Become a "NICHE MARKET" SPECIALISTS

  TARGET MARKETING!  Let's face it... chances are you live in a fairly good sized city and there a LOT of real agent agents per capita.  If you've been in the business a while, you also know that a typical real estate agent will sell anything from a $4,000 mobile home to a $4,000,000 mansion or a parcel of land and will cover just about any area in their MLS system.  You'll also notice that there seems to be a group of agents that seem to sell a lot of homes in a certain range like $500,000 to $1,500,000 where other agents seem to be consistent in a range of $40,000 to $80,000 etc.

  In most cases, those agents didn't purposely set out to sell in that range but rather it started off there and they just continued to work that market niche.  One buyer refers another and one satisfied seller refers another and you're stuck.

  You have to look at look at yourself from the viewpoint of a buyer or seller and not as a real estate agent or even the opinion of yourself.  I was once in the basic range of about $90,000 to $120,000 for some reason, and had a friend selling a million dollar home that was listing with another company.  He explained to me that he was hiring a big name firm to sell his home because as he said "you only sell like $50,000 houses don't ya?".  It was kind of like a knife in the back thinking I couldn't sell his home, but "he" thinks you can't sell a million dollar home unless you've already sold one and do that consistently.  It make me start thinking about how I've been pegged.

  I since shifted my basic range to $200,000 to $400,000 homes because those people seem to have less trouble getting loans these days and by the way, I did get the million dollar home after 4 top companies unsuccessfully had it for 6 months each and I sold it in 9 days.  He now classifies me differently and is a great referral.

  For the better part of the last 10 years I've pretty much worked in niche market groups through.  Here are some of the markets I've specialized in with more success in some over another depending how the effort I put in to it:

  ►The NEW BABY market.  This is the market I spent a lot of time in working the newspaper announcements of "New Births".  Seems "as the family grows so grows the house".  That was my slogan. Several local hospitals also had free websites where you could post pictures of your new baby so friends and relatives could go see.  I designed a nice little brochure I mailed out.

  ►The NEWLYWED market.  This is the market of all the newlyweds announced in the newspaper.  I designed some brochures for starting off your new life with a "solid foundation", as in "a home foundation".  I also had a few Bridal Shops that let me place my brochures in their store.  This market was usually a lower dollar market home (starter home) and they didn't have much money for a downpayment but for those that like working with first time buyers, it's great and they also have "lots of friends" getting married.

  ►The APARTMENT DWELLER market.  This is an excellent market to work at all times.  All you do here is pick the middle to high-dollar rent apartment complexes and do a series of marketing letters or postcards.  You need to pick up a Apartment Guide at the grocery store and pick out the best 2 or 3 apartments to market that would equate to a home payment.  But don't discount the size of home these people can purchase.  See my blog at http://activerain.com/blogsview/643740/Apartment-Marketing-Campaign-FREE for the details on how to get those apartment numbers.

  ►The INVESTOR market.  This is a market where you need to put on a different mindset.  You're not selling a "home" but "cash flow".  You need to set up a analysis format like an excel spreadsheet to quickly analyze the benefit of purchasing a property at a certain price versis the amount of rent and cash flow it will produce.  You could literally write a book on this market as many have, but I've been really successful in this niche market and even partnered up with clients on deals that had a lot of profit.  But you have to get organized and learn about the cash flow concept and cost of managing an asset.  In doing this, I'm now stuck with managing several rent houses for some of these clients.  (getting paid of course).

  ►The SUBDIVISION market.  This is a fairly new approach to marketing and has been really successful for me and my associates.  It started by accident in capturing the market in a little know lake in our area.  Now we list and sell over 80% of the transactions in this 280 acre lake area containing about 450 homes and cabins and are the established "expert".  Since that time we have purchased domain names like "StCharlesSubdivision.com", "WaltonHeightsSubdivision.com" and created stand alone web pages for all the activity on that subdivision and are becoming the expert for all the real estate needs within that subdivision.

  ►The FSBO market.  This is an area many agents jump in...get burned out and jump right out.  You have to first build a better mousetrap if you're going to work this market.  What we did is create the "FSBO Facilitator Service" about 10 years ago.  This was a service where for a flat fee we assisted a FSBO and did a lot of work for them.  Today we do the same thing and even provide a Free Listing on our site www.LittleRockMetroFSBO.com  but the key is in "taking the pictures of their home for them" for the website.  That's when you are invited into their home...you get to visit and get to know them.  Once they decide to list...hey...you're the only one they trust.

  ►The BUILDER market.  This is the market again where you have to build a better mousetrap for the builder to consistently get his listings.  One feature we have used successfully in the past is designing Custom Signs specifically for the entire subdivision their developing.  In other words, if the subdivision is "Lake Norrell Estates", we have our sign reprinted on coroplast with our company logo but also add the logo or design on for the subdivision and have that below our logo.  We preprint a new domain website LakeNorrellEstates.com on the sign and have under the agents name "Lake Norrell Estates Specialists".  Once you've sold the homes, you're plugged in to remain the subdivision expert for resales.

  ►The ACTIVITY GROUP market.  This is a niche market targeting a "group".  It might be a Boy Scout or Girl Scout group, a bridge group or in my case a Taekwondo Class group.  I attend EVERY taekwondo class my daughter goes to and the group of parents that are also watching their children talk and we become "friends".  From this friendly group, we eventually discuss the type of work we do and over time one of them buys or sells a home and the word spreads from there.  I've picked up enough clients here to pay for the entire cost of taekwondo classes for a dozen people.

These are just some of the "groups" to target to help you spark an "idea" on a target group you'd feel comfortable in working.  I wouldn't recommend attacking more than 2 groups at one time though, because you need to devote ample time to establish yourself as that "expert".