Remember when you entered the field as a newly licensed real estate professional and you hit the ground running? Polished up and excited, you let everyone know that you’d passed your exams and were ready to serve their real estate needs.
Fast forward to your 1-year anniversary. You have exhausted the people in your sphere and now you find yourself looking for another way to attract clients.
The next 12 months are critical. Statistics speculate that 87% of all real estate professionals fail in the first two years.
That’s heartbreaking. All of the time, money, hopes and dreams, offset by a handful of commissions.
Let’s assume that you decide to stick with it. You could try purchasing leads, doing cold calls to FSBOs and expired listings, join a team or lean into a canned social media marketing strategy to get more business.
Imagine instead that you decide to carve out a niche. You laser in on a small group in the marketplace and put all of your attention there. The real estate profession lends itself to doing just the opposite so it’s rare to see this in action. The very nature of the business is to be available to serve anyone, anywhere as long as they have a pulse, a pre-approval letter or a home to sell.
I’m a coach for real estate professionals and have helped many clients hone in on a specialty and market it exclusively. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s an authentic and profitable strategy. They have proven it time and time again.
One of my former clients, Maria began coaching in her fifth year of selling real estate. She was well seasoned but hovered as a low-to-mid range producer.
She is also bilingual with Spanish as her second language. Although it’s a bit rusty, she still is an effective communicator. Maria was hesitant but agreed to let me help her design an identity and trusted authority for the Spanish-speaking community.
It immediately raised her credibility across the board. Maria was seen as a specialist in the field and could set herself apart from the thousands of other agents in her market. Instead of showing up looking and sounding like everyone else, she had a unique and identifiable focus for her marketing.
This might strike a fear for you. Would you lose out on the potential business that doesn’t fit your target market? It’s actually just the opposite. When you show up in a unique way, it increases your self confidence, which then translates into more organic deals coming your way.
After putting this into place, Maria moved from averaging eight transactions a year to 40, with less than 20% coming from her Spanish speaking niche market. It has been three years now since we completed her coaching engagement. She is still going strong and is talking about building a team.
Another coaching client has set her sites on the aging population. Imagine being the liaison for families who are transitioning their loved ones into senior care facilities for example. How could you position yourself as a knowledgeable and trusted, supportive agent for that group?
If you want to try this one there is one hard fast rule: You have to choose a niche that has a connection or personal meaning for you. If you decide on one that looks more lucrative, it won’t be authentic and people can sense that. It doesn’t matter where you point your arrow, it will work out the same. Lastly, you can employ this strategy at any time in your career.
Take a look around at the other real estate professionals in your market. If no one else is using this strategy, you’re sitting on a gold mine.
It’s time to start digging.
