Starting in real estate often means being the “jack of all trades” in the area. Your expertise becomes anything related to real estate, whether it be listing homes, selling homes, or maybe even doing a home loan. Your real estate career gets even more clouded as you get involved with the different types of real estate from condos, homes, land, new construction, residential multi-units (i.e. 2-4 units) or maybe even stretching to commercial properties (and there are plenty of niches within the commercial class of properties from industrial, office buildings, multifamily apartments, etc.). Performing this many real estate tasks is a juggling act that very few agents ever survive.
In order to close business consistently every month, have a life, and experience the big rewards it becomes necessary to specialize in a niche of real estate. Before we can examine the benefits of specialization let’s examine the fears that many real estate agents have about selecting a niche:
- I will lose business by specializing
- There aren’t enough transactions for me to specialize
- I don’t know enough about anything in real estate to specialize
These are all common fears to experience before selecting a niche to specialize in and dominate. As you are considering your niche, I invite you to consider the following question:
If you had a possibly fatal heart condition and you were looking for a Doctor to help you, which Doctor would you select?
- The Doctor who is a Podiatrist, Pediatrician, and a Cardiologist
Or
- The best Cardiologist in your state
For most they would select “B” because that Doctor would have handled more conditions than the “A” Doctor. She would have the experience, have run into more problems, have solved more cases and would have to be the absolute best in order to make a living in just one area of medicine.
So, by selecting a niche are you turning away business or are you inviting more of your niche than you ever could imagine?
Selecting your real estate marketing niche will bring you a flood of business for that niche. In order to demonstrate your expertise in a particular area, it doesn’t take shouting from the treetops that you are the “expert”. Here are some methods that you can do to demonstrate your expertise in a niche and start bringing in more of the business:
- Write articles – Write articles about the type of real estate product that you have a passion for. For example if your passion is condos write articles about homeowners associations, selecting a community, and even choosing the right floor plan.
- Contribute on forums/Sites – There are often community forums where local residents bring up questions about communities or their local city. Participate in these forums (without directly asking for business) and answer questions. Even sites such as Reddit have local community sections where you can answer questions. Remember it’s not about selling, it’s about answering questions and people will “see” you are the expert.
- Contribute on Social Media – Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or another platform people are asking questions about your local market. Evaluate each platform to see where you can provide the most value.
- Write a Niche Real Estate Report – Take your foundation of articles and write a mini-book about your niche. Your report could include detailed photographs, infographics, charts and much more. Imagine you were talking to someone for the first time and they wanted to learn “everything” you know and start writing from that perspective. While you won’t be able to capture all of your knowledge, by putting in the work and sharing extreme details people will want to use you…because you are the one that wrote the report.
- Attend community events – This can range from attending a local board meeting of homeowners to having a small booth at a farmers market. Wherever you attend make sure it is complimentary to your niche.
There are many different ways to share your expertise in order to bring in more business. The first big step is just committing yourself to real estate marketing in the niche where you have the most passion. To your success.
