Are you in the best location pursuing the right clients for you?
What neighborhoods? What price points? Sellers, Buyers, or both?
Let’s take a look at each area and put them together with a new focus on what’s best for you.
Each borough has a different mix of property types and price points. Think of The Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, all very different. Then, there are the individual neighborhoods, where property types and price points can be strikingly different. Think SoHo vs Washington Heights.
Being on the buy side or sell side for a House, means dealing with a buyer and a seller only. But, if it’s a Coop you also have the Board and all of its regulations and financial conditions to factor in. Two very different types of deals and two very different timelines. What’s your preference?
So, are you in the best location pursuing the right clients for you? Let’s take a look:
. Do you prefer the Sell Side, the Buy Side or Both?
. Houses, Coops, Condos or a combination?
. Prefer to use a car or public transportation?
. What price points are you comfortable with?
. Do you have a current Sphere Of Influence or are you creating it?
. Anything else that’s important to you.
Let’s take a look at each of the above:
Sell or Buy or Both:
Sellers frequently like to have an agent that has sold in their neighborhood before. Even better if you have sold in their building. So, you should consider developing a target market area in the specific neighborhoods that fit all of your criteria and that you will be able to market to. Focus is important here so consider one primary neighborhood as your focus point.
Buyers are generally less neighborhood dependent. They have criteria like Price Point, Number of bedrooms, Borough, Transportation options, etc. So, I would be thinking of the borough that I’m comfortable with that meets with the criteria I decided on above.
Both - If you want to do both buyers and sellers, I would use the borough restriction in general and select a primary neighborhood to market to and look for sellers.
Houses, Coops, Condos:
If you love selling houses, don’t have your office in Manhattan! But, if you want to sell Coops it’s a great choice. I know, that’s common sense, but it makes the point for decisions that have less obvious differences.
Car or public transportation:
If you’re thinking of Selling, there are areas within all the boroughs that you could work with just public transportation but if you want to work with buyers, Manhattan would be my first choice.
That said, if you want to work with your car, all boroughs except Manhattan could work for you.
Price Points:
You figure out pretty quickly in this business that your income is tied to the price points of the deals you close. But, not every agent is comfortable working with very high price point clients.Negotiating multi million dollar deals is not for everyone.
If we were all the same, we would all go after a $5,000,000 or higher price point. But we’re not.
So, what helps you decide on what price point you should go after?
Your Sphere Of Influence:
Building a Sphere Of Influence (SOI) with people you can relate to and are comfortable working with is a big part part of finding your price point.
If you plan to be a real estate agent as a long term career, you will have to be able to create a steady stream of new clients and new deals.
The best way to do that is by having a large group of individuals who want to refer you to their friends who are considering moving within the city. That’s the SOI you want to build.
So, are you in the best location pursuing the right clients for you?
What neighborhoods? What price points? Sellers, buyers, or both?
Go through the above exercise and use what you learn to help you focus on what’s important to you. Clarity will bring you confidence and that shows to everyone you meet.
I’ll have a lot more to say about growing a Sphere Of Influence and how to use it to get the deals you want in future articles in Streets365. If you want to stay informed, subscribe to my free weekly newsletter that is delivered every Wednesday afternoon.
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