Technology has its merits, of course, for any real estate professional’s business development activities. But, and you can call me old fashioned, it shouldn’t ever become a substitute for real life, in-person interactions.

As real estate professionals, we deal in emotions, life events, intangible reasons for making huge financial decisions. In essence, we deal with the really intimate personal stuff of life. We sell the places where our clients fall in love, have babies, celebrate Thanksgiving, laugh, cry, and maybe even die. That’s powerful, when we look at it this way. And, when we consider it from this perspective, it’s easy to understand that interacting with our clients through social media can seem almost insufficient.

We can get lost in what we should be doing to market ourselves and our business on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and we can become focused on how splashy and sophisticated our websites should look. Again, I’m not dismissing any of these as important components of your business, I’m simply saying, don’t forget to once in a while connect live with your clients.

It doesn’t have to be complicated – a brief phone call, “Hey, I drove by your house today and thought of you.” Schedule a quick coffee with a client on the way to work one day. Stop by with flowers on the anniversary of their purchase. An invitation to dinner or lunch, a client event once a year to connect with everyone in person. Your services are intrinsically personal. Make sure you keep it that way.