Choosing a Niche in Real Estate – Becoming a
real estate specialist
Whenever
anybody joins real estate, there are a few basic things that an individual
starts with. He markets himself to the masses, reaches out to his sphere of
influence, creates his own database, makes cold calls, does meetings and so on.
Ideally, it is the way a realtors day should look like but there is a problem
in this process. The problem is that, there are hundreds of real estate agents
doing the same thing. With so many agents out there it seems like anybody can
do real estate or at least it looks like they can do real estate. In such a
case, where everyone is the go-to-guy for real estate, what makes you unique in
that crowd?
With
the changing demographics of real estate investors, now the clients are more
qualified and they look for long term returns on anything they buy or sell. In
such scenario’s, they look up to someone with more specialized knowledge and
this is where the need arises for a specialization in the market. A smart real
estate professional will first identify his skills, refine his knowledge and
passion and then hunt for a speciality. Always remember that one satisfied
customer, brings you a lot of referrals and this is one of the biggest perk of
being a specialist! So let’s discuss how you can find your niche:
Choose your area of work: Real Estate is very vast and as an individual everyone has likes
and dislikes for a specific market. Shortlist the category in which you want to
work. Primary sales, secondary sales, commercial sales, renting, leasing,
luxury homes, working only with first time home buyers, vacation homes, global
real estate, work only on referrals etc is just a small sample of what could be
your niche. We were recently reading about a story of a women realtor, who only
sold luxury homes to HNI’s and doing so she had gained recognition in all the
elite clubs and thus had more deals coming on her way. She became a specialist in that community!
Thus it is important to first select your niche and then start working towards
it. Make a network and collect as much as possible information about your
targeted audience
.
Understand
your target market and audience: To succeed in your niche, you truly
need to become an expert of that market. Starting from understanding their
investment portfolio to the kind of lifestyle and needs your clients have,
everything has to be well understood. Just for an example, if you are helping a
newly married couple in finding a home, as a realtor you need to project not
only their current needs but also the future requirements. If you are helping a
corporate employee to find the right home for him/her, factors likes proximity
to work space, good connectivity to airport, railway station etc should be kept
in mind. You need to understand the requirements of your customer and provide
them with an extra value from what they expect from you. This will not only
make them your customers for lifetime, but they will also love to refer you to
their other friends with similar requirements. Remember, in Real Estate; your
NETWORK is your NETWORTH!
Know
about the local demographics and the market drivers of the area: Knowing in and out of the location is another
key factor that contributes to the success of building your niche. You need to
master the rentals, current pricing, upcoming projects, infrastructural
developments of that area etc. There is a simple formula to learn about it. Take
out that areas map and do the mapping of the area. When you know about it, you will be
immediately able to find out that if you have a listing with you, is in
underpriced or overpriced. This will make you an effective real estate
consultant as no customer can evaluate this part of real estate by just
searching the Internet. Being successful in your niche requires you to walk an
extra mile to up skill yourself and once you do that, there is no looking back.
Create
a marketing campaign for yourself and let the clients
come to you: Once everything is in place and you have
started closing transactions it’s time to promote yourself as an expert.
Prepare your marketing campaign and promote yourself so that people start
having your name in their mind when they have that particular requirement. You
should have success stories with you and a lot of promotional material with you
to make people think and talk about you. Make your own value and clients will
come to you.
Real estate will always be packed with competition
and you must know that to excel you must keeping learning and doing more in
order to succeed. Be selective in choosing your niche and identifying
your target market as they will be the key drivers for your success. Real
estate offers an enormous amount of growth on a consistent basis; unlock your
potential and watch your business grow!
