Homes Around Annapolis...
A Niche That Grew Out Of Love
Like many in real estate my niche of Homes Around Annapolis was not my first niche in my real estate business. I actually started my career in an office in Crofton, MD, a small town about 20 minutes west of Annapolis. I chose it because it was small, I was brand new to real estate and my sister lived there. Good reasons I thought at the time. I had just moved back to Maryland after a 13 year career that took me to Washington DC and Northern VA so I had been away for awhile from my hometown of Annapolis.
While there I had a few niches I worked on. One was helping renters, another first time buyers, then land aquisition for a smal builder along with selling the homes he built and even had a niche in historic homes in Upper Marlboro, a few miles south of Crofton in a whole different county.
In 2008 a dear friend in real estate Margaret Woda introduced me to Active Rain and the world of blogging. I became addicted to it and over time realized that Crofton had quite a few bloggers on Active Rain. One day Margaret and I were discussing Active Rain and she said to me, why not move over to blogging about Annapolis? It is your hometown, you write very well about it and it seems like a nice fit. It made sense so I did.
I was a bit nervous for sure. You see, what I knew and remembered about Annapolis were stories from my past. I had not really sold a lot of homes with the Annapolis zip codes in my career. How would I make this transistion from the Crofton 'market' to the Annapolis 'market'? Even though Annapolis was only 20 minutes away from my Crofton office I had been gone from there for years, the town had changed and I did not have a network of contacts for me to reach out to. Yet the idea stuck with me and grew and I found myself moving more in that direction.
I changed my website name to HomesAroundAnnapolis, started a Facebook business page with the same name and even had my website URL put on the back window of my SUV. I started going downtown every week, sometimes even more and visiting neighborhoods all around. I attended parades, Candlelight Tours, Ghost Walks and festivals. Eventually I changed real estate offices and became an 'Annapolis agent'. That was a HUGE step in my niche transition.
Today I still sell homes in Crofton and Arnold and Edgewater and Crownsville and everywhere as before. You see... I have always thought Homes Around Annapolis are those homes and lifestyles that gives a person the opportunity to enjoy Annapolis; living the lifestyle they love. If that means living in Davidsonville and playing in Annapolis then that is awesome. BTW that is what I do.
It has felt amazing to be 'back home' in my hometown. I have always had a huge love affair for Annapolis, smile when I think about my history with it and smile even more when I am able to serve others in their search for that perfect home around Annapolis.
Homes Around Annapolis...
A Niche That Grew Out Of Love
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