Real estate farming is a proven strategy for finding new clients in a specific geographic area. It consists of purposeful, regular communication with homeowners to establish yourself as the hyper-local expert in that neighborhood and be the agent of choice when they decide to sell.
While farming can take longer to produce results than other lead generation methods, it’s a fantastic long-term strategy to dominate your neighborhood, your city — or any geographic area you choose! The key is to choose the right area, plan (and budget) to farm the same area for at least one year, and be patient. Many top agents have built massive businesses using these real estate farming strategies, and you could be next!
How to choose your farm area
There are several important considerations when selecting the right area to farm. Some agents think they have to start in their own neighborhood, but that’s not necessarily true. Here are the main aspects to consider:
Proximity to your home or office
The closer your geographic farm is to your home or your office, the more convenient it will be to physically be there for showings and open houses, for example. Proximity is a factor to consider if you plan to door knock, host events, or do any in-person prospecting. You’ll also have more credibility with homeowners if you can say you live or work nearby.
Demographics & farm size
Research who lives in the area. Are residents mostly families, retirees, students or young professionals? If you live in an urban area, you’ll want to avoid neighborhoods with mostly rental buildings. Identify who might be looking to move into the area and who might be planning to leave, including families needing larger homes or empty nesters looking to downsize.
You may also want to look for a “door-knockable” area if that’s something you plan to do. Urban areas or subdivisions fit this description, as homes tend to be closer together. Be aware that cities often have several luxury hotspots that require a different approach to lead generation (namely, more selective networking).
Your marketing budget
Your marketing plan will likely include a regular mailer to every home in your farm. It could be as simple as a monthly postcard, but in choosing your farm area, you want to ensure you’re not committing to too many homes. It’s MUCH more effective to farm 100 homes consistently for at least a year than to send one or two postcards to 1,000 homes.
Wise Pelican offers budget-friendly postcards designed for agents. You can get 500 postcards for just $0.46 each (or lower pricing for bulk buys), plus real estate-themed flyers, door hangers, letters, brochures, and pop-by tags. Could you afford $230 each month for a year? If so, choose a farm of 500 homes.
Does another agent “own” the area already?
Some neighborhoods are already dominated by another real estate agent. You increase the chances of a homeowner calling you if there’s not already a “go-to” agent who’s well-known there. To research this, pull all the sales for that neighborhood from the past several years and look at the names of the agents. If one or two appear frequently, I’d choose another area.
Turnover rate
The rate at which residents are moving in and out of a neighborhood is called the turnover rate. It’s important to be sure you’re investing your time and money farming an area where people will likely be selling! This is your opportunity to be strategic. Choose a neighborhood with a turnover rate of at least 6% (but the higher the better).
To determine the turnover rate of an area, simply divide the number of sales by the number of total homes in that specific area. You can find these data points in your MLS. For example, if you were looking at farming in an area with 350 homes and 25 homes sold in the last year, the turnover rate was .0714, or about 7%.
PRO TIP
Consistency is key. Be patient and persistent; your efforts will help cultivate a strong presence within your chosen real estate farming area.
Absorption rate
The absorption rate of a geographic area is how quickly homes sold over a specific period. You want to farm an area with a high absorption rate (where homes sell quickly).
To calculate this, divide the number of homes sold in the past 12 months by 12, then divide that by the total number of homes currently listed for sale. Look for an absorption rate of at least 20%. This will make your life easier when homeowners call you to sell their homes, rather than targeting sellers in an area with a very low absorption rate.
Example:
- 475 homes sold over the past 12 months in my city of Newton, MA.
- 475 divided by 12 equals 39.58.
- Therefore, an average of 39 homes sold each month over the past year
- There are currently 120 active listings in Newton
- 39 divided by 120 equals 0.325
- Absorption rate = 32.5%
Your target client or market
This one’s a bit subjective, but you’ll want to choose a farm area that’s aligned with what you like to do. If high-rise, luxury condos are the direction you want your career to go in, then you’ll need to choose accordingly. If helping young families or first-time homebuyers brings you joy, that’s something to consider.
No matter your interests, it’s important to research and consider recent sales data from the farm areas you’re considering. Now is the time to zero in on more specifics. You should look at:
- Average listing and selling prices: Get familiar with the area’s typical listing and selling prices in the past year. Armed with this information, you can help your clients understand how much negotiation room they might have in upcoming transactions. A large gap between listing and selling prices (in either direction) can inform your understanding of supply and demand.
- Price trends: To understand market dynamics, consider how prices have changed over time for different property types, such as single-family homes or condos.
- Average days on the market (or DOM): Know how long properties typically sit on the market
- Current inventory: Monitor the type of current properties available for sale and unique property features.
Why is real estate farming so effective?
Real estate farming works so well because it’s easier, not to mention much more affordable, to gain repeated exposure in a small geographic area. The well-established rule of seven explains that consumers typically must encounter a brand’s marketing messages at least seven times before making a purchase decision. While buyers and sellers may not be actively looking for your services now, real estate farming ensures that you stay top-of-mind until they’re ready to make a move. After winning business in a small geographic area, your referral business begins to build upon your success.
Real Estate Farming Strategies
You’ve chosen your farm area and now you’re probably wondering what comes next. How do I convince strangers to call me to sell their house?
We recommend a mix of in-person, digital and traditional outreach methods. Most importantly, build predictability. Pick activities you know you can consistently follow through on. Try thinking of your real estate farming plan in terms of annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and ad-hoc initiatives that whet your prospects’ appetite for more interactions with you.
Here are our top strategies for marketing your services to the homeowners in your farm, broken out into snail mail or traditional real estate farming, in-person farming, and online strategies.
Traditional real estate farming: Snail Mail
Before the internet, snail mail was one of the primary real estate farming strategies agents used to reach buyers and sellers in their neighborhood. Along with the open house, handing out business cards, and print advertising (plus some well-placed yard signs), sending snail mail has been a proven real estate farming technique for decades.
One might argue that it’s even more meaningful now, in an era when few of us receive any snail mail besides bills to pay and junk mail. Here’s why!
Postcards
This is the core of most agents’ geo-farming strategy. A monthly postcard is a cost-effective way to get your name out there and build your reputation over time in your farm area. It can also save you a ton of time if you choose to hire a company to label and mail them for you! If your budget allows, I’d recommend opting for a larger postcard — one that will stand out in the recipient’s mailbox.
We love Wise Pelican for sending letters and postcards that’ll get noticed. Their oversized postcards are beautifully designed and printed in full color (on both sides) on high-gloss, heavy card stock. Pricing varies by quantity, but 500 printed postcards shipped to you are just 46 cents each. The same quantity of printed, inserted, stamped, and mailed letters are $1.38 each.
In terms of content, mix it up. Hyper-local market stats, such as any recently sold properties in the neighborhood, are always valuable and interesting. But I’d also include a real estate postcard with a testimonial from a happy client, one promoting a local community event, and one requesting donations to a local charity.
Brochures
Mailing a full-color brochure is a great way to promote all your new listings and just-sold listings in the area. This will show potential sellers on your farm how successful you are and encourage them to work with you when they need to sell.
Handwritten notes
This one is tedious and time-consuming but worth it. When was the last time you received a handwritten note? Chances are, it was highly memorable because it’s such a rare occurrence. It’s more natural to do this with your own neighborhood because you can simply introduce yourself as their neighborhood real estate agent and include your business card.
If the personal touch appeals to you, you can easily outsource to Handwrytten, a company that sends automated handwritten notes for busy agents! You can order them in bulk — delivered directly to you or to your farm area!
Holiday cards
I love a good holiday card! People are in a festive mood already, and it’s a super easy, non-sales-y touch. To stand out from the rest of the cards they’re receiving (and to avoid mistakenly sending a card for a holiday someone may not celebrate), I’d opt for an end-of-the-year “Happy New Year” card instead of a Christmas or Hanukkah card. You could also send a New Year calendar (we love fridge magnets) featuring your branding to keep you top-of-mind all year long.
Newsletters
An informative community newsletter is a great way to stay top-of-mind. One of the top agents in the Boston market mails a quarterly newsletter to his farm. It’s expensive (multi-page, full-color, high-quality paper) but worth it when targeting luxury neighborhoods. Your newsletters can be simpler and more budget-friendly, yet still impactful.
One of the best things about a newsletter is that there’s an implied understanding that the homeowners will be receiving your newsletters on a regular basis, whether that’s monthly or quarterly. They may even start to look forward to it if your content is relevant enough to keep their interest!
Examples of content you could include: market updates for the neighborhood; anything just listed, sold, or pending — even if it’s not your listing; sales price, DOM, inventory or other market trends you’re noticing. You can also include community events or events you’re hosting, spotlight a local business and interview the owner, and personal updates about you, your family and/or your pets.
Flyers
Like a brochure, flyers are a good medium for spreading the word about market activity in the neighborhood, upcoming community events, or charitable drives you’re hosting.
PRO TIP
Tri-fold your flyers and pop them in a brightly colored envelope to increase your open rate.
Real estate farming: In-person strategies
Here comes the IRL fun. Give new clients a chance to meet you in-real-life at a community movie night, a seasonal holiday parade or a local sports game. If you want to be truly memorable, come up with a signature event you (or your team) host every year, quarter or month.
Block parties
Who doesn’t love a block party? If you’re able to close down the street, even better! Hosting a block party in your farm area provides an opportunity to meet some of your farm’s homeowners face-to-face and positions you as a community leader. And, of course, this is much easier and more natural to do in your neighborhood or in an area you’ve been farming for a while.
Community events
There are many other types of community events you could host if block parties aren’t your thing. You could organize a neighborhood garage sale, collect donations for a local charity, and offer to pick up the donations from people’s homes to make it easier for them. Organize a fun trick-or-treating event for Halloween.
I’ve even heard of agents renting horse-drawn carriages and providing sleigh rides through the neighborhood during the holidays. Each event gives you multiple opportunities to reach out to everyone in your farm area, and imagine the photo ops, too! Get creative with it, and have fun!
Exclusive open houses
You may have heard about doing a neighbor preview before an open house, as a way to meet other homeowners in the area. Incorporating this strategy into your overall farming plan is an excellent idea because it gives you an extra touch when you invite them to the event AND an opportunity to meet them in person if they show up. You could also use it as a way to collect attendees’ email addresses by having them enter to win a gift card to a local restaurant.
Door knocking
Think of door knocking as the “how” to the previous ideas. This is the best way to spread the word about any upcoming event you’re hosting. Yes, it can be a little intimidating, but most people are generally friendly. The key is to come bearing gifts, as the saying goes, meaning you should invite them to something rather than showing up on their doorstep asking for business.
PRO TIP
Come prepared with something tangible to leave behind in case they’re not home. It could be a flyer in a plastic bag that loops around a doorknob or even a door hanger with a loop already cut into it.
Real estate farming: Online strategies
We all spend a lot of time online these days. We devised some real estate farming ideas to help you stay connected with your community where they live (on their phones!).
Community Facebook groups
Every city or town seems to have multiple Facebook groups, from general community groups to garage sale groups to “free stuff” groups to moms groups. Definitely join every group you can and get involved! Comment with helpful advice or recommendations on other people’s posts. Post about any events you’re hosting that would be relevant to the community.
If you think there’s a need for a community group, by all means, start your own! Facebook groups or community websites can provide consistent value and become a go-to resource for nearby residents.
Be sure to avoid coming off as sales-y or overzealous. You want to build your reputation as a helpful neighbor and community leader. And, it goes without saying, stay far away from conversations about politics. Instead, post an invitation to the neighborhood garage sale you put together for your farm to increase attendance and make it such a success people will want to repeat it every year!
Hyper-local Instagram page
This is something you could create if it doesn’t already exist. The idea here is to create a community for just your farm area. If your farm is a neighborhood that already has a name, even better — simply use that name for your IG page. I used to live on a street called Marvin Avenue, and everyone who lived there called it Marvin Gardens. At some point, someone created a group online just for the residents of our street. It was tiny but helped to create an even closer-knit community. Why not try this for your farm?
Invite friends and other community group members to join your new group or to follow your Facebook page or Instagram channel. We love Coffee & Contracts for its affordable monthly subscription fee, which gives you access to done-for-you, polished, and consistently branded social media posts for all your social channels. You get a ton of social post ideas created for you in beautifully designed templates that you can customize with your own brand colors and fonts.
Using friends lists on Facebook
You can create different lists of friends on Facebook and share content to just those lists. To create a list, go to “Friends” then click “Custom Lists” then create your list, name it, and add some of your existing Facebook friends to it. Setting it up is time-consuming, but once you have it started, you can post about community events, and only those friends will see it.
You can add to the list at any time, so as you meet new people in your farm, you can incorporate them into your “farm friends” list. The beauty of this is that your audience is unaware of your strategy — they just know that you’re creating valuable content for them.
Community events on your website
I’d highly suggest including a page on your website where you highlight local events in your farm. This adds a level of credibility to you as a business owner and as a local expert. You could also include a QR code directing people to your web page on all your printed marketing materials and social media posts.
Other types of real estate farming
We typically think of geo-farming as the only option for farming; however, there are other ways to farm for business. Here are some examples:
Tenure farming
What it is: Tenure farming means marketing to homeowners who have been in their homes for at least 30-40 years and who are likely to want to (or need to) downsize soon. There’s no exact science behind the number, but pull the metrics for the areas you’re considering and see what makes sense. You may find very few homeowners who’ve been in their homes that long in your target area. In that case, you’d have to decide if you want to target a different area or change the metric to 20 years. Check your state’s public record database to find this information.
Dumpster farming
This strategy comes from Ryan Smith, a real estate agent in Ontario, Canada. Ryan runs a Facebook group designed to help real estate agents build and grow their farm business. Check it out here.
“When you notice a dumpster or storage container outside a home, it’s often a sign that the homeowners are preparing for a move, doing a renovation, or decluttering. This creates a great opportunity to connect with potential sellers. By reaching out, offering a home evaluation, or even providing a simple after-renovation market assessment, you can position yourself as a resource during their transition. For homeowners who aren’t home, you can leave a prepared marketing piece tailored specifically for this situation. This simple yet powerful strategy helps uncover leads with minimal effort and creates long-term follow-up opportunities for your database.”
Ryan Smith, Real Estate Agent
Garage sale farming
We recently stumbled upon this method from an agent named Michelle Williams in a Facebook group. She said that one of her favorite ways to generate new leads in her neighborhood is by going to garage sales with her family.
“It’s an approach that combines spending time with loved ones and building connections in the community,” said Williams. “I’ve seen incredible results. When I visit garage sale, I start conversations with the hosts and casually ask why they decided to have the sale.”
Williams claims that out of 32 garages sales she’s visited, 17 hosts were thinking about selling their home. An additional four were renters who were considering a move.
Why it works: Williams feels that the reason this strategy works is because it creates an instant connection while also humanizing her as a parent and spouse. “The key is not to immediately reveal that I’m an agent. Instead, I focus on adding value. If they mention they’re thinking of selling, I offer them a goodie bag I keep in my car.”
Williams’ goodie bag includes simple items like cleaning supplies or moving boxes, a quick guide on ways to increase their home’s value, and a card with a QR code that reads, “What’s My Home Worth?”.
Success story: Michelle Williams claims that her garage sale farming method has resulted in four closed deals between May and September. “For those who aren’t quite ready to list, I ask if they’re open to off-market offers and where I can market their property to our team’s buyers.” Then she circle prospects around their home.
Michelle Williams, Real Estate Agent
Rental farming
This is a great strategy specifically for real estate agents who specialize in working with first-time buyers.
How to do it: Send mailers to luxury apartment buildings, inviting renters to attend a first-time buyer class (bribe them with food and drinks). Usually, a friendly lender will pull the address list for you and may even split the cost of the mailer and the class with you.
Absentee owner-investor farming
You can pull absentee owner lists from public records and reach out to them, offering to help them sell their investment properties or do a 1031 exchange for for another investment property. Many absentee owners are content in their situations, but many are frustrated with managing property from far away and looking to make a change. In this case, a letter explaining how you can help solve their problem is the most effective content to send.
Real estate farming: Tips & Tools
It’s essential that you track your interactions with every prospect and lead as you progress through your first (or any) year of real estate farming. Remember the rule of seven? You want to make sure you’re reaching each potential homebuyer or seller in your farm area at least seven times (or more, if you can!).
Track your ROI
Remember, this is a long game. Nonetheless, you should keep track of your return on investment periodically to learn which real estate farming initiatives are working for you.
Most of the real estate farming strategies we’ve listed come with an investment of time, money, or both. Know how much you’re willing to spend across all areas — digital, in-person, and traditional real estate farming, including events, branded swag, event rentals, etc. Then, determine how many homes you’ll need to sell in a year to recoup your return on that investment.
Track & nurture your leads
As you develop momentum and add leads to your database, set up a system for regularly tracking and nurturing your relationships. Remember — contacts within your farm area are distinct from others in your CRM; they live in a geographically distinct area (likely your neighborhood!), so your messaging should be more personalized and community-focused.
When nurturing leads, tailor your communication to meet your prospects’ needs. Just think, what would your neighbor want to hear? Find natural opportunities to mention market trends in the area, community announcements, events and helpful real estate advice.
Keep a detailed record of your interactions with potential clients in your farm area. Include phone calls, emails, text messages, door-knocking visits and events, and their responses to your direct mail and email campaigns.
Review your records periodically to evaluate which methods are most successful in engaging potential clients. Notice how often people reply to your emails, what information resonates with them, and how many attend your events. Refine your approach based on what the data shows.
Best CRMs for real estate farming
Whether hosting first-time homebuyer workshops, sending out seasonal postcards, or using text messaging campaigns to your farm, these tools will help you keep track of all of your touch points throughout the year (and your prospects’ replies).
Top Producer
Top Producer’s leading-edge AI technology, called Smart Targeting, lets you pinpoint the homeowners with the highest potential for selling their home in your farm area. Top Producer’s CRM software is already an industry favorite, but their predictive analytics will be a game-changer for your marketing, lead generation, and outreach efforts within your farm area.
Best features:
- Includes Top Producer’s highly popular CRM
- Uses AI to analyze data & market trends to identify likely sellers
- Personalized marketing campaigns include online ads, email marketing, postcards, and handwritten letters
- Automated lead follow-up
- Can target zip codes or custom farm areas
Catalyze AI
Catalyze AI is a unique real estate marketing solution for the data-driven agent. The AI-driven tool uses predictive analytics and a dataset of over 400 million data points to identify promising leads who have recently inherited property. It also pulls from event data, historical trends, behavioral analytics and other information, then provides lead suggestions for you within a 50-mile radius.
Best features:
- Uses historical data, behavior analytics, event-driven data and real-time insights to provide predictive analysis
- Predicts high-probability buyers and sellers for efficient lead targeting
- Access to 400 million data points
Real estate farming: The full picture
Now you are equipped with plenty of proven strategies to select your farm and get started! Remember, real estate farming is a long-term strategy and requires consistency over months, if not years. But the results are worth it if you stick with it!
