You Can't Get Everybody - Why Not Get Those You Do the Best With

By James Kimmons, About.com

Many of the most successful real estate professionals are those who identified a real estate niche market and tailored their services and marketing to that group. It could be buyers, sellers, multi-family, commercial, ethnic, or any of a great number of groups segregated by property type, personal attributes or location.

When real estate blogging is discussed, one of its advantages is touted to be the ability to get your personality out there. Your site visitors can gradually come to know you from your blog posts. Most successful real estate bloggers put their personality into their subjects. It is definitely true that it helps in building a long term audience for your blog.

Your blog posts can also carve out a real estate niche market. And it might surprise you to know that it may happen without your planning or conscious effort. I recently picked up a new buyer client. Here is how the situation developed:

• The Recommendation - A local attorney recommended that an out of state acquaintance check out my website (WordPress blog).
• The Reason - The attorney is a part time real estate investor, and he had become a regular reader of my detailed market statistics. The prospect was also an investor with similar interests.
• The Prospect's Actions - The prospect apparently extensively investigated my site over the period of about a week, contacting me by email and phone after that.
• The Results - We are working together online, with a buying trip scheduled two weeks away.

In discussions with the buyer, he made it clear that I was his firm choice in the market because of what he read on my blog. He found extensive statistics, and "a no-nonsense and direct approach to market assessment." Those were his words which he explained as meaning I didn't "puff up" the market, instead being very realistic and approaching the purchase of real estate as an investment decision, even for a vacation home.

The reason that this is important to me is that this is the very type of prospect I get along well with, and usually they have decisive attitudes. We always move at a fast pace, research done in advance, and decisions are made quickly, as data is complete on the front end. I would much rather deal with this type of buyer than any other. So, without really thinking about it, I was placing content on my site that appealed to this person. And, looking back, I realized that most of my buyer clients were professionals, usually in a hurry, and always analytical.

As my goals do not include assistants or agents working under me, this accidental development of a niche is perfect. It doesn't mean I don't get other buyer types, but I do lose some to "prettier" sites or those with very different slants on their content. But, it's fine with me. I get enough business, and it's usually with the type of client that best suits my personality and abilities.