I’ve spent the last week in San Francisco (I’m still here) at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference. Though it’s been exhausting balancing socializing, meetings, sessions, and somehow trying to keep up with my inbox at the same time — it’s certainly been a fantastic week. To wrap up the conference, Brad Inman asked for takeaways from the attendees and a microphone went around the room. I didn’t chime in with my thoughts, but thought I’d give my takeaway here.

When all is said and done, real estate — and business/life — is still all about relationships. I spend A LOT of time online building relationships, but that only goes so far; nothing can take the place of meeting people face to face. I absolutely recommend using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Active Rain, and Zillow (my employer) as part of your marketing plan — but don’t stop there. At some point, you really do need to get face to face with your potential clients to humanize and differentiate yourself from the competition. Putting a real face to a name and really getting to know someone is a critical component of developing deep relationships; so pry yourself away from the computer and go the extra mile to meet face to face.