{"id":962,"date":"2025-04-22T15:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T15:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/av-forums.net\/?p=962"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T11:27:14","slug":"real-estate-farming-how-to-become-the-go-to-agent-in-your-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/av-forums.net\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/real-estate-farming-how-to-become-the-go-to-agent-in-your-neighborhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Estate Farming: How to Become the Go-to Agent in Your Neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my experience, farming for your real estate business can be one of the most lucrative and dependable lead generation strategies for agents. It\u2019s easy to get started and reasonably inexpensive \u2014 just think about it this way: your commission from selling just one home could pay for your farming efforts throughout the year. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll walk you through our detailed approach to farming, outline the costs involved, and review all the tools you\u2019ll need.<\/p>\n

What is farming in real estate?<\/h2>\n

Real estate farming is a lead generation and marketing strategy agents use to generate consistent business from a specific geographic area.<\/p>\n

Agents \u201cfarm\u201d a specific neighborhood by providing consistent value while cultivating relationships and generating leads that evolve into long-term clients. This practice also helps build a reliable business. Ultimately, the goal is to become the local expert and go-to agent for a particular geographic area.<\/p>\n

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\"\ud83d\udccc\"   Pro Tip<\/h3>\n

Geographic farming is not to be confused with demographic farming, where you focus marketing efforts on a set of people such as first-time homebuyers, seniors, military personnel, or even equestrians or golfers. You can read more about great real estate niches here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How to approach real estate farming: 4 steps<\/h2>\n
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There are four basic steps to real estate farming \u2014 by staying on track with these, you\u2019re close to establishing a sustainable lead generation strategy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

1. Target the Right Neighborhood<\/h3>\n
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The success of your farming strategy depends on choosing the right area. A good farm includes between 100 and 250 homes, but note that each home you add to your farm increases your budget. You\u2019re looking for consistency, and this can quickly rack up costs.<\/p>\n

Many agents start with too many homes, can\u2019t keep up, and drop their farming efforts after only a few months. Keep your farm small to maximize your effect and lead generation probability.<\/p>\n

Using some easy napkin math, find an area where there\u2019s healthy demand and where homes are actively listed for sale with a solid turnover rate. There is no point in farming an area that isn\u2019t very active.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Computing for the turnover rate<\/h4>\n

To get the rate of homes sold\/turnover rate, look back 12 months to see how many homes were listed for sale in your farming area, and how many sold. You can find this information in Zillow or your multiple listing service (MLS). We want to know the rate of homes sold to tell us how many months of inventory are in this neighborhood. Take your time frame (let\u2019s say, one year or 365 days) and divide that by the number of homes sold.<\/p>\n

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For example, if there were 16 homes sold in your farm over the last year, we can divide 365\/16 to get 22.8. So now we know that for your farm area, the rate of homes sold is roughly 23 days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Stick with me to get the absorption rate. To do this, we\u2019ll multiply the number of homes sold by the rate of homes sold.<\/p>\n

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Sticking with the example above, let\u2019s say there are two active listings in your farm. So we will do 2 x 22.8 = 45.6 (or about 1.5 months). That\u2019s a reasonable absorption rate \u2014 the average varies, but as a quick rule, you\u2019re looking for less than three months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Now you know that the current market conditions of the farm you\u2019ve chosen are pretty hot \u2014 as long as market conditions remain consistent. <\/p>\n

Next, gather information on your farm area and get to know the market backward and forward. In addition to understanding average sales prices and days on market (DOM), you\u2019ll need to know the average age and income of homeowners, typical home styles and age, local employers, upcoming developments, zoning and permitting regulations, neighborhood amenities, and other local agents who might be competition. Use the tools at your disposal, like your local MLS and market reports from a place like Altos Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arming yourself with neighborhood knowledge will immediately help you stick out when you get a lead from your efforts.<\/p>\n

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2. Plan how & when to deliver value to your farm<\/h3>\n
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Agents crushing the neighborhood farming game deliver consistent value to residents in their farm areas. Successful outreach is more than papering the neighborhood with your branded message. It\u2019s about offering something helpful to locals, like a market report, local event, social media group, or a neighborhood website.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Stand out with your ads and use vibrant, clear, and eye-catching visuals that get your business noticed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This neighborhood strategy goes a long way in easily establishing you as the local expert. It\u2019s also easy to do \u2014 once a month, send out your postcards to your farm<\/a>. We like PostcardMania for this because their designs are simple. Try to include images of the recently sold homes\u2014your farm will recognize the homes and they will come to associate you with the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\n Check out PostcardMania<\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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3. Make a plan to manage & track your leads<\/h3>\n
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Your real estate farming leads differ from those you pay for or capture on your website, so be sure you\u2019re tracking them separately. A solid customer relationship manager (CRM) allows you to tag farm contacts individually, as well as automate digital communication like email or text messages. It also creates a record of the value you\u2019ve delivered over the life of your farming activity. Plus, you can carefully track each reply to ensure you promptly follow up at every point of contact.<\/p>\n

Check out all our top CRM picks in our guide to the best real estate CRMs<\/a>. One of our top picks for the best overall real estate CRM is LionDesk (powered by Lone Wolf Technologies) \u2014 it\u2019s affordable and packed with real estate-specific features ideal for farming.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n Visit LionDesk<\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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4. Start delivering value<\/h3>\n
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You\u2019ve chosen the right farm area, made a plan to deliver consistent value, and set up a system to manage and track your interactions. Now it\u2019s time to set up your automated communications and send out high-touch outreach with postcards and market updates.<\/p>\n

Successfully farming a territory combines long-term automated communication and smart, day-by-day personal follow-up. As we\u2019ve said, staying consistent is key \u2014 and you should start to hear from your potential clients after a few months. However, if you treat farming as a set-it-and-forget-it strategy, you won\u2019t be as effective.<\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019ve set up your strategy, it\u2019s time to go outside the box \u2014 think neighborhood events, knocking on doors<\/a>, and circle prospecting your farm. We\u2019ll dive into that next. But that\u2019s all to say: If you\u2019re active in the communities you serve, your clients (and your wallet) will thank you.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Are you looking for more clever real estate marketing ideas<\/a> to up your game? We\u2019ve got you.<\/p>\n

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\"\ud83d\udccc\"   Pro Tip<\/h3>\n

Market Leader is a tool you can use to help automate real estate processes from the beginning stages of lead generation, all the way to closing a deal. Its lead intel functionality can track and analyze behaviors of your contacts and alert you to potential hot leads based on their activities. You\u2019ll also get a committed number of exclusive leads from your area. Additionally, Market Leader can help you automate marketing campaigns, seamlessly integrate with social media, manage your own branded website with MLS listings, and more. <\/p>\n

Visit Market Leader<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How much does it cost to get started? <\/h2>\n

So yes, unfortunately, there will be a cost to getting started. But if done right, your efforts can pay off tenfold! And while it can be tempting to cheap out on products and services, sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Try to keep that in mind, as you may not get a sufficient return on investment with less expensive offerings. <\/p>\n

Startup costs for everyone will vary. However, I\u2019ve run through the numbers for what I would consider a fairly typical real estate farming operation of 250 homes. The bottom line estimate comes out to around $11,000, broken down as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Regularly scheduled postcards (250 \u00d7 8 = 2,000; estimated cost $1\/card)<\/td>\n$2,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
On-demand property status postcards (250 \u00d7 12 months = 3,000; estimated cost $1\/postcard)<\/td>\n$3,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quarterly letters (250 \u00d7 4 = 1,000; estimated cost $1\/letter)<\/td>\n$1,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Door hangers for your annual door-knocking session (250 @ $2\/piece)<\/td>\n$500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Neighborhood website (e.g., Parkbench)<\/td>\n$3,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Farm-specific content for your website<\/td>\nFREE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
One sponsored event<\/td>\n$1,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n$11,000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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We go into each tool and how to use each one for your farming strategy in the <\/em>next section<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Understandably, $11,000 as an estimated startup cost can be an alarmingly high figure, I\u2019ll give you that. But try to put it in perspective and look at the bigger picture, as farming can be a crucial part of growing your real estate business<\/a>! <\/p>\n

For instance, considering a typical home sales price of $400,000 with a standard 3% commission, that would equate to gross earnings of $12,000. In other words, getting just a single client from this farming operation would be enough to cover these startup costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Essential real estate farming tools you\u2019ll need<\/h2>\n

Having the proper tools is a key part of running an effective real estate farming operation. Many of the tools we\u2019ll cover have been mentioned in the cost estimate in the prior section. Here, I\u2019ll go through each and how they can be an effective part of your real estate farming operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Type of Tool<\/th>\nEstimated Cost<\/th>\nRecommended Update Frequency<\/th>\nPurpose<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Real estate postcards<\/strong><\/td>\n$1 per card<\/td>\n4-8 times per year<\/td>\nDirect mail to showcase expertise in your local market<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
On-demand postcards<\/strong><\/td>\n$1 per card<\/td>\nWhenever a home is listed or sold<\/td>\nProviding up-to-date information to potential clients<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Blog content<\/strong><\/td>\n$0<\/td>\nAt least monthly<\/td>\nProvide a summary of local market updates and events<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Market update letters<\/strong><\/td>\n$1 per home<\/td>\nQuarterly<\/td>\nMarket insights and updates from the past quarter<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Website<\/strong><\/td>\n$3,500+ annually<\/td>\n1-2 times monthly<\/td>\nOne-stop-shop to showcase your brand, expertise, and experience<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Door hangers<\/strong><\/td>\n$2 each<\/td>\nAnnually<\/td>\nAdded touchpoint to establish your local presence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Home value updates via email<\/strong><\/td>\n$300 annually<\/td>\nMonthly<\/td>\nKeep homeowners informed of their home value<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sponsored event<\/strong><\/td>\n$1,000+<\/td>\nAnnually<\/td>\nIn-person meet and greet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Regularly scheduled real estate postcards<\/h3>\n