|
|
About Pine Needle Baskets and How to Use Them in Your Home Decor
Have you ever had the pleasure of strolling through a forest covered with fragrant pine needles? Can you imagine those pine needles being crafted into a basket, tray, or sculpture? In this article, you will discover the brief history of pine...
Home Improvement Project
When starting a new home improvement project this is a time to
rope the whole family into it! So what if it is just a new coat
of paint on the walls, this is the time for friends and families
to get together and have a good time. Yes you can have...
Preparing Your Home for Sale: Make Repairs
Before a buyer considers your home seriously, it must meet his needs in a variety of ways. It must be a suitable commuting distance, neighborhood, design style, floorplan, size, number of bedrooms, etc. If all or most of these needs are met, the...
The Benefits of Painted Wall Murals -
Wall murals are a creative and fun way to liven cold, bare walls. And the best part: anyone can do them—you don’t have to be an artist. You can design your own wall mural using your imagination, artwork, greeting cards, or picture books. You can...
Winterizing a Vacation Home
Unlike winterizing your main home, winterizing a vacation or summer home effectively means closing down the home for the winter. However, winterizing a vacation home or summer home really only involves a few basic tasks that can be completed in...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Importance Of Real Estate Farming
What is real estate farming? Real estate farming is the process of branding yourself to a specific group of people, area or market segment as a first choice agent for homebuyers, homesellers or real estate investors. Real estate farming is a long time investment in both time and money but well worth it in the end because it will help you develop business on a regular basis.
An in-depth look
The first step in the process of real estate farming is identifying the specific niche you want to specialize in. Do you want to farm your own neighborhood? A specific age or professional group? A certain type of real estate such a apartments or vacation houses?
The next step is to gather in-depth knowledge of the area or market segment. Study each property sold as well as the location to get a feel of the finances and the general characteristics. Include in your research all the other listed homes and become familiar with every little detail concerning the pricing, the state of the market, the offers and the requests. To attain this goal, you can also visit the open houses at the time, participate in the weekly tours of homes, and gather data about adjacent neighborhoods as well.
After you’ve catalogued all this data, turn your attention to the neighborhood in question and start putting together a presentation portfolio. Education and transportation in the area are very important elements that can drop or raise the prices. Also, analyze shopping centers, churches, parks, theaters and any other significant places in the neighborhood. You will need to know all of these details if you want to be considered the expert and the first choice in the area.
Take pictures of all your listings, outside and inside to give the clients a better idea before the actual visit. Also, be sure to include pictures of the neighborhood itself in the buyer package.
In short, you need to be prepared to answer every question that may be thrown your way.
About real estate farming methods
The keys to success for any real estate farming method are: quality, quantity and consistency.
Quality – Whatever method you use, be sure to employ quality means. People are sick of getting adds in their mailboxes and inboxes. They will probably get rid of your add before even bothering to read it. So instead of treating them as cash-cows, orient your farming so that it benefits your recipients instead of yourself. Give them something they can use, namely quality information: tips on buying and selling houses, mortgage information, house improvements, anything that might interest your target audience.
Also, take care with your advertising materials. If you use flyers, don’t use cheap paper and low-quality printing that gets on people’s hands before your ad is even read. It will make you look unprofessional.
Quantity – In some cases, less is certainly more, but in farming, you need to get your name out there to as many prospective clients as possible. So there needs to be a sufficient quantity of targeted people and in consequence, an equivalent quantity of promotional material. People don’t sell houses everyday, so you need a large enough base to keep a steady stream of business coming your way. For a good turnover, you need at least 250 properties. But in order to get these 250 properties, you will probably contact at least twice as many possible many owners and buyers. So while you don’t want to spam with your flyers and emails
the whole city, you certainly don’t want to be facing a very interested prospect while reaching in your wallet for a business card and finding none.
Consistency – After the initial contact, it is crucial to do follow up. People don’t like being taken over by a well-thought marketing campaign and then forgotten. Also, while you’re idling, the competition might rear its ugly head. So, be sure to do everything in your power to keep your name in your target public’s head. It’s after all about being the first choice, the agent to pop up in people’s mind when they decide to do a real estate transaction.
It’s best to combine offline and online methods of farming, to get the best of both worlds. During the past years, internet usage has increased dramatically. According to the 2004 NAR “Profile Of Home Buyers And Sellers” survey, over half of buyers (53 percent) used the Internet frequently during their search.
Start by taking advantage of your circle of friends and meet as many people as possible. Make sure you take names, phone numbers and email addresses whenever possible. In the same spirit you can go around the neighborhood and knock on doors.
Once you’ve made the first contact, be sure to follow up at least every three months by talking to them. Also, send them quality information both offline, though regular mail, as well as online, using direct mail and newsletters. Don’t forget, these people know other people and so on, like a domino effect. As trust runs high on the list of reasons for choosing an agent, referrals from friends will help bring new prospects to your doorstep.
In the same spirit, do not forget to take referrals and testimonials for yourself. Display them on your website and on offline marketing tools (brochures, flyers, posters).
No matter which methods you use, be sure to collect as much data as possible. Obviously, a name, a phone number and an email are the minimum necessary. But you can get valuable feed-back as well. What kind of house is a potential buyer looking for, what and when does a seller put his house on the market, what does a person look for in a real estate agents and many more. Also, it may be that they know someone else on the verge of a real estate deal.
Once again, be sure to follow up and, most importantly, always ask permission to call. If an email can be deleted without too much trouble, an unexpected phone call can be annoying and you may end up losing a client.
The first and most obvious advantage of real estate farming is branding yourself as a trustworthy and savvy professional. Buying or selling a house is quite possibly the most important business transaction most people will make during their life-time. Because of that, trust and reputation are tantamount factors in choosing an agent. Real estate farming builds your image over time so it is quite probably the best way to conduct and promote your real estate enterprise.
About the Author: Amanda Smith is the content editor of the NetReal.net website. NetReal.net is a complex marketing platform that offers, among other things, the NetRealinTouch.net newsletter system http://www.netrealintouch.net. You are invited to try NetRealinTouch.net, by taking the 30-day FREE trial. articles@netreal.net
Source: www.isnare.com
|
|
|
|
|
Lowe's Home Improvement |
Retailer of a complete line of home improvement products and equipment. |
www.lowes.com |
  |
Do It Yourself Home Improvement, Repair, and Remodeling ... |
Doityourself home improvement and diy repair at DoItYourself.com. Includes diy home improvement projects, home improvement how to, home repair, ... |
www.doityourself.com |
  |
"Home Improvement" (1991) |
Home Improvement on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... |
www.imdb.com |
  |
Hometime: Home Improvement, Remodeling and Repair |
Hometime features step-by-step information to home improvement, remodeling, and repair. Projects include decks, kitchen and bathroom remodeling, landscaping ... |
www.hometime.com |
  |
Home Improvement Cyberfans |
Information on ABC's hit sitcom Home Improvement, it's cast and their acting careers. |
www.morepower.com |
  |
Home Improvement Encyclopedia |
Home repair, do-it-yourself and improvement advice for hundreds of home improvement projects. |
www.bhg.com |
  |
the home depot |
www.homedepot.com/ - 2k - Cached - Similar pages |
|
  |
Home Improvement - Do It Yourself - Home Remodeling | BobVila.com |
Home improvement projects, featured products, tip library, bulletin board, designer tools, and information about television programs hosted by Bob Vila. |
www.bobvila.com |
  |
Do It Yourself Home Improvements - Home Improvement Information ... |
Research do-it-yourself improvements with home improvement information from our website. Search home repair articles by subject, task or location. |
www.bobvila.com |
  |
Energy Star Home Improvement Toolbox |
Improve Your Energy Efficiency at Home. Use our Home Improvement Toolbox to save money and help protect the environment without sacrificing comfort. |
www.energystar.gov |
  |
Home Tips: The Web's Most Helpful Home Improvement and Repair Site |
Free home improvement advice, great remodeling tips, and appliance buying guides by leading home improvement authority, DIY expert and HGTV personality, ... |
www.hometips.com |
  |
HGTV : Decorating, Remodeling, Home Improvement & Gardening Ideas ... |
Take a fresh approach to the way you live with HoFind ideas and inspiration from HGTV's videos to transform your home through decorating, home improvement, ... |
www.hgtv.com |
  |
Home Improvement - Decks, Flooring, Lighting, Tiling, Renovations ... |
Do-it-yourself home improvement projects and home improvement videos for decks, flooring, lighting, tiling, renovations and more, plus tips and step-by-step ... |
www.diynetwork.com |
  |
Home Improvement TV Show - Home Improvement Television Show - TV.com |
Home Improvement TV Show, TV.com is your reference guide to Home Improvement Show. Episode guide, photos, videos, cast and crew information, forums, ... |
www.tv.com |
  |
Home Improvement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
From the outset of Season 2, Tim and Al would make a theme of a particular home improvement project or item on Tool Time by hosting a week long "salute" to ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Home Improvement Archive |
Home Improvement Archive -- Episode Guide, scripts, articles, and much more! |
www.hiarchive.co.uk |
  |
Free Home Improvement Contractor Matching Service and Resources ... |
Be matched with qualified and screened, expert contractors in your area in seconds with no obligation now. Improvenet offers the largest free contractor ... |
www.improvenet.com |
  |
DIY Home Improvement, home repair Tips |
DIY home improvement, remodeling, house repairs and maintainance Help Center...How To instructions for all your projects. |
www.alsnetbiz.com |
  |
Amazon.com: Home Improvement: Electrical, Plumbing, Hardware ... |
Online shopping for Home Improvement from a great selection of Tools & Hardware; Electrical, Plumbing, Hardware, Heating & Cooling, Building Materials ... |
www.amazon.com |
  |
Home Improvement |
AsktheBuilder.com: Build and remodel your home the right way. Learn how the master craftsmen of old built things to last. |
www.askthebuilder.com |
  |
|