Mike Cuevas is a real estate broker with Exit Realty Redefined.

Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their Short List, a collection of tips and recommendations on an essential topic in real estate. This week, we talked with Mike Cuevas, a real estate broker with Exit Realty Redefined.

5. Develop a power team of strategic alliances whom you refer business to, and vice versa. Every agent needs to have a good mortgage broker, attorney, insurance representative and financial planner. The key to receiving referrals from them is to give them referrals first. To give is to receive.

4. Post a minimum of five real estate-related posts a month on Facebook and LinkedIn. There is no better way to market yourself for free. Tell stories, take pictures/videos and share them with the world.

3. You should direct mail this database 18-21 times a year in a non-sales fashion. The goal is to stay on top-of-mind and be remembered, not come off as a sleazy salesman.

2. Send a direct mail piece once a month, like a newsletter or postcard. I also suggest direct mailing the contacts on holidays. It needs to be personable. I recommend using a video-type email service.

1. Build a centralized, direct mail database composed of every relationship you have in your life. The criterion is basic: if you like them, and they like you as an individual, then you should have their mailing address and contact information.

Mike Cuevas is a real estate broker with Exit Realty Redefined. An agent for 12 years, Mike has been ranked in the top 1 percent of all Chicagoland Realtors since 2004. An expert in the short sale market, Mike has helped nearly 1,000 homeowners avoid foreclosures since 2007.