Laura, excellent point. I specialize in luxury homes and high rise condos in Houston and point that out on my website. I really don't want all the extra time involved in explaining to someone looking for housing assistance that I don't work that market. It does happen though and I'm happy to refer them to other agents that specialize in that area.

Laura- You have great timing. I received my local Northern Virginia REALTOR magizine for April- the cover story?

Finding your Niche- Stand out from the Crowd by Promoting Your Specialty.

You're right on the money. I was wandering in the dark thinking that I was missing business if I didn't cover EVERYTHING. And ended up getting nothing because I wasn't showing up on any searches. So I stepped back, took a deep breath and focused on one community at the moment- Shirlington which consists mostly of condos. Arlington is made up of different "Urban Villiages" and I know all of them- which is a niche itself- but it's still too broad. Instead of trying to do everything at once, I focused on one village and provided detailed local content. I'm in the process of switching over to IDX- so I will keep your idea in mind about putting in a specialized search for that Shirlington page. When I have that page the way I want it- I'll move onto another village that I sell in.

Great post!

Laura,

Thanks for reinforcing what I already know about niche marketing. I am retooling my website and entire marketing plan to feature the eco-friendly side of my business. 

Reading your post was a great encouragement. 

Laura, great post and I agree, you cannot service the world. 

However, what we have included as part of our business model starting this year is looking at referrals to agents outside of our geographic area as an income stream.  In the Washington, DC metro area, as you can imagine, commuting to and from or around the Beltway and out to the suburbs can be hazardous to your bottom line, not to mention a real time-waster (and not part of our 20%). 

So, we capture and cultivate every lead as if we were going to sell a them a home at some point.  If they stray from where we are willing to commute to, we have very competent network of affiliated agents to handle that niche.  After all, they have to buy from someone, so it might as well be from us or someone we trust. 

Good advice, Laura.  The problem is that a website is always a work in progress, always searching for bigger and better returns.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to exploit this enough to call it successful.

I am always looking for ways to improve my website to get more responses and qualified leads.  Now if only I could understand all these abbreviations and other "net speak" I may really be able to get somewhere.

Great post!

There are "riches in niches". 

Great post.  I think narrow and deep is certainly the way to go!

Thanks for some niche advice for realtor sites.