reported and paid as part of the sale.

I would regularly stop in, say hey and typically bring something with me. A dozen donuts, coffee, candy or just something random. 

The main office sent me a deal a month for years.