Step by Step: How to Choose Your Geographic Farm and Maximize Leads

America’s top real estate agents know that Geographic Farming is the most effective way to generate a database full of high quality contacts and leads.

It is virtually impossible to be the top real estate agent in the country. You can, however, hold the position of #1 real estate agent in your chosen community. And the numbers show that being number one in a high-quality geographic farm will get you more sales than being second place in multiple communities.

Of course, you can’t just walk into any neighborhood and declare yourself the emperor of real estate. To be the number one Realtor in a community, you need to keep in touch with the members via the right platforms at the right consistency with the right messaging. BUT, before you do that, you need to make sure that you are choosing the right area to farm.

So how do you choose the correct neighborhood to farm? We have broken this down in to 5 simple steps.

How to Choose the Right Geographic Farm in Just 5 Steps

3. Create a list and map out communities within your geographical comfort zone. This can be subdivisions, condominiums, section or cross section of town, major intersections or suburbs.
4. Cross off any communities that do not have shared demographics and characteristics among the residents. An excellent example of a neighborhood to keep on your list would be a retirement community that caters to Boomers or Xennials.
   

   BONUS TIP: Look for a neighborhood that has a commonly used and recognizable name. Examples of this would be The Junction, The Hills or The Beach.

5. Look for competition. If there is a real estate agent who has already staked claim and is doing well in the neighborhood, this is likely not the community for you. Get results with less obstacles by choosing a geographic farm that meets your requirements without starting an expensive turf war.
6. You should now have significantly narrowed your list. Continue the purge by crossing off any that have a low turnover rate. Anything below 3 percent is not ideal. Many Realtors will argue that choosing a wealthy community with higher home values but lower turnovers is just as viable of a strategy. If you believe this is the case, simply do the math to make sure you’re on the right track and examine your comfort level with the idea of making fewer or more sporadic deals in a year, and then choose what is right for you.
7. The final step to choosing the correct community to farm is to consider personal fit. If you are unable to connect with members of your geographic farm and build relationships, you are less likely to do well. Say you choose to target a newly built urban condo, filled with bachelor and studio apartments that appeal almost exclusively to single Millennials in the financial district. But you live on a farm on the outskirts of town, can’t stand driving into the city and hate cramped spaces – this is not likely the geographic farm for you.

BONUS TIP: Building relationships through personal connection and commonalities is one of the most important factors in geographic farming. If you share interests and values with the community you farm, you will accomplish this more easily.

Once you’ve accomplished these five steps, you will be able to choose a neighborhood to farm. Take a moment to congratulate your success and then move on to setting up your real estate marketing success system in a way that will maximize your results.

5 Ways to Generate Maximum Leads in Your Geographic Farm

1. Implement a Real Estate Marketing Success System. Consistently generating a growing number of leads involves a multi-touch real estate marketing and communication strategy – one that includes direct mail newsletters, social media, email campaigns and face time. At the heart of your real estate marketing success system will be a powerful CRM for database and communication management. Without an automated, customizable system and strategy in place, you are almost guaranteed to do more work and get lesser results.
2. Share the best content. To consistently generate leads, you must consistently stay in touch with your farm. This is a no brainer. But dumping subpar content on them will not be helpful for you or them. Ensure that the real estate direct mail newsletters you send out contain valuable information.
3. Use mass mailing (postcards) as a supplement to your direct mail newsletter. Postcards are great. They’re cheap to print and mail. But they are not the star of the show. Use postcards for holiday greetings, Listing/SOLD announcements or event announcements, for example.
4. Make connections. There is not a number one real estate agent on the planet who sits at her desk all day, waiting for the phone to ring. Actively seek out events and opportunities to meet homeowners in your neighborhood. Pique their interest and build relationships by offering to give them information such as the value of their home. Talk to business owners who can give you referrals. Enter all contact information into your database as soon as possible to incorporate them into your drip campaigns.
5. Be patient. As with any true and accurate results, you cannot expect immediate success. Building a relationship, a database and leads takes time. But if you’re diligent and consistent, you will get results that increase year-over-year.

The bottom line is, if you want to become the top real estate agent in your geographic farm and continuously boost real estate leads from your targeted community, you must use a systematic approach and solid marketing strategy.