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What is real estate farming? Real estate farming is the process
of branding yourself to a specific group of people, area or
market segment as a first choice agent for homebuyers,
homesellers or real estate investors. Real estate farming is a
long time investment in both time and money but well worth it in
the end because it will help you develop business on a regular
basis.
An in-depth look
The first step in the process of real estate farming is
identifying the specific niche you want to specialize in. Do you
want to farm your own neighborhood? A specific age or
professional group? A certain type of real estate such a
apartments or vacation houses?
The next step is to gather in-depth knowledge of the area or
market segment. Study each property sold as well as the location
to get a feel of the finances and the general characteristics.
Include in your research all the other listed homes and become
familiar with every little detail concerning the pricing, the
state of the market, the offers and the requests. To attain this
goal, you can also visit the open houses at the time,
participate in the weekly tours of homes, and gather data about
adjacent neighborhoods as well.
After you've catalogued all this data, turn your attention to
the neighborhood in question and start putting together a
presentation portfolio. Education and transportation in the area
are very important elements that can drop or raise the prices.
Also, analyze shopping centers, churches, parks, theaters and
any other significant places in the neighborhood. You will need
to know all of these details if you want to be considered the
expert and the first choice in the area.
Take pictures of all your listings, outside and inside to give
the clients a better idea before the actual visit. Also, be sure
to include pictures of the neighborhood itself in the buyer
package.
In short, you need to be prepared to answer every question that
may be thrown your way.
About real estate farming methods
The keys to success for any real estate farming method are:
quality, quantity and consistency.
Quality – Whatever method you use, be sure to employ
quality means. People are sick of getting adds in their
mailboxes and inboxes. They will probably get rid of your add
before even bothering to read it. So instead of treating them as
cash-cows, orient your farming so that it benefits your
recipients instead of yourself. Give them something they can
use, namely quality information: tips on buying and selling
houses, mortgage information, house improvements, anything that
might interest your target audience.
Also, take care with your advertising materials. If you use
flyers, don't use cheap paper and low-quality printing that gets
on people's hands before your ad is even read. It will make you
look unprofessional.
Quantity – In some cases, less is certainly more, but in
farming, you need to get your name out there to as many
prospective clients as possible. So there needs to be a
sufficient quantity of targeted people and in consequence, an
equivalent quantity of promotional material. People don't sell
houses everyday, so you need a large enough base to keep a
steady stream of business coming your way. For a good turnover,
you need at least 250 properties. But in order to get these 250
properties, you will probably contact at least twice as many
possible many owners and buyers. So while you don't want to spam
with your flyers and emails the whole city, you certainly don't
want to be facing a very interested prospect while reaching in
your wallet for a business card and finding none.
Consistency – After the initial contact, it is crucial to
do follow up. People don't like being taken over by a
well-thought marketing campaign and then forgotten. Also, while
you're idling, the competition might rear its ugly head. So, be
sure to do everything in your power to keep your name in your
target public's head. It's after all about being the first
choice, the agent to pop up in people's mind when they decide to
do a real estate transaction.
It's best to combine offline and online methods of farming, to
get the best of both worlds. During the past years, internet
usage has increased dramatically. According to the 2004 NAR "Profile Of Home Buyers And
Sellers" survey, over half of buyers (53 percent) used the
Internet frequently during their search.
Start by taking advantage of your circle of friends and meet as
many people as possible. Make sure you take names, phone numbers
and email addresses whenever possible. In the same spirit you
can go around the neighborhood and knock on doors.
Once you've made the first contact, be sure to follow up at
least every three months by talking to them. Also, send them
quality information both offline, though regular mail, as well
as online, using direct mail and newsletters. Don't forget,
these people know other people and so on, like a domino effect.
As trust runs high on the list of reasons for choosing an agent,
referrals from friends will help bring new prospects to your
doorstep.
In the same spirit, do not forget to take referrals and
testimonials for yourself. Display them on your website and on
offline marketing tools (brochures, flyers, posters).
No matter which methods you use, be sure to collect as much data
as possible. Obviously, a name, a phone number and an email are
the minimum necessary. But you can get valuable feed-back as
well. What kind of house is a potential buyer looking for, what
and when does a seller put his house on the market, what does a
person look for in a real estate agents and many more. Also, it
may be that they know someone else on the verge of a real estate
deal.
Once again, be sure to follow up and, most importantly, always
ask permission to call. If an email can be deleted without too
much trouble, an unexpected phone call can be annoying and you
may end up losing a client.
The first and most obvious advantage of real estate farming is
branding yourself as a trustworthy and savvy professional.
Buying or selling a house is quite possibly the most important
business transaction most people will make during their
life-time. Because of that, trust and reputation are tantamount
factors in choosing an agent. Real estate farming builds your
image over time so it is quite probably the best way to conduct
and promote your real estate enterprise.
About the author:
NetRealinTouch.net is a complete email
marketing system for real estate professionals, offering quality
prospecting and farming newsletters at an affordable price. articles@netreal.net
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