If done properly, farming can be an effective lead generation tool for real estate agents. But oftentimes, it can be challenging to know where to start.

In this episode of Above the Noise, Luke shares his tips and thoughts on how you can start dominating your home turf with farming.

Video Transcription

Alright so one of the most important jobs as a real estate agent is to generate leads. So farming is literally the act of taking a target audience of people, marketing to them consistently over a long period of time to generate leads. Don’t make the mistake that farming is instant gratification. It takes time. It implies you’re growing something. You have to put in the sweat equity, you have to market to them consistently like a farmer does to reap the harvest.

Two types of farming

Alright so now that I’ve explained to you what farming is there’s really two types of farming for a real estate agent. The first is geographic location. The second is niche farming.

Geographic location is taking a specific location like a neighborhood, and targeting them. Where niche farming is going after a specific group of people like first-time homebuyers, or luxury real estate agents.

How do you choose a farm?

So now that you know there’s two different types of farming, how do you actually choose a farm? There’s really three things you should look at when choosing a farm. The first is the size.

Make sure you choose a farm that actually has enough homes to where you can generate leads. Don’t choose a farm with only 60 people. This is especially important if you’re going after a niche. Don’t make the mistake of only choosing a farm that has a couple hundred people. You need a lot of homes to generate results.

The second thing to look at is the turnover rate. Meaning how many homes are selling in this farm a year. You can get this data off the MLS but make sure you don’t choose a farm where no homes are selling because now you have no leads for your business or it’s gonna take too long to generate leads for your business.

And then the third thing you want to look at is the competition. How many agents are already going after this same farm? See farming takes a long time, it’s consistency. So, if they have a head start on you it’s gonna be an uphill battle to gain ground in that farm. It’s not impossible, but if you have the chance, choose a farm where there’s not a lot of competition.

How do you communicate with your farm?

You know how to choose a farm, how do you communicate with them, and what should you send them? So I recommend to agents you should at least be reaching out to your farm one to two times a month, a minimum of one time, which would be twelve times in a year. So, make sure you’re consistently marketing to them.

Some ideas from a marketing perspective you could send them postcards—just listed, just sold. Market reports, market updates. You could send them a newsletter. If you’re targeting a luxury niche, send them American Lifestyle magazine. It’s perfect for that niche. You can also target people through the web using social media, like Facebook, Instagram. Facebook will allow you to target locations. So anything you send in print, you can translate that online, and target that same location through a Facebook ad.

Then third, do sponsorships. If it’s a community with sports leagues, like Little League baseball, sponsor that Little League baseball team. It’s all about spreading your brand so you’re the real estate agent of choice in that farm. So, this brings me to my last point.

How do you make sure you’ve marketed effectively?

How do you make sure if you’ve marketed to your farm effectively that you’re actually generating deals for your business? This is where you have to put into practice proactive marketing versus passive marketing.

This is the secret the top producers know that separate them from mediocre producers. You must proactively reach out to your farm through door-knocking and phone calls. See if you are sending somebody something once a month imagine if you door knock once a quarter, the impact. Now they can actually put a face to what they’ve seen on your postcard. Not only that, it grows your farm exponentially because as you’re proactively reaching out you’re gonna get your first listing. And when you get your first listing, now you can host an open house in that same farm, you can do a just listed, just sold campaign where you call the closest 50 neighbors and it starts growing your brand exponentially in that farm to generate leads for your business.

The takeaway

So there you have it guys there are some tips and tricks to get you started on farming and to help you blow up your business using the farming strategy. If you like these tips, subscribe to our YouTube channel, comment below, let me know your thoughts, let me know your questions, I want to share it with our audience.

Check us out on Facebook and Instagram, but most importantly take action on this today!