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Two Real Estate Geographic Farms to Consider for the Spring Market

Feb 14, 2024

So, what are your business marketing plans for spring 2024 real estate marketing? Sure, a lot of the decision-making will center around what’s happening with the economy.

Market soothsayers are hedging their bets when predicting what the Fed will come up with during the March meeting. The latest jobs numbers seem to be the fly in the ointment at this point.

“But Fed officials have repeatedly indicated that they want to be sure that inflation is coming down sustainably before they’ll consider cutting rates, and a more balanced labor market is part of that,” says Molly Grace at BusinessInsider.com.

If you want to play it safe, fall back on the tried-and-true marketing methods. One of the best of these is farming.

Let’s take a look at three farms that we think are worthy of your consideration.

Baby boomers in highly rated school districts

Baby boomers turn 60 to 78 years old this year. Last year, the National Association of REALTORS’ surveys found that baby boomers now make up the largest share of both homebuyers and sellers.

In fact, this cohort makes “… up 39% of home buyers – the most of any generation – an increase from 29% last year.” That’s an astounding statistic. A 10% jump in real estate activity in one year? From a group of people who have been stubbornly sitting on the home they’ve lived in for 15 to 20 years?

They’re moving, and you should be at the forefront of your market to capture this business.

Then, there are the Gen Xers and Millennial moms and dads who are still in the child-rearing phases, longing to get junior into a good school district.

That’s the perfect starting point for an agent looking for a new marketing method: farm those baby boomers living in decently ranked school districts. I would market to all of them, but most particularly, those who live in multi-story homes.

Stairs are hard on the knees and we’re betting they can’t wait to get into a home without the climb.

The Absentee Owner Series is shown above. To learn more, Click Here.

Absentee owners

While being a landlord isn’t quite as painful now as it was during the pandemic, the economy still isn’t where it should be and many Americans are pinching pennies.

Because of this, many landlords are thinking about cashing out. This is such an easy audience to market to because most of it is done via direct mail.

It’s somewhat quick and easy to set up and landlords (most of them anyway) are eager to learn about the market and what their rentals might be worth right now.

This one requires consistency in nurturing, however. Consistent mailings will keep you top-of-mind but don’t neglect the Just Listed and Just Sold postcards that are pertinent to the landlord’s property.

Spring will be here before we know it, so let’s get ready!

When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazin

Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Planner

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

3. The Free Online Real Estate Business Plan

The Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your financial goals. – Click Here

4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

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Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

Two Important Factors to Consider When Choosing a Geographic Farm

Dec 16, 2021

One area of real estate marketing that can’t be ignored if you intend to enjoy long-term growth in your real estate business is Geographic Farming.

Why? Because it alleviates the ongoing frustration of constantly chasing new commissions.

You’re working strategically with a focus that will benefit you now and well into your future, ensuring you don’t end up like 85% of agents who continue to struggle.

The secret to choosing the right geographic farm

Adequate research is the key to locating the right farm for you and your business.

Even if you find a geographic farm that you think works for you based on location and number of homes your research isn’t done yet. There are two more crucial factors that can’t be missed.

Two Important Factors:

Turn-Over Rate – Ideally you want a location with at least a 10-15% turnover rate. You can easily determine the turnover rate by dividing the number of homes in the farm by the number of homes that have sold.
Competition – If you choose a farm that already has an agent who appears to have achieved penetration in that market, you will find yourself working much harder and longer to see any positive results. It’s preferable to find an area where an agent has less than 10% of market share. Or an area where a previously aggressive agent has slowed or stopped marketing.

Time to Take Action

Once you’ve chosen the perfect farm it’s time to take action.

Get out and meet the people in this location (weather and restrictions permitting) It’s time to make your name, face, and brand as visible as possible, to begin the process of becoming identified as the neighborhood expert.

Canvassing a neighborhood may be old school, but it also makes you highly competitive.

In a market where so many agents are relying on email and social media to spread the word, walking your farm gives you a definitive advantage.

Shown above, Holiday postcards. Mail first class by December 18th to arrive on time for Christmas. See more, **HERE**

Your goal is to help people get to know you, like you, and trust you enough to do business with you.

You can’t do that sitting in your office. In fact, statistically, it takes 27 contacts to create effective branding of who you are and what you do.

In addition, to walking your farm, send out direct mail marketing at least once a month and call them at least once a quarter.

A great marketing piece to send this time of year is a holiday postcard.

Work Smart – Automate

So, how do you free up the extra time your farm will need from you? By automating your marketing wherever you can.

The perfect place to begin your automation is with a postcard campaign. This ensures you are in front of your homeowners consistently no matter how busy you get.

More importantly, as the people in your farm become familiar with your face, they will begin to identify you as the real estate expert in their neighborhood.

And, people choose real estate agents who:

Know their neighborhood
And, know how to get results in their neighborhood

The Top 7% of Agents

The top 7% of agents in the country have one thing in common – they have strategic, focused long-term marketing in place.

They aren’t leaving things to fall through the cracks or living commission to commission. They’re following a solid, systematic plan to generate business utilizing a farm as one of their main areas of focus.

So, join the 7% by getting started choosing your geographic farm. Then launch a Get More Listings postcard campaign and begin the process of branding yourself as their neighborhood expert!

Right now, Geographic Farm Campaigns are on sale 10% off the first month!

Shown above: Get More Listings postcard campaign, available in the FARM Campaign section. Learn More, **HERE**.

To Launch a Farm Campaign,

Hit the “CLICK HERE” link, below (from a desktop or laptop computer).

USE PROMO CODE: FARM10 to get 10% off the first month of a FARM Campaign.

Start now, CLICK HERE!

Details: Take 10% off the first month of a FARM Campaign for a limited time (excluding tax, postage, data, EDDM. Sale ends at midnight Saturday, 12/18/21).

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

While you’re online scheduling your Holiday postcards to go out, consider launching an annual Holiday scheduled campaign.

Real Estate Circle Prospecting: It’s Geographic Farming on Steroids

Aug 17, 2020

Goals. We all have them, some of us have more than others. Reaching them is the true challenge in any business.

ChicagoAgentMagazine.com recently published the results of a survey of agents asking about their lead generation goals through the end of 2020.

One of the questions asked was how much money they plan to spend on marketing this year. Nearly half of the agent respondents said they will spend between $0 and $150 a month. Sadly, of these agents, 23% will spend between $0 and $75 a month.

Naturally, the cheapest lead generation and marketing methods were the most popular. For instance, 65% of respondents plan on “making better use of social media.”

Then, 62% will be organizing their CRM to become more efficient in their marketing. Third on the list was “spending more time with family and friends.”

Hey, if you spend only $75 a month marketing your business, you’ll have loads of time to spend with family and friends.

Increase that amount just a smidge, however, and you may just need to pencil-in that “time with family and friends.” And, that’s a good thing, at least for your bank account.

Americans, by and large, are staying home a lot more.

Some states are “pulling back on re-openings,” according to Paul Davidson at USAToday.com.

There is a bright spot for real estate agents. Millions of people are spending lots of time at home, and direct mail has become one of the best means of communicating with them.

Choose a neighborhood

Yup, it’s time to start focusing on farming, if you haven’t already. Well, farming with a twist, circle prospecting to be precise.

Circle prospecting is an amazing way to get your name and branding in front of consumers without violating safety protocols.

With this type of prospecting you aren’t obviously fishing for leads, but spreading some news – homes in the neighborhood (or nearby) that have been listed for sale, are under contract, have sold or are being held open.

You’re offering something of value.

The first step in the process is to choose the area in which you’ll prospect. If you currently have a listing, or someone in your brokerage does (let’s hope so!), choose that neighborhood and, perhaps, those adjacent to it. Then, create a targeted mailing list.

There’s more than one way to circle prospect

Some agents are actually comfortable and successful with door-knocking around listings.

More agents, however, are more comfortable with direct mail. And, with social distancing mandates in place, this method of circle prospecting is the most responsible.

The bonus is that, right now, direct mail is the method most likely to meet with success, and for a number of reasons:

1. Many agents have cut their marketing budgets, while some have stopped spending on marketing. With the pool of competition all but drained in this regard, your chances of success increase exponentially.

2. Those agents who are still marketing are gravitating to free marketing, such as promoting themselves to their friends, family and followers on social media. Others are going heavy on email marketing. Again, this lessens the mail arriving at consumers’ homes, heightening the chance that your mailed pieces will get the eyes on them.

3. “Checking the mail” is something most of us can do without exposing ourselves to the virus. It also gives us something to do while we’re stuck at home. For instance, how many catalogs have you leafed through that you would’ve otherwise thrown away?

4. Then, there are the facts about the effectiveness of direct mail:

92% of consumers say they prefer direct mail over digital when making shopping decisions
70% of them prefer USPS-delivered mail, according to William Boynton at Postalytics.com, citing a report from the National Association of Advertisers (ANA).
Nearly 15% of millennials surveyed feel that print messages are more trustworthy than those that are digitally delivered, according to a report from the USPS.

What’s next?

Now that you have your list and your strategy (prospecting around listings, solds or open houses), it’s time to round up the resources you’ll need to kick off and maintain your circle prospecting campaigns.

Naturally, we recommend checking out the brilliant array of targeted postcards offered here. From Get More Listings postcards to the Mega-sized, Market Dominator (with 100% impression rate) you’ll find what you need to get your campaign going and keep it going.

Send the More Inventory postcard from the Get More Listings Series to an area where you want more listings.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

2. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

3. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 2020-Planner-3D-999x1024.jpg

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Business-Plan-3D-Book-New1-270x300.png

Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Driving New Listings with Geographic Farming

Sep 14, 2017

Leaving Nothing Left to Chance

By Julie Escobar

Competition hasn’t been this fierce in years so savvy agents are using every tool at their disposal to generate new listings, stay top of mind, and brand themselves as the neighborhood expert to call. Staying in touch with the VIPs in your sphere of influence makes sense. Those folks know you, trust you, and are already willing to do business with you. But how do you cultivate new relationships in markets that you really want to make an impact? You use smart tools that connect you with consumers in communities. You offer items of value. And you get out there and meet the people.

Todd Robertson recently shared five tips for making the most of your geographic farm and sphere:

Ask for referrals. Never be afraid to ask for new business. When you get comfortable with the level of service you provide, asking for the business gets easier. Get to the point where you KNOW that you have a marketing plan that helps sellers get the most from their house. Know that you can assist buyers in finding the perfect home for their family. Know that you are an advocate for consumers, and know that you are the best person for the job – then you have an obligation to let people KNOW that you are a real estate professional who can help.
Mail consistently (3-7-27 law). We’ve shared before the 3-7-27 law of branding, which is that it takes three contacts for someone to recognize your name, seven to put your name with your business and twenty-seven to become a brand in someone’s mind. If you are losing business to other agents in your market area, is it because they are consistently making more contacts and staying more top of mind than you are? It’s a tough question to ask, but if you can show up, and show value consistently, then sellers and buyers are going to consider you the brand to trust with their real estate investment questions and needs. Mind-share equals market share. Our Market Dominator members know that they are showing up month after month with the 12×15 Market Dominator to ensure this kind of consistency and value are creating that mind-share and market share.
Let people know what areas and price points that you service. Through your marketing and prospecting, let people know where you do business. If you’ve ever lost a listing because a friend or acquaintance said, “Oh, I didn’t know you worked that area,” you’ll get the message behind this step.
Train on how you take referrals. Let folks know that their referrals are important to you and how they can best deliver that information to you. “Shoot me a text, an email – or give me a call if you know someone who is looking to buy or sell a home.”
Thank your VIPs. Thank everyone for their referrals. Go the extra mile. Send a card or letter to them after the fact. Say, “Thank you for your kind referral. It’s the lifeblood of my business and no small thing, I know, so I appreciate it. Know that I’ll treat them with the highest possible level of care and you can rest assured they, and their interests, will be well taken care of. I’ll also keep you posted on how that referral is going so that you know your friends or relatives are in good hands.” Stand out in every way. People want to do business with those who they know can get the job done with the least number of headaches and the highest return on investment. They also want to work with people who are service-minded and extraordinary in their client care. That old adage, “they don’t care what you know until they know that you care” has never been more true.

Showing up in every way possible in your market place is critical to owning that market share.

Take the time THIS month to put your plan in place to ask for referrals. Can you make ten extra calls this week towards that goal?
Be consistent. The 12×15 Market Dominator is a powerful way to show up each month with value-added content and calls to action. Follow those mailings up with phone calls and door knocking in that geographic farm to help folks put your face with your name and know you are a resource they can count on.
Review your marketing tools, your website and social media. Are you letting people know the areas you serve?
Remember to let people know how to reach you if they have referrals. Review your business cards, email signature line, and marketing tools.
Send thank you messages weekly. We’ve got some easy-to-order Thank-You postcards that can streamline that process.

Make real estate farming a top priority this season and you’ll start to see returns on that investment. Stay strong, and let us know if we can help you.

If you’d like to learn more about the Market Dominator, call Todd Robertson at 702-683-1967.

Need additional marketing help? Contact our team at 866-405-3638.

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