Some real estate agents are under the impression that “farming a neighborhood” is simply just mailing out flyers and postcards to homes in a neighborhood, but it’s so much more than that! Well, let’s review real quick…
“Classic” Farming Strategies & Ideas:
· Sending direct mail (i.e. postcards, flyers, coupons, freebies)
· Door-knocking (i.e. for an open house, canned food-drive, charity event)
· Neighborhood events (i.e. holiday potluck, football party, shred-it event)
· Email blasts (i.e. monthly market reports, neighborhood news)
· Neighborhood phone calls (i.e. real estate cold calls)
Some “New-Age” Farming Strategies & Ideas:
· Use the app, Nextdoor, to position yourself as the neighborhood expert
· Create a neighborhood Facebook page for your farm & post engaging content
· Record and interview local shops, restaurants, and other businesses and post them on you social media platforms
· Run targeted Facebook Ads to your neighborhood in order to generate your own leads, stay top-of-mind, and promote local events that you host.
I teach a class called, “New-Age Farming,” where I share ideas, resources, and strategies to help real estate agents more effectively farm… thus saving them money and time. Although I’d love to cover EVERYTHING on farming, today I want to focus on 2 important topics:
Predictive Analytics
Targeted Facebook Advertisements
Predictive Analytics
Too many agents are wasting A LOT of time & money by focusing on homes that won’t sell anytime soon. If you’re planning to knock on every door or call every phone number in your farm… you’re doing it wrong!
At the very least, you should be filtering out…
Renters (non-owner occupied) homes
Anyone who recently bought a home (i.e. the last 24 to 36 months)
Now, let’s talk about predictive analytics! Predictive analytics companies make it easy for agents to target the homes most likely to sell in the next 12 to 24 months. Predictive analytics models study neighborhoods and analyze current and historical facts to make predictions on who is most likely to sell their home soon.
Are predictive analytics always accurate? No.
Do predictive analytics companies allow you to filter out the homes least likely to sell… thus saving you time and money on your farming efforts? Yep!
If you’re planning to farm a neighborhood, I highly recommend investing in a predictive analytics company (it will pay off!).
Targeted Facebook Advertisements
The two key ingredients to farming a neighborhood are:
1.) Consistent brand reinforcement
In order to build and maintain a real estate farm, you need to have your audience thinking about you constantly!
2.) Reaching your audience on as many mediums of communication as possible
In order to build and maintain a real estate farm, you need to have your audience thinking about you constantly!
Example #1: A senior citizen is more likely to read your direct mail postcard versus a millennial
Example #2: A millennial may not call you back on the phone, but they may respond back via text message
So… how do you easily focus on these two important farming components? Facebook Ads. I love Facebook advertising because you can set up a “Facebook Ad Funnel” and have it “run on autopilot” for you. What’s the best part about Facebook Ads? You can reach your exact audience & spend $1.00 per day.
Don’t believe your neighborhood is on Facebook…?
As of March 2018, Facebook has 2.2+ billion monthly active users on its site.
With the exception of people older than 65 years old, over half of Americans in every age bracket say that they are on Facebook.
Facebook is most popular with millennials
Most adults log on Facebook everyday
“Facebook Ads Don’t Work”
It is far too often that sit down with a real estate agent and they’ll tell me, “Facebook Ads don’t work!” It’s because they’re doing it wrong… and I know how to fix their problem.
Come To My Next Class!
If you’re curious to learn more about farming, predictive analytics, or Facebook Ads, I encourage you to contact me I’ll invite you to my next class!
Jerad Larkin
303.630.9430