Farming to “Own” a Neighborhood

The following is a reply to an agent out of our market about farming and owning a market area.

Amy, owning a neighborhood is a major commitment rooted in consistency, activity, and information delivery. For Sale signs (and sold riders) are the most critical component to your success. Here is what I coach agents to do…

1. Have magnetic car signs so when you drive through your target market people see you and know it is you. you can always take them off when you care to do.

2. Drive through the target market at different times several times a week. Visibility is a must and people have different schedules – differing the times will allow you to have a bigger impact on the overall audience.

3. Preview every listing as it comes on the mls in the market and leave a card developed to communicate your expertise in the specific market area. these listings will sometimes expire. I recommend visiting the house AGAIN about 10 days short of whatever is the common mls contract length to ensure your card is in the Seller’s hand.

4. Go after every expired listing in the target market. Call AND knock on the door – most agents mail and you cannot be “most agents” to accomplish your goal. People have a much harder time saying NO face to face than through mail or a call.

5. Visit every FSBO not to list the day you meet but to see if they will pay a buyer agent. Come back the next day to preview – do it this way so you can increase the number of contacts face to face to build a relationship. If they will pay the buyer side you are half way to getting the listing in terms of their motivation to FSBO by avoiding the cost of using an agent.

6. Deliver monthly stats and neighborhood news. Thank people in the newsletter who reach out to you (anywhere) with referrals to show your audience that people really do it. The neighborhood you target will not know these people acutally live outside the neighborhood.

7. In the newsletter, offer some services help – babysitter, easy classifieds, security alerts, etc – think of what an HOA company would want to communicate.

8. Announce SOLDs (success) in the market those you do personally, as well as those that someone in your company may have done (get their permission). Rather “I did it” say “We did it”. It is your contact information on the card they will remember not who sold the house.

9. Set up a posterous.com blog to make it the community site. This is a very simple site to take pictures and post from your phone, write a quick email (blog post) and post, and it’s free.

10. Be human – if possible.

11. Commit to be disciplined – it is the only way you will make this a success. It will take 6 months to show any positive signs – if you go after the FSBOs and Expireds (face to face – not hiding behind mail) it will shorten the amount of time it takes to start seeing results.