Damion
Expert
I own a real estate brokerage, have 6 agents that work for me, so I may have a unique perspective to add to this...or you may already know it.
I will say that I do not actively engage buyers and sellers anymore and have not for a few years. I focus now primarily on my consulting company and my only real involvement with my brokerage is generating leads for my agents.
When I was in the business regularly working with clients (from about 2003-2007), I averaged 7-10 deals per month with one licensed assistant. The average sales price in my area at the time was around $140k and a homeowner's policy was around $2500-$3500 depending on zone due to high wind policies (I live on the MS Coast where named storms hit every few years). Because of the volume I did, I regularly was pursued by mortgage professionals asking for a chance to get on my lenders list.
When I say "regularly pursued", I mean that it was common to receive 2-3 calls per month from new loan officers both from independent, new originators to local banks, etc. They went out of their way to get my attention, asking me to lunch, offering to teach classes on things I needed, asking me if I wanted to attend CE events they were putting on at their offices, and the list goes on.
I rarely got approached by P&C agents. In fact, I could probably count on my fingers and toes how many insurance agents that pursued my referral business over the years; it was almost nonexistent. I always like to offer 3 choices to clients for insurance, mortgages, home inspections, etc. For the first 2 years in the business, I had only 2 insurance agents I recommended because I had never talked to any others. The 3rd recommendation on my list just happened to be an agent that another real estate agent recommended to me. I put them on my list, referred business to them (probably around 10 deals over the course of a year) and never even talked to this agent, never received a thank you for the referrals - nothing.
Now, as a broker who really does not participate in the day to day other than generating leads and managing the agents, I still get many calls from loan originators, but almost none from insurance agents. This is one of the reasons I am considering getting a P&C license. My team consists of 6 agents that all do at least 4 deals per month and our recommended insurance agents list has not changed in 3 years - and I have not talked to 2 of those agents in over 6 months.
In my market, there are about 30 real estate agents (out of about 1100 or so last I checked) that account for more than 85% of all the home sales across 3 counties. You can go after the agents individually, or find the brokers of those agents, and work on that relationship. If I had more than one insurance agent that actively worked at continuing our business relationship, I would never consider getting a P&C license. But I see there is a lot of opportunity in my market because there are not agents actively pursuing this business or business relationships.
So, the TL;DR version:
Find the real estate agents that are producing in your market. Ask them to lunch, show them your services and what you can do to make their lives easier. Show them you care about their business and making sure their deals close on time. Offer training to them/their agents, bring food, etc.
You may not get all their business right away, but cultivating that relationship will get you on their radar, perhaps their list, and eventually give you the ability to prove yourself. I can't see any harm in pursuing those relationships. I probably would not waste my time running after everyone with a real estate license, but definitely see value in pursuing those in the top 10% or so.
I will say that I do not actively engage buyers and sellers anymore and have not for a few years. I focus now primarily on my consulting company and my only real involvement with my brokerage is generating leads for my agents.
When I was in the business regularly working with clients (from about 2003-2007), I averaged 7-10 deals per month with one licensed assistant. The average sales price in my area at the time was around $140k and a homeowner's policy was around $2500-$3500 depending on zone due to high wind policies (I live on the MS Coast where named storms hit every few years). Because of the volume I did, I regularly was pursued by mortgage professionals asking for a chance to get on my lenders list.
When I say "regularly pursued", I mean that it was common to receive 2-3 calls per month from new loan officers both from independent, new originators to local banks, etc. They went out of their way to get my attention, asking me to lunch, offering to teach classes on things I needed, asking me if I wanted to attend CE events they were putting on at their offices, and the list goes on.
I rarely got approached by P&C agents. In fact, I could probably count on my fingers and toes how many insurance agents that pursued my referral business over the years; it was almost nonexistent. I always like to offer 3 choices to clients for insurance, mortgages, home inspections, etc. For the first 2 years in the business, I had only 2 insurance agents I recommended because I had never talked to any others. The 3rd recommendation on my list just happened to be an agent that another real estate agent recommended to me. I put them on my list, referred business to them (probably around 10 deals over the course of a year) and never even talked to this agent, never received a thank you for the referrals - nothing.
Now, as a broker who really does not participate in the day to day other than generating leads and managing the agents, I still get many calls from loan originators, but almost none from insurance agents. This is one of the reasons I am considering getting a P&C license. My team consists of 6 agents that all do at least 4 deals per month and our recommended insurance agents list has not changed in 3 years - and I have not talked to 2 of those agents in over 6 months.
In my market, there are about 30 real estate agents (out of about 1100 or so last I checked) that account for more than 85% of all the home sales across 3 counties. You can go after the agents individually, or find the brokers of those agents, and work on that relationship. If I had more than one insurance agent that actively worked at continuing our business relationship, I would never consider getting a P&C license. But I see there is a lot of opportunity in my market because there are not agents actively pursuing this business or business relationships.
So, the TL;DR version:
Find the real estate agents that are producing in your market. Ask them to lunch, show them your services and what you can do to make their lives easier. Show them you care about their business and making sure their deals close on time. Offer training to them/their agents, bring food, etc.
You may not get all their business right away, but cultivating that relationship will get you on their radar, perhaps their list, and eventually give you the ability to prove yourself. I can't see any harm in pursuing those relationships. I probably would not waste my time running after everyone with a real estate license, but definitely see value in pursuing those in the top 10% or so.
Submitted 2 life & bound 6 home, 4 flood, 2 auto. I could have cut this in 1/2 and been happy 
