Realtor who is marketing a local development Archives

Realtor© GeoFarming In A Changing Market

Wade Webb on October 5, 2022

Want to know how to do geofarming in a changing market?

The dramatic change in real estate agents and farming today has become what mentor and coach Bruce Gardner calls Hyperlocalism. I love this new and innovative way to farm in today’s real estate market.
Agents need to become experts in a geographic space now more than ever with so much readily available access to information to the consumer.

Hyperlocalism is defined as……an agent providing local, business and focused information to attract, resonate and engage with a segment, small geographic niche.

The benefit of this is a low start-up cost and not having any competition in the market for this business.

Gardner talks in his book “7 Styles” the 7 distinct and unique styles of real estate professionals in today’s market.

Which style are you?

Hunters – the agent that aggressively lead generates.
Farmers – the agent that is relational with their sphere of influence.
Networkers – the agent that is relational with their church, school, club, charity.
Lifestyles – the agent that works within a tribe. For example people who ride Harley Davidson.
Experts – the agents that focus on a niche. Property, person, geographic niche.
Hyperlocalists – the agent that is immersed in their small market segment
Billboard – the agent that is a super lead generator, high producer with a team that spends thousands

Hyperlocalism is listings focused farming because buyers connect more with listings agents today than ever.

N.A.R. reported that 80% of sellers don’t list with their agent that sold their home to them. This means that 4 out of 5 homeowners in your farm area are prospects for you and don’t have an agent in mind when they have to sell their home.

What we also know is they will choose the agent who is perceived as the expert in their area, product or demographic. Farming today is not just about postcards or newsletters anymore. It is a perfect method for lead generating in today’s digital age as well.

Here are some examples of Hyperlocal agents today. Mark Wade is an agent that farms a niche of only a 2 mile radius. His focus is www.centercitycondos.com and in a slumping market did 110 ends that year of business.

Another great example is Connie Barnes, an agent who did 48 million of business in a small town with a fantastic use of video and community content on her site www.conniebarnes.com

A Few Steps to Jump Start Your Farm and Start to Hyperlocalize
Provide as many times a year as possible the data and trends that are happening in this market segment. Stats like quarter vs. quarter or month over month changes in:

1.) Turnover rate – # of homes divided by # sold

2.) Absorption rate – # of sales divided by # of actives

3.) Average sale price

4.) Average sale price per square foot

5.) Average days on market

6.) Months of inventory

Make this data available to your niche market through video, newsletters, postcards, landing web pages, your website, blog, social media and more. The best way to determine where they are looking is to use Googles keyword tool and find out where there is no competition but a good number of consumers looking. A good example would be adding the word “market” to some of the popular keyword searches as your URL.

Produce videos or blog posts with local residents, neighborhoods, things to do, business owners, service providers and what they love most about that specific area of your farm. Begin to immerse yourself by meeting local business owners, local service providers. Attend local meetings, school functions and social events and share what is happening in and around this area.]

Two of my favorite digital marketing tools for farming are setting up neighborhood and niche websites specific to the homeowners of the area. Check out www.nextdoor.com and start one for your farm today. Another great digital tool is to subscribe to www.smartzipinfo.com and have them provide you with stats and activities of your farm area and the probability of them selling in the near future. Some very cool technology at work for farming agents.

A powerful activity for farming today is to preview every single listing in your farm area the very first day it is listed. Show people in the area how serious you are about your farm area. Take notes on your preview visit. Post Instagram photos and other details about the new listing in your farm area to really promote your expertise. Try to host as many open houses in your farm area and be as top of mind as possible including branding on your vehicle and your open house signs.

I trust these farming ideas in today’s real estate market give you motivation to start your hyperlocalized marketing plan or take your existing farm activities and escalate them to another level.

Strength and courage,
Wade

Add 900 Names to Your Database in 2 Days… Interested?

kelowna on July 3, 2013

Real Estate Marketing Outside the Proverbial Box

Think outside the typical real estate marketing box

A good friend of mine who runs a mortgage broker firm in town shared with me a brilliant marketing idea a local realtor and insurance agent used to add over 900 names to his database over the span of a single week-end.

You know me… I like to think outside the box so this definitely caught my attention.

This may be a great idea for some of you to try for just the right promotion but if nothing else I hope it will get your wheels turning to come up with fresh ideas to really capture some new clients starving for some innovation.

Check out the idea from the GoMaxSolutions website below.

I ran across what I thought was a great marketing idea, and at least for me, a unique one. A Realtor who is marketing a local development ran a contest last weekend and the winner (if there was one) would win a brand new show home in the project that was listed for a million dollars.

Who wouldn’t want to win a million dollar show home in a beautiful new lake front sub division? Well 900 people showed up over 2 days to try to win the home, and everyone had to give their name, email address and phone number before they could play.

Once the Realtor had all their information they stepped up to the magic box and entered a 7 digit code of their choice and if they were right, bells would go off celebrating their win, otherwise a better luck next time and thanks for coming out.

Now, you may be thinking, who can afford to give away a million dollar home just to capture 900 names? Our Realtor buddy sure couldn’t, but instead he and the developer split the cost of an insurance policy which was worth $4,000. If there was a winner (sadly there was not) the insurance company would have paid the million dollars to the developer.

This event created so much attention the local radio stations were talking about it, and the evening news picked it up giving the Realtor and Developer a bunch of free advertising and more traffic in the days that followed.

Once the 900 names have been collected, you could offer to run a co-branded, follow-up drip campaign (action plan) to those individuals. This would keep both of you front and centre for months or even years to come.

We did some research and have contact details for an insurance agent if you are interested in running your own contest. By the way, the people who ran the contest featured in our recent article attracted over 900 people over the Saturday and Sunday, 120 of which request more information on the development, and 6 people requested immediate meetings with the realtor, and one offer was written.

We also have a group using this sort of contest for a client appreciation event. Each client who funds a mortgage gets an entry as does anyone who refers a client who funds a mortgage. Instead of giving away a home, they are paying off a lucky client’s mortgage if the winning number is entered (costs about $750 to $1,000 for $500,000 payout).

This is a great idea for…

Getting real estate project marketing listings
As a strategy for working with real estate developers who want to generate traffic quickly on their project
Increasing your own real estate database quickly if you are new to the area
Reaching a bigger audience for increasing your business production in the next year.

This opt in database being fostered and contacted strategically over a consistent time period could lead to some large returns in future business and is an excellent reason to approach developers for listings.

There is no shortage of ideas, it is just a matter of spending time brainstorming, implementing, testing, tweaking and never giving up being creative.

I challenge you (if you don’t already) to spend at least one dedicated and focused hour per week strongly looking at what might “tired old” ideas you’ve used for years in an attempt to revitalize your real estate marketing strategy.

Strength and courage,

Wade

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