Real Estate Marketing Blog

The Hottest Niche In Real Estate

What real estate niche is still selling like hotcakes? Luxury in pretty much any industry the high end is impervious to any market. They have the credit and the equity to stay fluid.

So what to do in the rest of the markets? Well, ramp up your marketing and your persona as marketing expert Dave Lakhani said in his podcast.

Allow me to repeat what I learned from Mike Ferry almost 20 years ago.

The best priced home will sell. If you list, the house better be the best priced home in the area. Or you and the house is gonna' sit. Tell the truth and your prospects will appreciate you. The ones that can wait it out will appreciate that they don't have to have people trampling thru their home anymore.

The ones that must sell will know the bitter pill they have to swalllow. And like a Doctor telling a patient they have cancer, you may not like it, but you sure will feel better when you get them out from underneath a whole lotta stress. And it will be because you had the courage to tell them the truth.

Another Winner

Congratulations to Bill Arce for our favorite contribution to http://www.houseblogger.com last week. As part of our Garage Sale Linking program, Bill wins Super Crunching.

Bill helps run Real Estate Latino. This is an emerging demographic that is overtaking most any other demographic in America. So great job Bill on your website, and we look forward to watching you grow.

This week we have a new offering. The book giveaway is Real Estate A La Carte.  If websites like Redfin.com, ForSaleByOwner.com and others have not made you stand up and take notice. Perhaps this book will.

The premise is that the consumer just wants their house sold. And that because of the flow of information, the full fee agency is not necessary. Thus, to compete the author suggests breaking up your commissions into a menu of services. Much like a lawyer might charge.

As Stefan Swanepoel  and I discussed in Part 2 of our interview series, your real estate industry is in an internal debate for standards. Much like Beta and VHS, or DVD and Blue Rey. For the first time ever, it is within the realm of possibility of the MLS being replaced.

Where the pendulum lands is anyones guess. However, if you are in this business it is best to get all sides. This is why Stefan's resource is so important, and fee for service approach is important to know even if you disagree with the model. As they say, "keep your friends close, your enemies closer."

The Riches are in the -Rich Niche-

A September poll by PNC Wealth Management says:

...nearly 60% of ultrahigh-net-worth investors are expressing optimism about their portfolios for the coming year..and 4% of investors with $10 million or more of investable assets surveyed expressed pessimism.."

Interestingly the less rich are more pessimistic:

Foreclosure Niche

Despite the terrific foreclosure figures last month that showed an 8% decline, it still is a great niche to get yourself involved with. NOD's , Shortsales, and Repos offer tremendous listings and sales possibilities.

I am curious.

Can you let me know what kind of niche you specialize in, if any specific niche at all?

Use the comment link below:

Newspapers Are the Preferred Medium for Affluent Empty Nesters

This reminds me of the conflicting health information that is out there. Eggs are bad, then they are good for you type thing. More importantly, I think it shows the diversity of niches that an agent can target. However, before you  jump back into that cholesterol rich newspaper ad campaign, the subhead of the report says:

Newspapers & Internet Dominate Media Interests Of Empty Nesters

From Media Audit:

The seventeen million empty nesters in the 87 markets surveyed regularly by The Media Audit are 45 or older and very affluent, indexing about 100 points above the market average of 100 in almost every income category beyond $50,000.

Annual household income categories and indexes are:

• $50,000 - $74,999, index 221
• $75,000 - $99,999, index 202
• $100,000 - $149,999, index 196
• $150,000 or more, index 179

Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., notes that "The media habits of the affluent empty nesters are dominated by newspapers and the Internet." According to the report, more than 27 percent spend an hour or more each day reading a newspaper (index 159) and 38.7 percent spend 430 minutes or more each week on the Internet (index 107). Radio, television and direct mail all index at less than 100 with the affluent empty nesters.

Almost one fifth of the people who plan on spending more than $30,000 for their next automobile are affluent empty nesters, 50% more than the average. And those who ate out at least four times during the last two weeks (at a sit-down restaurant) also index at 152.

Other findings from the report include:

• 35% (index 123) of the affluent empty nesters plan to take an ocean cruise during the next 2-3 years
• 33.9% (index 130) visited a gambling casino at least once during the past year
• More than 37% (index 114) made five or more purchases on the Internet during the past year
• 20.1% (index 114) made 12 or more purchases on the Internet.
• Approximately 62.8% (index 104) spend $100 or more weekly at the supermarket
• 33.6 percent (index 100) spend $150 or more there.

How Far is too Far?

Agents get realty websites & real estate blogs. But this agent is using tradional media with a twist.

They say sex sells. Well that's as far as I will go on this "family" website. Check it out.

Hispanics to Buy 3 M Homes

By the end of the decade, Hispanics will buy some 3 million homes, according to former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. In fact Cisneros hopes to sell much of those homes thru his company.

Can anyone say the "riches are in the niches"? This Hispanics/Latinos are one of the three most underserved real estate niches (in my opinion).

Real Estate Niche Marketing

Niche marketing is about finding an underserved market and then entering the conversation going on in their head.

A recent story in the NY Daily News identified a number of real estate segments that are not only underserved, they are disserved.

"The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that one in five African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians experience discrimination in housing transactions."

These segments are rising in population and income. In fact, a little known tidbit is that educated, African American, two-income earning households out earn the same White household. These segments are starving. Do you see an opportunity?

Niche Real Estate Marketing

SpiderJuice Technologies can help you discover your online niche real estate market.

More reasons to attach yourself to the hispanic real estate market:

• The population of Hispanics will grow to 103 million by 2050.
• Currnetly 1:8 americans is Hispanic: 66% from Mexico, 14.5% form Central of south america, 9% Puerto Rico & 4% Cuba.
• Some say that 90% of Financial Services growth will come from the hispanic marketplace.
• Worth $200 Billion in new business next year.
• Hispanic owned businesses will grow 55% by 2010.
• Purchasing power will grow by $12 Trillion by 2010. (Bigger than Mexico's GDP)

SEO Marketing

There are people in this world that sit around and track web visitor eye balls. The motivation is acutally quite useful to you and I.

If you know where visitors like to peek at first. You will put your most powerful message there.

A joint eye tracking study conducted by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it.com and eye tracking firm Eyetools has shown that, during a search, the vast majority of eye activity focuses on a "golden triangle."

After using Google search result pages, researchers found that visibility dropped quickly in the organic rankings, from 100% for the top listing, to 85% at the bottom of the "above the fold" listings. Visibility fell below the fold, from 50% at the top to 20% at the bottom.

They also found that side-bar sponsored ads, that the top ranked results received much more in the way of both eye activity and click through than did those that followed. About 50% of participants looked at the top ad, while only 10% looked at ads in the 6, 7 or 8th position on the page.