By Amanda Smith
What is real estate farming? Real estate farming is the processof branding yourself to a specific group of people, area ormarket segment as a first choice agent for homebuyers,homesellers or real estate investors. Real estate farming is along time investment in both time and money but well worth it inthe end because it will help you develop business on a regularbasis.
An in-depth look
The first step in the process of real estate farming isidentifying the specific niche you want to specialize in. Do youwant to farm your own neighborhood? A specific age orprofessional group? A certain type of real estate such aapartments or vacation houses?
The next step is to gather in-depth knowledge of the area ormarket segment. Study each property sold as well as the locationto get a feel of the finances and the general characteristics.Include in your research all the other listed homes and becomefamiliar with every little detail concerning the pricing, thestate of the market, the offers and the requests. To attain thisgoal, you can also visit the open houses at the time,participate in the weekly tours of homes, and gather data aboutadjacent neighborhoods as well.
After you've catalogued all this data, turn your attention tothe neighborhood in question and start putting together apresentation portfolio. Education and transportation in the areaare very important elements that can drop or raise the prices.Also, analyze shopping centers, churches, parks, theaters andany other significant places in the neighborhood. You will needto know all of these details if you want to be considered theexpert and the first choice in the area.
Take pictures of all your listings, outside and inside to givethe clients a better idea before the actual visit. Also, be sureto include pictures of the neighborhood itself in the buyerpackage.
In short, you need to be prepared to answer every question thatmay 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 employquality means. People are sick of getting adds in theirmailboxes and inboxes. They will probably get rid of your addbefore even bothering to read it. So instead of treating them ascash-cows, orient your farming so that it benefits yourrecipients instead of yourself. Give them something they canuse, namely quality information: tips on buying and sellinghouses, mortgage information, house improvements, anything thatmight interest your target audience.
Also, take care with your advertising materials. If you useflyers, don't use cheap paper and low-quality printing that getson people's hands before your ad is even read. It will make youlook unprofessional.
Quantity – In some cases, less is certainly more, but infarming, you need to get your name out there to as manyprospective clients as possible. So there needs to be asufficient quantity of targeted people and in consequence, anequivalent quantity of promotional material. People don't sellhouses everyday, so you need a large enough base to keep asteady stream of business coming your way. For a good turnover,you need at least 250 properties. But in order to get these 250properties, you will probably contact at least twice as manypossible many owners and buyers. So while you don't want to spamwith your flyers and emails the whole city, you certainly don'twant to be facing a very interested prospect while reaching inyour wallet for a business card and finding none.
Consistency – After the initial contact, it is crucial todo follow up. People don't like being taken over by awell-thought marketing campaign and then forgotten. Also, whileyou're idling, the competition might rear its ugly head. So, besure to do everything in your power to keep your name in yourtarget public's head. It's after all about being the firstchoice, the agent to pop up in people's mind when they decide todo a real estate transaction.
It's best to combine offline and online methods of farming, toget the best of both worlds. During the past years, internetusage has increased dramatically. According to the
Start by taking advantage of your circle of friends and meet asmany people as possible. Make sure you take names, phone numbersand email addresses whenever possible. In the same spirit youcan go around the neighborhood and knock on doors.
Once you've made the first contact, be sure to follow up atleast every three months by talking to them. Also, send themquality information both offline, though regular mail, as wellas 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 yourdoorstep.
In the same spirit, do not forget to take referrals andtestimonials for yourself. Display them on your website and onoffline marketing tools (brochures, flyers, posters).
No matter which methods you use, be sure to collect as much dataas possible. Obviously, a name, a phone number and an email arethe minimum necessary. But you can get valuable feed-back aswell. What kind of house is a potential buyer looking for, whatand when does a seller put his house on the market, what does aperson look for in a real estate agents and many more. Also, itmay be that they know someone else on the verge of a real estatedeal.
Once again, be sure to follow up and, most importantly, alwaysask permission to call. If an email can be deleted without toomuch trouble, an unexpected phone call can be annoying and youmay end up losing a client.
The first and most obvious advantage of real estate farming isbranding yourself as a trustworthy and savvy professional.Buying or selling a house is quite possibly the most importantbusiness transaction most people will make during theirlife-time. Because of that, trust and reputation are tantamountfactors in choosing an agent. Real estate farming builds yourimage over time so it is quite probably the best way to conductand promote your real estate enterprise.
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
