Section 4:Hyperlocal Overdrive: Dominating Your Market

For real estate professionals everywhere, success depends on your knowledge of and involvement in your community. Local and hyperlocal connections not only demonstrate your commitment to the people in your market, but will also inspire your leads and clients to work with you and refer you to others. 

Developing a niche can be a smart business strategy, helping you become more in tune with your local market and your community. This means focusing on a particular area, neighborhood, lifestyle, hobby or interest. Or you can go even deeper. Your niche should be personal to you, something that you are passionate about that can—and will—help your clients. By hyperfocusing on a particular niche, you can establish yourself as the local expert as well as the go-to agent.

Zucker, founder of The Denver Ear, a blog dedicated to highlighting community events and local businesses, is a niche expert. In fact, multiple members of her previous team at Team Denver Homes each developed their own niche within the community aligned with their own daily hobbies and passions. For Zucker, this “allows for a more authentic niche marketing strategy where REALTORS® connect with their community through relationships built on shared interests and activities.”

“People like to work with people they know, like, trust and share common interests with,” she says.

Developing a niche also allows agents to better understand local market trends, which is critical for successful transactions. This strategy can help create a more personalized brand, whether you work independently or on a team. Instead of trying to be everything for everyone, focus on what you do best, create a niche that appeals to your ideal clients and be authentic. 

“Focus on an area you are genuinely interested in and go from there. Form a community around your hobby and/or niche, and be sure to connect with various community partners that can help grow your niche community,” says Zucker.

As you discover your niche or specialties in your market, you are becoming the local expert. This can be especially helpful when it comes to referrals. Whether a buyer is looking to move from outside of your market, or a buyer is simply looking to be closer to activities, businesses or schools, you can be the expert these prospects are looking for. 

“Marketing yourself in particular neighborhoods or parts of town allows you to be more intentional with your messaging,” says Scott. “This is particularly helpful in the niche of relocation.”

Scott suggests posting about the neighborhoods you specialize in to help grow your social following and associate a particular area with your services. This can include sharing details about local events and happenings, monthly market trends or even new businesses opening in the area. 

“When someone outside of the immediate market needs to understand how they can relocate to a neighborhood similar to where they currently live,” explains Scott, “if the employer they are moving for, or a local family member or friend can easily identify the expert in an area the prospective homebuyer is looking for, it makes for a very easy referral.”

How do agents working with a particular niche or specialty compare to those who aren’t? According to Shapiro, who works with many clients from outside of her market, it’s all about understanding the value of hyperlocal expertise. 

“They need an expert to help them build confidence in a community,” she says. “They may be looking at a few surrounding communities, and my role is to help them find the best fit for their specific needs.”

Shapiro specializes in investing, and as an investor herself, educating others is at the top of her list. 

“I leverage my niche by teaching classes, offering investment-focused workshops in my community to educate the public,” she explains. “I also host a real estate radio show to position myself as the go-to local expert.”

Being the hyperlocal expert and niche agent is a familiar area for Merrill, founder of The Denver Look, a blog dedicated to supporting local brands and businesses.

“When new market residents arrive to your market, the first thing they care about is tapping into the community prior to real estate,” says Merrill. “New residents have a deep desire to know what is souring the real estate they want to purchase as well as what is being planned in terms of developments.

“A REALTOR® who is heavily involved in their community will be able to provide better insight plus help local businesses increase their exposure to new residents.”

Merrill understands that developing relationships with local businesses allows agents the opportunity to grow their personal sphere of business by getting to know more people within the market in addition to leveraging each other’s businesses to help clients form a sense of community. 

“These relationships are becoming more and more important in a shifting market,” she says. “People are searching for a sense of community, and when you position yourself as the person who can connect the dots for them, people will naturally gravitate toward that. That in and of itself will bring your business into the future, growing for decades to come.”

Focusing on the hyperlocal aspects of your market or developing a specialty niche is an excellent way to not only differentiate yourself from your competitors, but also expand your client base, help you create more targeted marketing and showcase your local expertise. Building a reputation as the go-to local resource for buyers and sellers—as well as the businesses and vendors they will most likely interact with—will position you as the top real estate professional in your market and community, ultimately bringing you success and growth well into the future.