Don?t Miss Part I of this Topic
Step 1: Identify Niches in Your Market Area
There are tons of niches in the real estate market.? Of course, not all niches are present in all markets.? So, you?ll need to think about the real estate market in your area, and the people who buy and sell there.? Consider the following list of potential market niches:
- Second home/vacation home
- Relocation
- Downsizing
- Lake/River/Oceanview property
- Condos
- Lofts
- Active Adult/Seniors
- First time homebuyers
- Gated communities
- Golf communities
- Military
- Ranch/Farm/Land/Equestrian
- Green homes
- Downtown living
- Shared interests ? the list is long, including things like dog lovers, motorcyclists, boaters, horse lovers, and the list goes on
- Geographic
This is just a partial list of potential niches.? You may have a specific niche based on where you live, your skills and what is around you.
Keep in mind that you can?t just pick one ? you must have an affinity for the niche you target.? So, for example, it would be difficult if not impossible to target military families if you?ve never been in the military.? If you live in a condo downtown, you?ll be much less believable as a farm expert.? I think you get the idea.
The geographic niche is one that is often misunderstood. ?? If you live in a metro area comprised of 10 counties, selling in the metro area is not a geographic niche.? Just because you can drive all over the metro area, that doesn?t mean you?re an expert in all those markets. Unless you live in a sparsely populated area, even picking a county as your geographic niche is often non-productive.
For one thing, prospects probably won?t believe that you can possibly be intimately familiar with all the neighborhoods in a county.? For another thing, they aren?t going to want to work with an agent who is a half hour or more away.? And, you?re dooming yourself to very poor time management, additional expense and brain freezes as you shuttle from one end of the county to another.
A good geographic niche is very specific.? It could be one large development with enough homes and transactions to support your business.? It could be a single suburb of a large city.? However you define it, just make sure it?s a reasonable niche.
Try it.? Brainstorm a list of every niche you can think of, even if it?s not for you.? Brainstorming will help you open your mind to the possibilities.? Now, review those niches and identify the one(s) that you would like to explore.
?Step 2: Determine if Your Selected Niche(s) Can Let Your Business Prosper
There must, of course, be enough activity in a particular area to let you make a living if you got some percentage of the transactions in that niche each year.? For this and Step 3, you need to do a bit of research.? The best source to give you the information you need is your MLS system.
Get a year?s worth of information about your niche(s).? How many transactions were there?? Enough to support you?? Don?t assume you?ll get all the transactions if you start marketing to this niche, assume a reasonable percentage.
At the same? time, gather the information for Step 3.
Step 3:? Determine if Your Proposed Niche(s) are Already ?Taken?
While you?re getting information from the MLS, take a look at the agents who were involved in the transactions in your proposed niche.? Does one person dominate?? If so, you?ll need to do some research on that person.? If they are very deeply entrenched in the niche, the odds of your stealing lots of business from them is very low.
Step 4:? Determine if You Can Provide Services for Your Target Niche
You need to put yourself in the shoes of the people in your target market.? Think about the services those people would need.? A previous example applies here, too.? If you live in a condo downtown, and you want to market farms and land, how could you do that?
Do you already know how to evaluate the value of a farm?? Do you know all the ins and outs of wells and septic tanks, if those are prevalent in the farm market??? This example is very obvious, of course, but if providing the services required isn?t playing to your strengths, pick another niche.
Step 5:? Determine If You Can Market to the Niche
This may sound like a silly undertaking, but there are times when you might be perfect for a niche, but you just can?t market to it.? Here are a couple examples:
- If you really think your niche is an entire county, how would you reach that market?? If you plan to use a website to generate leads, you?re going to have a difficult time of it.? As of this writing, the number of real estate searches done by county are very low.? You could be ranked #1 on Google for a county term, but it will be unlikely to generate enough leads to pay the mortgage.
- Let?s say you are a golf lover.? Could that be your niche?? Do you live in a golf community? Have you participated on the association board?? Do you play in local tournaments?? Do you know a lot of golf lovers who could be a potential referral source to kick off your new niche marketing?? If you answered no to all of those questions, you?d have to ask yourself how you?re going to effectively pass yourself off as a golf lover and golf community expert.
The moral of this story?? There are a few things I hope you take away:
- There are benefits to niche marketing.
- Choosing a niche takes some time and effort.
- You don?t have to be afraid of choosing to do niche marketing if you do the homework and can prove to yourself that a niche could be profitable for you.
As always, if you have questions, experiences with niche marketing to share and so forth,? please leave a comment!
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