How Real Estate Pros Find Niche Markets

Specializing in Particular Business Niche Areas Helps Develop Business Reputation

Real Estate is a hugely competitive landscape, but discovering and nurturing a niche market can help busy real estate professionals gain an edge over the competition. By focusing on a specific sweet spot in the market, studying market demographics, customer needs and geographically specific data, real estate agents can really develop a market that is lucrative for them. Focusing on a small, well-defined yet underserved segment of the market may create a profit center that may define most of your sales.

If you’re serious about pursuing a specific niche, it’s also worth exploring whether there are opportunities for you to gain additional training  or licensing in order to become a certified expert in that niche.

Possible Niche Focus Areas

If you haven’t already identified a niche market, consider some of these examples to help give you some ideas:

• Seniors: There are over 65 million aging Baby Boomers in this country who are near or over the age of 65, representing about one-third of the entire U.S. population and controlling about three-quarters of our national wealth.
• First-Time Home Buyers: New buyers have access to extraordinary loan rates, technological tools and other resources and represent over 30 percent of all home sales.
• Multicultural Buyers: The diversification of America has dominated the national Presidential debates and multicultural families are one of the fastest-rising demographics in America.
• Luxury-Home Buyers: If it fits your community, this can be an incredible niche to discover. In Atherton, California, a bedroom community just north of Stanford, the average home price is over $20 million.
• Generation X: 44 million Gen X-ers still want to be left to their own devices, but they’re also at an age where they represent the next major home buying demographic. They also buy homes at an earlier age than their parents did.
• Internet-powered Home Buyers: It’s a digital world and it makes sense that nearly all home buyers now use the Internet, apps and other technological tools to search for homes. If you can demonstrate a cutting-edge understanding of these tools and be truly responsive to potential buyers, you can carve out a really great niche for your real estate business.

These are just a few of the major niche opportunities that are possible in the modern day real estate market. You may decide that your particular niche is a neighborhood you love, or an emerging community that is sourcing professionals to hot markets like Silicon Valley (e.g., the formerly agrarian community of Gilroy, California, where engineers and coders are now making their homes). You can also decide to target certain types of buyers, such as retired golfers, soccer moms, or young professional couples. Essentially, your niche should be large enough to provide a healthy and lucrative pipeline of customers but small enough for you to demonstrate your expertise.

Learn more about how a Home Warranty can save homeowners from unpleasant financial surprises and add value to your business.