I've just started a series of posts about "How to Start Your Own Brokerage" (man, I've been slow to post this past 2 weeks!)

It doesn't matter if you are starting a brokerage or not, accurately defining (and knowing) your hyper-local target market is critical

If you want to go back to the beginning of the series of posts, start here

There's been lots of talk about the new localism in the last week or so.  Everyone's got their opinion.  I love the dialog because I am a dedicated disciple of hyper-local blogging.  There's just no doubt that it's the only way to win (for 98% of the agent population*).  The reason it's so incredibly powerful is that you just simply can't fake it.  You either "is the local expert -- or you ain't"!!!  It will show through with perfect clarity in your content.  People (as a rule) are not stupid.  They can tell just as easily as we can when someone is just posing as the local expert by posting some crappy "market report" that has no real content or meaningful commentary.  (woops, sorry for that little rant)

It doesn't matter whether the new Localism is "the ultimate answer" or not.  It will be one tool for agents & brokers to use in their effort to get hyper-local.  And get hyper-local they must.

So much for the setup for this post, here's my point...

I can't be credible & believable in my market unless it's really my market and I really know what the &%$#$ I'm talking about.  This week I"m on vacation down in Panama City Beach, Florida.  Since Diamond Dwellings is launching hyper-local blogs in hundreds of markets this year, I decided to put PC on the list, put up a site and start writing a bit while I'm here.  You can see this new site at PanamaCityDwellings.com

Even though I call myself an evangelist and a purist for hyper-local blogging, I still thought it might be a good idea for me to come down here and fake it for a while.  It only took me about 5 minutes to realize that I can never replace the "true local expert" here.  I will never have enough knowledge or enough content to be an authority here (unless I move here and really work my butt off to learn it).  That's bad for me (if I'm just a poser) -- but it's amazingly great news for the true local expert that is here in Panama City Beach.  The true local expert has something that Zillow can't duplicate, that Trulia can't duplicate, that Google can't duplicate, and yes, even Diamond Dwellings can't duplicate (without you).

All the discussion about Localism is great.  It can only lead you to one conclusion...

If you want to be first in your market, you've got to be hyper-local and really really know your stuff.

btw, if you are the true local expert in Panama City Beach, we'd love to talk with you about what we're doing.

*the other 2% are still hyper-accurately focused.  They are just focused on a demographic or some other niche besides geographic.