Besides digital marketing, real estate agents can also experience good results through the practice of real estate farming. While the term may, at first, cause the image of a plowed field to emerge, the term, in this case, is not agricultural.
Instead, real estate farming is unique to the marketing of real estate. The process allows a real estate agent to “cultivate” leads in certain areas of his or her community. To generate interest, an agent farms a specific locale to obtain listings. Real estate farming may include sending out mailers, making cold calls, adding door hangers, and sending out farming postcards.
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Why You Should Use Postcards for Farming Real Estate
Sending real estate farming postcards provides you with ongoing leads because it positions you as the go-to agent in a community. Before you send out the postcards, you need to research an area and its neighborhoods, subdivisions, shopping, and attractions.
Once you learn this information, you can set up a plan for mailing the postcards. Real estate farming allows you to show clients where to turn if they want to buy or sell real estate.
Because most people prefer to remain in a familiar location, whether they are a renter or homeowner, they usually will contact a real estate agent who sells homes in their current neighborhood or locale. Therefore, using postcards for real estate farming makes it easy for you, as a real estate agent, to introduce your services and keep your target audience informed.
You can make farming postcards work for you in one of various ways. Use them to showcase just-listed homes, highlight closed sales listings, and feature homes under contract. You can also provide postcards that offer a snapshot of local home buying trends and statistics. Open house postcards provide yet another way to increase your authority in the real estate market.
Postcards Featuring Just Listed Properties
Real estate postcards for just-listed properties instantly capture people’s interest, as homeowners like to compare their property’s value to other homes in their community.
The postcard creates word-of-mouth referrals as people share the information with neighbors, friends, and family. People will call you, as the cards show you are the local professional to contact to list or sell their property.
Open House Postcards
Sending out postcards for open houses further establishes your expertise and influence in a geographic location. Sometimes, homeowners drop in during an open house and become future sellers – sellers who ask you to represent them in the sale of their home.
Postcards that Feature Pending Sales
You can also gain leverage as a real estate agent by sending out postcards that feature homes under contract, also called pending sales. While you cannot provide the amount of the offer on the house, you can still show the list price. Neighbors often speak to the pending seller of a house and end up becoming prospects.
Postcards for Just Sold Listings
If you send out a postcard for just-listed homes and another postcard for just-sold homes, you double your exposure. Therefore, it increases your influence locally.
Make Your Mailings Work for You
Real estate farming is one technique, especially when combined with a postcard campaign, that will give you a competitive edge as an agent. Keep your picture and name out in front of your local audience. Send out postcards regularly to increase sales and your local impact.