Before Roh Habibi was featured on Million Dollar Listing he was already an amazingly successful real estate broker in the San Francisco Bay area. He says that his success was not built on technology or fancy real estate strategies, but rather through building real relationships with people. He’s my mind of guy. On this episode of Real Relationships, you’re going to hear how Roh started his business, built it to scale, and is now working hard to be the go-to guy for real estate in the bay area. It’s a great conversation.

You have to create systems and strategies in order to survive in real estate.

When I asked Roh Habibi how he’s been able to scale up his business to the heights he has, he immediately pointed to the need for systems and approaches that enable him to keep up with all the relationships he’s been able to initiate or build through the years. “It’s just too much information to keep track of,” he says. “You need contactually or mailchimp or something that can help you keep things organized.” In our conversation, Roh unpacked how he does these kinds of things effectively and the tools he uses to make it happen, so be sure you listen so you can get tips from his best practices.

The lifeblood of your business is your sphere of influence and contacts.

Roh Habibi says that real estate has always been a relationship business and he’s a guy who lives it out like you wouldn’t believe. He’s been so successful building relationships that fuel his business he actually gets invited to the birthday parties of his client’s children. That’s a close relationship - and it’s the lifeblood of his business. When I asked Roh how he’s gone about building those types of relationships he had some great things to share, so I hope you’ll take the time to learn from a guy who is doing it right.

Career fulfillment comes from working with people you love working with.

We all know what it’s like to scrape and scratch to get the next sale or find the next lead. And because we are so desperate, we'll wind up working with just about anyone at that point. But Roh Habibi says that because it’s so stressful and demotivating to work with people who are hard to work with, you want to steer away from that approach as soon as possible. The way you do it is by paying attention to who you really love working with and learn how to ask them for referrals to others in their circle who are the same type of person they are. Getting those kinds of referrals enables you to serve the people you love to serve and gives them the opportunity to provide a great introduction to their friends (and you). Find out how Roh does it to great success, in this episode.

When you teach people how to refer you, magic happens.

Every business owner wants referrals from his/her clients. But getting those referrals is not always so easy. Even the offer of referral bonuses or commissions isn’t enough to motivate clients to refer, sometimes. Roh Habibi believes the problem could be in the WAY business owners ask for referrals. He believes in making it easy for his clients to refer him and goes so far as to tell them exactly how they can do it in the best ways. This tip alone is worth the time it will take you to listen to this episode, so grab something to take notes with and listen!

Outline of this great episode

• [1:16] Why Roh made the conscious decision to move into real estate from finance.
• [3:02] How his career exploded once he got into real estate.
• [5:39] The lifeblood of Roh’s business is his sphere of contacts.
• [13:10] How Roh learned to build great relationships: trial and error.
• [14:10] Roh’s regular process for relationship building and nurturing.
• [17:50] The most obvious but non-intuitive tactic Roh uses to build his business.
• [20:30] The best way to go about building a business: face to face meetings.
• [23:13] Roh’s biggest “ask” of you.

Resources & Links mentioned in this episode

• http://thehabibigroup.com
• Contactually
• MailChimp