I always strongly recommend my agents create a niche. Know everything that you can about a specific neighborhood--the stores, schools (careful), commute times, pricing, parks, etc. Preferable they will be selling in their own "back yard". One should know more about the neighborhood than the mail carrier.
The mail carrier can probably surmise what political party you are affiliated with, where your relatives live, what branch of the service your kid is in, where you get your gas, etc. One should also know more about market stats than the mail carrier, however, regarding what has sold, FSBOs, who else is working YOUR farm, and what will be available soon, whether it be foreclosure or a regular sale.
Pick a niche, and stick with it. Become the area expert. Focus. Too many agents are too broad in their scope.
Now, can a person have more than one niche? I say yes! It could be one or more of the following:
- An area with a great school
- Golf course, horse, or boating properties
- Luxury homes
- First time buyers
- Condos
The secret is to hold yourself out as THE expert--and then DO something about it!
The following picture is from law firm in Walnut Creek, CA. Do these people make it absolutely sure that they are the "go-to" people:
In law, it is called specialization. Real estate fair houseing laws would prohibit selling only based on gender. But, this firm holds itself out as experts in this niche.
Good luck out there. Remeber, specialize. I own a company that specializes in one golf community in the Silicon Valley (Eagle Ridge Golf Community). It is a gated community, and although it is a public course, and I am selling homes there, there is more to sell than just a home. I get questions all the time regarding everything but the home they are interested in. I have 6 agents who work together with me to promote this great area. Just looking at the information posted on the MLS, outside agents get it all wrong, ranging from the square footage of houses to CC&Rs to builders to what the nearest cross streets are. It is amazing how much they don't know. It is just a one shot deal to them. We spend a great deal of time having to deal with myths. I once had a person tell me that they heard that kids could not ride their bicycles in Eagle Ridge! How crazy is that? She said she heard it from another Realtor.
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