How Do You Make Geographic Farming Work? Ask Debra and John

If you’re like many agents, you want to get more leads from your real estate geographic farm. How do you do that? To explore that question, let’s meet two real estate professionals.

The first is John. He’s been targeting a geographic farm for three years. Every once in a while he’ll send out a mailer to residents in that community. Occasionally, when he sells a home, he’ll knock on a few doors and drop off JUST SOLD cards. He also announces himself as the community specialist on his signs, website and other marketing materials.

So, how is John doing? Unfortunately, not that great.

Yes, he does get the odd lead from his geographic farm. But those real estate leads are sporadic at best. He doesn’t get a sense of his geographic farm is building into a lead-generating asset for him. In fact, he’s not getting any better results in his third year of focusing on that community than he did in his first year.

Now, let’s meet Debra.

She’s focusing on a similar geographic farm with comparable demographics, size and turnover. However, she’s getting much better results. She’s generating more and more real estate leads each year. She feels the momentum! Her geographic farm is fast becoming a business-building asset for her that she’s confident will continue for years.

What’s making the difference? After all, John and Debra are both good agents. They both work hard. The farms they’re focusing on are almost mirror images of each other.

And yet Debra is getting a great response from her farm while John is hearing crickets.

The answer is simple.

Debra is taking a comprehensive, systematic approach to geographic farming. She’s using a high-value direct mail newsletter sent each month to residents. She’s hosting a community event each year (these days, online.) She’s spreading the news every time she has a listing and sold.

The real estate newsletter is the core of her marketing approach. It includes her branding, a personal message from her, original home-related how-to articles, and an update on the local market.

If she chooses, she can even customize her geographic farming newsletter to include featured listings, solds, community events, and ads from local businesses.

And because residents of her geographic farm receive her newsletter monthly, they see her as the local go-to real estate agent — a part of their community!

That’s why Debra is doing so well. She’s not working harder. She doesn’t have a “magic formula” that John doesn’t know. She is simply using a geographic farming system that is proven to get results.

Something to think about the next time you’re thinking about your real estate geographic farm.