In the first part of this article I discussed the importance of becoming an expert in a single neighborhood in your farm area.  Here are more ways you can to that:

Area Sales Data – there is plenty of statistical information available to you from MLS and your company or brokerage on your area’s real estate.  Don’t give stats about the entire city’s market because that won’t really be very relevant to the people in your neighborhood.  Each neighborhood’s market is unique and by no means necessarily reflects what’s happening in the city in general.

Here is a good example of a newsletter from a real estate professional who’s branded themselves as a neighborhood specialist.  In the newsletter they’ve included a chart for the neighborhood’s sales in 2009 vs. 2008 and wrote the following analysis of the neighborhood’s recent market:

“Sales numbers continue to be down significantly over last year with April 2009 showing only 10 sales.  This is a significant decrease from the previous year and a very low number for what should be one of the busiest months of the year for sales.  Interestingly, for the ten April sales in Neighborhood X, the average days on market was only 14.  This is very low compared to the average of 32 days for the W01 district to which Neighborhood X belongs (from Street W to Street X, Street Y to Street Z) and is indicative of just how desirable it is to live in our neighborhood.  The homes that come to the market in our neighborhood are selling quickly and prices continue to remain strong.  The one problem continues to be the lack of good listings.  If you are considering a sale or a change the timing is good.  Very low interest rates and strong prices are a good combination for moving up or down or even selling that extra property.”

What’s particularly interesting about this data and analysis is it doesn’t reflect all the doom and gloom reported in the media about the North American real estate market and a “recession”.  True, sales are down in the neighborhood significantly from the previous year, but because this neighborhood was by no means overbuilt in recent years, the average home price has merely flatlined, not decreased.  This real estate professional reports that the only real difference is that houses just aren’t getting the multiple offers they did 2 years ago!  So this information can be very encouraging to residents in this area and can prompt people to buy now before prices start increasing again as it seems they will be doing sooner rather than later.

Find out more on hot to brand yourself as a neighborhood specialist on your website, get high ranking in Google, and get a steady stream of well qualified prospects by taking my course Building Your Ecommerce Business.  This course has been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 6 credits.