If you are a real estate agent, then you are constantly on the hunt for your next client. A fact of life in real estate sales is that if you don’t have someone committed to working with you on a sale of a home or a purchase of a home then you are out of business.
There are many ways to find clients ranging from free to expensive. Some methods will produce large numbers of potential clients and others produce small amounts. The one that works best for you is one that meets these two tests:
- It’s effective. It produces a steady stream of potential clients
- You enjoy doing it so much that you will do it every day!
There are numerous books, videos and classes on different prospecting techniques, so I am not going to revisit them here. Instead I want to focus on planning and researching who you are looking to find.
I want to offer a couple of resources that you may not be thinking about as you decide on what to do, how to do it and who your ideal client may be!
The first is the US Census. If you go to http://www.census.gov you will find a ton of useful things including infographics, reports, charts, tables and more that you can use in farming and web site content as well as information to help you decide on areas that you might want to concentrate your work on!
If you are on the go, visit the App store on your iPhone or the Google Play Store on your Android phone and search “census”. You’ll find some very useful apps that will help you visualize the data.
Keep Fair Housing Laws in mind as you use this information, but much of the data that you can glean is Fair Housing neutral.
Another truly great resource to help you decide who your ideal client is can be found at http://www.PewResearch.org. These folks are continuously surveying people on a variety of topics.
One report that I especially like is: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/02/millennials-stand-out-for-their-technology-use-but-older-generations-also-embrace-digital-life/
This report has produced some great charts that may help you decide on how to best reach these potential new clients.
The other report that I found very useful is http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/
This one will help you decide which social media platform to use if you choose to find new clients using social media.
So, the moral of this story is simply this: Look to non traditional sources to help you gain a competitive advantage.
A competitive advantage is definitely needed these days and you really need to make sure that you have one!
