The highways are great for travel, until they're not.
Twice in the last 24 hours the fastest and most direct routes weren't available to us and there really wasn't an option of not going out. A quick look at the OhGo.com travel app showed back-ups for miles, so we needed a plan B to reach our destinations.
And one of the perks of being a real estate agent is you get to know your way around and know alternate ways of getting anywhere local. So that's what we did, Plan B last night, and today it was Plan B that morphed into Plan C when Plan B was also backed up!
Most of us probably have our main ways of attracting business (our personal highways).
Now depending on your strategy those business highways may be pretty crowded. The Big Semis of the business (ZTR, big brand brokerages, etc.) may take up a LOT of the road, but for the most part they need easy to maneuver roads (Cincinnati homes for sale).
Take those behomoths off the main road and give them some hair pin turns and they'll have trouble handling and staying out of the ditch. E.g. Cincinnati patio homes may return Cincinnati homes WITH patios rather than "patio homes".
Knowing the back roads provides business opportunity, and plenty of it.
Most of your peers will be on the main highways trying to avoid getting bumper carred by the big portals and brokerages while you're still reaching your destination by working the niches of your market.
It's worth taking a look at your local market and understanding the real estate segments that are main highways and which segments that may be smaller, but are neglected and offer a large cumulative opportunity for business.
Once you identify the neglected segments, you can assess if there are good fits for the type of housing and clients you want to work.
In our case, low maintenance housing offered that opportunity.
A price point that is higher than the local median.
A customer base that isn't in their first rodeo.
A segment that the 800 pound gorillas of real estate ignored.
A segment that most of our fellow agents had also ignored.
It took a lot of initial work to develop the content, but now it's more or less self-sustaining thanks to IDX feeds. Update a page whenever new construction wraps up, add new pages as new communities start.
We're on the back roads, and the scenery is great :)
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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