I had been in lending for 11 1/2 years and dreamt up this concept with the Realtor who I had been doing loans for.  She was having difficulty just getting people to look at her listings, let alone get offers.  Having owned my own mortgage company, I was very adept at the "networking" concept, and attended many networking events that often led to business for me, so we decided to test this concept in a listing of hers.  She had done an open house the weekend prior to our first event, and had no one show up.  The day of our event, 20 people showed up and we got the property rented, which thrilled the sellers who had already moved out and had had their property on the market for 8 months.

Since that time, we have generated numerous offers, contracts, and new buyers and sellers from our events.  We all know that most business comes from word of mouth and referrals, and small business owners are the best networkers there are.  They don't have huge advertising budgets to promote their businesses, so they are very adept at networking and referring people/businesses that they like.  This is a powerful tool for Real Estate Professionals to get the word out about their listings, to make their sellers happy, and to pick up new listings and buyers.