How to Win Big at Geofarming

Use These 3 Strategies and Keep Playing

For those who may not be familiar with geofarming real estate, it’s one of a long list of prospecting strategies whereby a real estate agent targets their marketing at a specific geographic location. The goal is to brand your business to the extent that when an agent is needed, people in that area (your farm) recognize you as the local expert and call you first.

A second time of farming is demographic farming. In this type of farming, an agent targets their marketing at a niche. It could be rental properties, luxury homes, homes that sell for $499.99K, or some other subset of the real estate market.

An agent could also do both, layering geofarming over demofarming. For example, an agent could target starter homes in zip code 12345.

Why try geofarming?

Geofarming, from a practical perspective, allows you to focus your attention on one area.

First, there’s a finite distance you need to travel. Alone, this lowers all sorts of operating costs.

Second, it’s easier to become the local expert on school districts, communities activities, and local businesses when you have a limited number of them to learn. Knowing the “inside scoop” gives you a great advantage over any outside agent.

With geofarming, you can also more easily heighten your visibility. If the majority of front yards with for sale signs feature you and your business, the concentration suggests your popularity and expertise. That kind of authority attracts leads.

The same can be said for every time you walk the neighborhood to show a home. You become recognizable to those who live in the area—the bank teller, the post office clerk, the restaurant owner, and more.

And, of course, there are the leads.

But be warned—you must have patience. When you invest in geofarming, you need to be prepared to wait. If you decide after two or three months that it isn’t working, then not only do you not know enough about how marketing works, but you also will lose the money you’ve already invested—along with the prospects whose attention you have, but who may not be ready to buy or sell at the moment.

As is the case with agricultural farming, you’re planting the seeds that will grow to produce leads. Seeds planted today do not produce fruit tomorrow. You should not expect to have a return on your investment for nine months to a year.

Even so, once the word is out, your seeds could produce a bumper crop of clients.

Strategies that make geofarming profitable

At this point, you can probably anticipate what the first strategy is.

Be consistent

Whatever method or methods you use to market to your farm, the most important strategy is to be consistent. Create a schedule and stick to it.

Two recommended schedules are to send some type of content:

• one time a week for eight weeks
• one time a month for 12 months

Create an impact

Whatever content you send to your farm, it should support one of the three Es: It should be educational, entertaining, or endearing. Why?

First, if it isn’t educational, entertaining, or endearing then it likely doesn’t provide any value. Something with no value gets tossed into the trash can.

Second, when something creates an impact, it becomes memorable. Providing value in a consistent manner makes an impact. And you want to be remembered!

Did you know that 75% of buyers interviewed only one real estate agent during their home search?[1] If you’re not the first agent a lead thinks of, then it’s very likely you’re out of the running from the get go.

Follow up multiple times

The numbers vary, but they more or less tell one story (and it has a bad ending):

• About 80% of all sales are made after 5-12 follow up calls.
• More than half of all salespeople give up trying to reach a prospect after the second call.

If you are not making a sufficient number of follow up calls, you are leaving money on the table. Period.

As a final piece of advice, do your homework before selecting an area. There is no point, for example, farming a zip code where the turnover rate of properties is too low. Similarly, if you want to work with luxury homeowners, don’t farm an area where the average income level doesn’t support a luxury lifestyle.

Key Points

• Be consistent in your farming. Do it for at least 12 months and expect a year with no return.
• Offer value. Provide your farm with something educational, entertaining, or endearing.
• Follow up: Be proactive and contact the people in your farm. Your goal is to get face-to-face.

Action Item

Choose 250-500 contacts and farm to them for a minimum of 9-12 months. Be consistent, offer value, and follow up.

Connect | Resources

• Episode 84 with Bubba Mills
• Webinar: Geographic Farming

[1] National Association of Realtors®, Highlights From the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, Accessed October 23, 2020, https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/highlights-from-the-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers#buyingprofessionals.