Spotting Clients
It never hurts to touch base with friends or just hang out with them. I am an introvert and very private person, but have overcome This is because my friends and I realized that I’m good at finding opportunities to make money for them.
It started when a good friend, let us call him Dan, complained that he needed to pay real estate taxes again on a property that had been lying dormant for several years. I asked a specific question about the property and after less than a week, I had lined up several clients who were interested in leasing the property. In no time, I was able to convert his previously cash-draining property into a productive one.
Suddenly, I became the “go to” guy for anything real-estate-related. I was asked by another friend, Maui, to convert her white elephant rooms into a money-making venture to pay for her 5 household staff and driver. She claimed she could not fire them because they had been with their family for so long and it would break her parent’s hearts if she let them go. I asked her if she was willing to host strangers in her house; surprised and intrigued, she said “yes” as she was seldom at home anyway, so she did not have any problems with that. After 2 weeks, I gave her a check for Php10,000 for the two nights use of her 3 vacant bedrooms that I got from managing her AirBnB account. Now she earns more than Php 150,000 a month in total for the rooms and several other family properties in the provinces.
Friends realized that people in sales are not necessarily nuisances to be avoided.
Now happy hours can be fun too, with round-table small talk that can lead to profitable plans as well. Our night outs are now interesting business discussions; friends now think of things to do with their idle lots or properties. The possibilities are endless since good locations are ideal for a tiangge, a food park, or even simply, a parking lot. I have since advertised some of the locations and have gotten quite a number of propositions that my owner-friends will just pick and choose from. Pretty soon these nights out will become full business meetings, as I manage my barkada’s real estate banks. I still handle big clients or even individual buyers of new homes, but I also earn a lot from managing other real estate potentials.
