Personalization is Key for Successful Real Estate Farming
We often write on our blog about the importance of simply staying in touch with prospects and remaining top of mind. Many purchase decisions are made unpredictably when an opportunity arises, or when circumstances change without notice. When those changes occur, the agent that reached out most recently is often the first phone call or text message.
While frequency is important, it’s also key to demonstrating genuine interest in your prospect’s personal life, goals, and developments. Developing a connection beyond mere service and brand awareness is crucial for earning client loyalty in the long run.
In this article, we’ll focus on how to show personal interest and cultivate long-term relationships specifically through creative real estate farming ideas.
6 Top Creative Real Estate Farming Ideas
1. Seasonal Postcards
Instead of sending the same old, stale messages on your real estate postcards every month, try referencing the start or close of a season. Increase your relevance by pointing out how home buying and selling trends often change throughout different seasons.
This can be especially effective during the Spring and Summer seasons as homeowners (and prospective buyers) are often gearing up to make a big change! A good rule of thumb is that warmer weather means the market is heating up, and cooler weather means a slowdown is coming soon.
2. Handwritten Note
As effective as printed postcards and flyers are, they pale in comparison to a note that’s written by hand. Now, sitting down and writing 300 notes by hand isn’t feasible – it's not like these people came to your wedding!
But, this could be an extremely effective tactic when used on your hottest target leads (especially if you’ve spoken with them in person, or helped them previously buy/sell). When writing a personal note, try to refrain from asking anything of your prospects. Instead, stick to a simple reminder that you’ve been thinking about them. People appreciate thoughtful references without the expectation of direct response or follow-up action.
3. Send Personal Messages on Social media Platforms
Handwritten notes are the perfect personal touch for some people, but others love a simple message on Facebook or Instagram. Though it used to be true that only younger people use social media, the demographics on most major platforms are now distributed more evenly across age groups. Plus, it’s easy to look up one specific prospect and add them on a particular social media site.
Like with handwritten notes, your message shouldn’t solicit a meeting or direct response. Instead, you could easily reference something from a post they recently shared, or something that happened in the local community. Let your prospects respond however they see fit – if they are considering making a change then they will likely let you know.
4. Celebrate Personal Success for Your Prospects
It can sometimes feel hard to maintain an active social media presence. Here’s a quick tip: Stop thinking about yourself! Try taking a few weeks to monitor what’s happening with people in your farming territory. What personal achievements, events, or significant occurrences can you celebrate with them?
Sharing their information in a celebratory post is a great way to build rapport and stay in front of your digital community without always talking about yourself. People always appreciate being recognized or supported online, and focusing on others is an easy way to maintain a high level of activity without constantly developing new content.
5. Design a Survey That Your Prospects Can Take Online
Do your prospects know what they are looking for? Do you know what types of questions they are asking? There are tons of online survey and quiz tools that you can easily use to build a helpful “do-it-yourself" vetting process for important topics like:
- Is now the right time to move?
- What type of home is best for me?
- Should I sell by owner or use an agent?
A well-built survey can be used on your social media profiles, website, emails, and more. It's a fun, interactive, and helpful way to establish your expertise on certain topics. Plus, creating useful self-serve tools is a great way to organically attract prospects to your email lists, website, etc.
6. Become the Go-To Online Resource for Your Farming Territory
Your website can easily become much more than a repository of active listings. By consistently writing about important topics to your community, you can become a sought-after resource for everything from real estate topics to local news.
Here are just a few examples of topics you could likely cover with some authority:
- The hottest neighborhoods in your county.
- Any important issues affecting zoning, development, or taxes for your farming territory.
- Reviews of the best restaurants, bars, or family destinations in your town.
- Common renovations or issues to look for when considering a home to purchase in your area.
- Organic SEO traffic plus happy email subscribers are just some of the benefits you can realize from this approach.
Conclusion
Remember that consistency is key. It might be tempting to undertake all of these ideas in one month, but that’s a quick path to burnout. Part of what makes an impact on clients is your ability to maintain personal contact over time – they are likely to take notice as you remain persistent even if they aren’t responding.
Lastly, it’s important to emphasize that these farming strategies don’t only apply to prospects. Happy and impressed clients are highly likely to make valuable referrals if you periodically take time to conduct personal outreach. Just because a sale closes doesn’t mean you should lose touch!
