Tips and ideas for picking the best profitable real estate agent niche! How to pick the kinds of opportunities for a niche that will help you get more listings and make more money. Examples include academic, military and investment, as well as regular single family properties!
- 1. Luxury Home Niche – Buyers & Sellers
- 2. Move Up Niche – Buyers & Sellers
- 3. Second Home Buyers Niche
- 4. Out of Town Homeowners
- 5. Neighborhood Niches (Farms)
- 6. Medical or Academic Professionals
- 7. First Time Homebuyers and Newlyweds
- 8. Military Buyers and Sellers
- 9. College Housing Buyers
- Unique Real Estate Niches Overview
As a small business owner, a real estate agent needs to have focus to be able to have profitable niches and a reliable income! Picking one or two niche markets can be a great way to target a specific group of people who you enjoy working with.
1. Luxury Home Niche – Buyers & Sellers
Selling luxury homes is a great way to earn high commission and work with fabulous clientele.
You are going to have to get really good at navigating the world of Jumbo Loans, buying marketing in high end magazines and be willing to work closely with assistants and lawyers throughout the process.
Luxury Buyers
Focusing on luxury buyers is a little easier! You can preview all the luxury homes on the market so that you know what is in inventory and what amenities luxury buyers are looking for!
Then build a website that has video tours of luxury neighborhoods and property listings with a contact us form for prospecting!
Luxury Sellers
Luxury sellers are much harder. You are going to have to work for those big commissions by coordinating upgrades and contractors ahead of time, working with assistants and lawyers along the way.
You also have to pay up front for specialized professional photography and maybe even drone footage of the property and also pay for advertising in local or regional luxury magazines.
The sales cycle for luxury properties can be longer so you have to have the cash reserves to be able to afford to front the money for these items BEFORE you get a commission on the sale.
Double Dip Luxury
That having been said, if you can double dip the luxury market by getting the buyer for your listing or the sale side for listing and the buy side for their new property, one client can be a very lucrative customer!
2. Move Up Niche – Buyers & Sellers
This is a great niche to target because you can use the tax records to prospect for sellers!
For this niche you want to find people who are selling a smaller home to move up to bigger house, giving you two sides of commission at least… the sell side on the listing and the buy side on the move up house.
How To Find Move Up Buyers or Sellers
The way you find these sellers is to do real estate farming (more about this later) by searching the tax records for owners in starter neighborhoods that have owned their homes for 7 years or more.
These are people on the cusp of moving and will be a great prospect pool of sellers to focus on!
3. Second Home Buyers Niche
If you live in a popular second home area (like we are here in Florida) you can target clients who live in other parts of the country AND who are in a high income range that might like to own a second home.
To do this you would have a website with tour videos of the best second home neighborhoods, great second home listings and then a contact us form to capture leads.
How To Find Second Home Buyers
Then you will advertise your website and services in cities and areas where most of your incoming buyers live.
In Florida we get many second home buyers from New York and Chicago. This means you could advertise in papers from those regions or do Facebook geo-targeted to high income earners in those locations,
4. Out of Town Homeowners
For this one we are back to the tax records!
You want to do a search for homeowners that are non-occupants. This means that they are either a second home owner or that the property is an investment to be used for rentals.
Because they don't have that “home” connection, many of them may choose to sell that home if they need money for other things or if it becomes to hard to manage.
How to Find Out of Town Homeowners
You can mail them real estate postcards on a regular basis to remind them you are a Real Estate Agent specializing in investment and income properties (even if you are just starting out!)
For this kind of niche you are going to want to be comfortable doing video calls and online signatures as your out-of-town sellers aren't going to fly in every time you need something signed!
5. Neighborhood Niches (Farms)
Before we talked about doing a niche of move up buyers which is a kind of farm, but there are lots of kinds of farms you can focus on!
A gal I know has made a very good living focusing on just two condo complexes. She is the “go-to” Realtor for these luxury properties and she is involved in almost every sale, from either the buyer side or the seller side.
For farming you are going to want to build a database where you “collect” seller information and communicate with them via mail, door knocking, or geo-targeting on social media.
Starting Your Real Estate Farm
Then you will build a website that has information about the neighborhood, condo complex or even type of property (waterfront, mountain, golf communities). You should have video tours, MLS info and a contact form.
Additional Resource: Find out more about real estate farming!
6. Medical or Academic Professionals
If you are in a town with a big academic or medical facility, you can work that niche easily!
There are constantly people moving in and out as their positions change and they need to buy and sell frequently.
Prospecting Academic or Medical Niches
To do this kind of niche you have to make connections within the college or medical center. Generally they will have an office dedicated to facilitating these moves and may even buy or sell homes for their workers.
If you are trying this one, don't get discouraged if you find out there is already a real estate agent they use regularly! Simply stay in contact with the the people in the offices and let them know you are available to help if they ever need a backup!
7. First Time Homebuyers and Newlyweds
If you love working with young people, for sure this is a great niche! Helping someone get their first home is a super rewarding feeling and provides for a great lifetime value customer!
Additional Resource :: The Lifetime Value of First Time Homebuyers
For this niche you need to know how to help them get their finances in order, work with parents and other loved ones and communicate with local government offices that can help with finances for low income buyers.
You can find this kind of buyer by mailing into apartment complexes, attending bridal expos or partnering up with wedding photographers or the local bridal store.
8. Military Buyers and Sellers
Helping military folk buy and sell houses is super rewarding and can be very lucrative.
Much like the medical or academic community, they move frequently, only living in one place for a short period of time and have structures in place to help them!
Finding A Military Niche Housing Market
That said, you are going to have to get familiar with navigating the world of VA loans and housing.
For this one you are going to have to build a website that has video tours of neighborhoods for everyone from enlisted to officers and also get in with the local base to find out how to work with these types of buyers and sellers.
9. College Housing Buyers
This is sort of like working with Academic buyers, but in more of an income property kind of way!
There are some parents who would rather buy a house for their child than pay for dorm housing for 4-5 years. This can become a rental property after their child graduates.
Finding College Housing Buyers
These buyers are generally high income earners and will be relatively easy to find with a website that talks about why buying houses as investment properties is a better idea than the dorms AND having a good knowledge about rental rules and regulations in your town.
Unique Real Estate Niches Overview
Well there you have it! All my best tips and ideas for how to choose a niche in your real estate business!
I KNOW, many of these require building a website, doing videos and other real estate marketing strategies, but once you get good at those skills, you are going to be an unstoppable force!