The luxury key for 2023? Maintain relationships and ‘be obsessed’

In these times, double down — on your skills, on your knowledge, on you. Join us Aug. 8-10 at Inman Connect Las Vegas to lean into the shift and learn from the best. Get your ticket now for the best price.

If there’s one simple but broad thing agents can do to make what is expected to be a slow year much better, New York luxury real estate broker Dolly Lenz had two words.

“Be obsessed,” Lenz told a crowd on Friday, the final day of Inman Connect New York 2023.

She and her daughter Jenny Lenz expanded on other ways to generate more business this year. But at a high level, Dolly Lenz said agents who put in the work will be prepared to win business if they are passionate about the craft.

Dolly Lenz | Photo by AJ Canaria & Mercedes Santiago of MoxiWorks

“Don’t walk into a house and say, ‘Gee, what should this trade for?’ Dolly Lenz said. “Be prepared. If you’re obsessed it’s naturally going to happen. You will be prepared.”

The pair, who both operate under the Dolly Lenz Real Estate brokerage, closed out the final session at Inman Connect after three days of speeches and panels about where the real estate market is moving and how brokers and agents can keep up.

“All of that detail is going to make you credible,” Dolly Lenz said. “And if you’re credible you will be successful.”

“We are really not in the real estate business,” Dolly Lenz said. “That is a vehicle by which we make a living. We’re in the relationship business.”

Jenny Lenz | Photo by AJ Canaria & Mercedes Santiago of MoxiWorks

Things like sending friends and past clients an email with an article that’s relevant to their interest, reaching out on birthdays or offering congratulations can all work wonders, the Lenzes said.

“We’re not insurance agents where every year you renew your policy come January,” Jenny Lenz said.

“You really have to have those touchpoints because otherwise, people forget you,” she added. “They just use their Aunt Sally or Uncle Greg who just got their license.”

Email Taylor Anderson