Geo farming is one of the most powerful ways to expand and maintain a successful real estate business. It is often confused with circle prospecting. It allows you to initiate your brand and confine your listings and your sales to one specific geographic area. In order to be successful, it is necessary to commit to target an area and understand that great things take time and it is best not to rush. Maintaining this mindset will b
e your key to success.
Geographic farming, or geo farming, is a tried and true method for many real estate agents. Using this method, you will be able to target your customers at a precise location and possibly even retarget them in the future. With geo farming, you will be able to educate, improve, and supply many services while bringing value to those who reside in this specific neighborhood.
When geo farming, you will want to choose a location that you are familiar with and that you like, or choose a neighborhood with a price range you would like to be in. Choosing an area you are familiar with will be helpful since you already are familiar with your surroundings and know some of the people who live in this area already.
Marketing your real estate business to a particular neighborhood is a technique that has proven to be effective for realtors to brand themselves as an expert in that neighborhood. Your aim will be to become the expert of real estate in this area and residents will know you well enough to recommend you to their family and friends.
How to Choose a Neighborhood for Geo Farming
Choosing a neighborhood is a very important stage of geo farming. In order to do this, you will need to take distinct aspects of the neighborhood you want to use and your own capabilities into consideration. When selecting your farm, you will need to think of a way you are going to advertise yourself, generate leads and inform those who live in your farm.
Size is an important factor in determining where you want your farm to be. It is recommended that the size of the neighborhood you are starting has between 500-1000 homes. The ideal farm should have at least six percent turnover rate.
Budgeting is crucial when geo farming. Geo farming can cost realtors more than anticipated, while the return on an investment might not fulfil those early costs.You should add up your costs before choosing your neighborhood. It is difficult, however, to select an exact range since every neighborhood has different costs.
Home value is another important factor when choosing where to farm. This decision needs to be made based on your experience. If working with million dollar homes, your farm should mostly include those types of properties. You should be aware of what is happening with the values in the neighborhood and how many homes are currently on the market. It will be important to understand specific issues that the homeowners will want to know about and how you can help find an answer to their questions and provide knowledge about the community. You are the farm expert!
A good farm is an area where homeowners tend to move to very frequently. You will need to make sure this farm does not already have more than two dominant agents. Having more than two dominant agents in the same neighborhood will make it infeasible for you to be successful.
Property showings are key strategies. Therefore, it is essential to keep in mind open house restrictions.Due to Covid19 or other reasons, some areas may have restrictions on how many people can gather at a property.This could be a huge set back with your marketing activities in the future.
How to Geo Farm (The Right Way)
There are many dos and don’ts when learning how to geo farm.
Put your name out there.
Look into all of the FSBOs (for sale by owners), listings that have expired, and listings that have been canceled. The objective is to be able to call them, knock on their door, and persuade them to allow you to have an open house for them.
Target distressed listings.
In every neighborhood, there are properties that require urgent attention. This would include cases when the owners are getting divorced, or they die. It does seem unconventional to be looking for this kind of data, but these can be helpful to you when starting your farm.
Build your list.
The worst thing that can happen to a real estate agent with geo farming is running out of listings to target. You want to make sure that the people you’re reaching out to understand who you are and why you’re contacting them as well. Building a popular name in your local community is a great way to make sure this happens.
Use social media.
Sometimes you don’t have to reach and you can make people come to you. When you’re farming within a certain area, create a social media post or start up a real estate marketing campaign to help the cause. Not only will it look good for your appearance but you’ll likely generate some leads in the process.
Final Thoughts
Geo farming is a great way to find a lot of leads without having to reach too far outside of your target market. If you have a strong reputation in the neighborhood that will give you an even bigger advantage.
Having an agency with a broker that supports you is key. You need to have resources and a team of other agents who push you to be the best you can be. That’s what we’re doing at Christian Saunders Real Estate. Click here to learn more about an exciting career with our agency!