Owning a niche promotes your brand, strengthens your credibility and generates quality leads
By Donna Shryer
Everyone’s buzzing about the benefits of a niche. And though it’s true that REALTORS® who set themselves apart from the competition typically enjoy more profitable careers, owning a niche takes more than claiming a specialty. It’s essential that you strategically develop a niche that generates quality leads, excites you and fills a void in your market.
“A profitable niche is essential, but if you choose solely based on financial gain, I don’t think you’ll be able to maintain the patience, determination and stamina needed to build a niche,” says Skip Kirst, CRS, and broker associate with Collado Real Estate.
Kirst’s primary niche is geographic farming, which involves focusing the majority of his marketing efforts on a specific geographic area to let clients know he’s an expert in that area. Kirst’s niche is “Bridging City and Beach,” focusing on the Orlando/Winter Park and New Smyrna Beach, Florida, markets. The two communities are located about an hour apart, which makes laidback New Smyrna Beach a natural getaway for a large part of the Orlando/Winter Park community.
Lead the way
Some REALTORS® feel that focusing on a niche means missed opportunities in other areas. Not so, says Guillermo Serafin, CRS candidate, broker, Strategic Blueprints, Inc., serving Los Angeles. Serafin specializes in pairing investors with distressed homeowners, helping the latter recover from potentially ruinous situations. He feels that owning a niche empowers your real estate lead generation efforts and generates more referrals than a “Jack of all trades and master of none” could ever hope to acquire.
In fact, Serafin feels that these specialized referrals are the way of today. “Physicians, accountants, attorneys, REALTORS®—every profession has specialists,” he says. “We expect to be referred. In my niche, people find me more often than I find them.”
Working from Springfield, Missouri, Paul Dizmang, CRS, broker-owner, Dizmang Associates, agrees. “Real estate clients gravitate to a specialist,” says Dizmang, whose niche is investment properties. “My clients don’t understand how to assess investments or navigate the process. So they ask friends for referrals. They look for a REALTOR® with my expertise.”
Happiness is contagious
Traditional wisdom says that if you find professional success, then happiness will follow. Kirst suggests it’s the opposite.
“Real estate is a relationship business. It’s critical that you enjoy working with the people and communities in your niche,” he says. “My family has lived in the Orlando/Winter Park areas since the mid-1800s. I also have a home in New Smyrna Beach. I love these communities and my roots run deeply in these areas. I understand the market, and I know many of the other professionals involved with each purchase and sale. Combining my knowledge and relationships from a 26-year legal career with my passion for real estate was key to creating my professional niche—and success followed.”
Find Your Fit
Becoming a specialist in a particular area of your real estate market is a powerful way to increase quality leads. However, before embracing any niche, consider these four points.
1. Find a niche that’s underserved and fill that void.
2. Run the numbers to determine if your niche has a strong presence in your market.
3. Choose a niche that brings you happiness; clients will sense your enthusiasm—or lack thereof.
4. Learn what concerns those in your niche and lead with this information in cold calls, website content, social gatherings, community meetings and all other marketing efforts.
It’s also important that client motivation within your niche of choice appeals to you. “My clients are investors and their motivation is intellectual,” Dizmang says. “Either the numbers make sense or they don’t. If your niche is luxury properties, client motivation is emotional. They want to fall in love with a home. Which client do you most enjoy working with? The answer tells you where you’ll probably be most successful.”
“Clients can sense when you enjoy helping them; they feel your enthusiasm,” says Bobbie Jean DeMunck, CRS, REALTOR®, Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty in Jacksonville, Florida. “My niche is for-sale-by-owner homes, and almost 90 percent of my business comes from conversions. Even sellers I don’t convert appreciate how much I care, so when they meet someone who isn’t into FSBO, I get their referral.”
Fill in the blanks
Before choosing a niche, determine if your expertise fills a void in the market. If, for instance, your specialty is baby boomers yet the median age of homeowners in your market is mid-30s, your prospects will be low. “This specialty isn’t big enough to sustain itself, and I doubt you’ll find a void to fill,” Dizmang says.
If your chosen niche doesn’t pan out, you can change your specialty or move someplace where your expertise is needed.
Relocating was the right choice for German-born Christel Silver, CRS, broker-owner of Silver International Realty, serving the east coast of south Florida. When Silver first came to the U.S., Maryland was her market. “Using my background, I advertised to real estate investors in Germany—but my idea didn’t work. Investor interest was in Florida, California and Texas.”
When Silver moved to the Sunshine State in 2001, she re-evaluated her chosen niche.
German investors remained interested in Florida and, better still, there was a void in REALTORS® serving German investors. Today, Silver owns this niche, with at least 50 percent of her business in the international arena.
Up close and personal
Marketing campaigns for different niches are at once unique and identical. Marketing content and motivational pull should be unique to your subset of clients, yet your strategies don’t have to deviate between niches.
If cold calling is your thing, lead with your desired clients’ hot button. For example, DeMunck says her FSBO clients are most worried about how to negotiate the best price possible for their home. So she focuses on her track record in this area, which is strong.
When considering local groups, associations and committees, go where those in your niche go. If your niche is the senior community, connect with local AARP offices and senior centers. In Silver’s case, she joined the German American Chamber of Commerce, a global committee for her association, a German club, and became a Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS). She was also appointed the NAR President’s Liaison to Germany. If your niche doesn’t come with obvious groups, create your own. Serafin hosts workshops for investors and distressed homeowners at the local library.
Empower your website with keywords, client-specific content and pertinent graphics. One of Silver’s tactics is an entire webpage in German. Kirst’s “Bridging City and Beach” homepage theme features a split screen: the Orlando skyline next to the New Smyrna Beach shoreline.
Ride the wave
Ironically, establishing yourself as an expert within a specific niche helps build a stronger, larger and more profitable client base outside the niche.
“When I got my real estate license, I decided to work with for sale by owners as my primary business source,” DeMunck says. “But after making a name for myself, I started getting calls from people who didn’t even know my niche. All they knew was that a friend had highly recommended me. Leads and referrals helped me branch off from where I started.”
Following this train of thought, a niche will enhance your business, but it doesn’t mean you’re locked in a box. Referrals and leads will bring new opportunities you never expected. “Run with these opportunities,” DeMunck says. “That’s how you build a lasting career.” 
Ch-ch-ch-changes
When it comes to owning a profitable niche, it’s imperative that you reassess your specialty every few years. “Niches are about life. What works today may not be prudent tomorrow,” explains Guillermo Serafin, CRS candidate, broker, Strategic Blueprints, Inc, serving the Los Angeles area. Serafin specializes in pairing investors with distressed homeowners. Prior to 2007, his niche may not have panned out. And while it’s a robust niche today, Serafin admits that it could diminish with time.
“Life” took a bite out of Sasha Farmer’s niche. As a CRS broker with Team Real Estate, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, her initial niche was first-time homebuyers. “This was back when the first-time homebuyer credit was new,” says Farmer. “When the credit was discontinued, my niche shrunk. I had to strategically morph with the times, which led me to create a new niche based on businesspersons with quality leads to share. It’s a niche indicative of the times—and growing fast.”
That doesn’t mean every niche will dwindle or disappear, although it’s fair to say that niches will shift. Today’s strongest niche in luxury homes may be beachfront property. Tomorrow it may be historic properties. In a decade, it may be three-story penthouses in major cities. Life happens, and periodically re-evaluating your niche keeps you on life’s cutting-edge.
Grow your niche with our eLearning courses—Focus on First-Time Home Buyers, For Sale By Owner or Smart Home Technologies—by searching those titles in our Education Catalog.
