Prioritize Your Farm

Realtors® are always told that  "farming" will pay off in the long run.  As Realtors®, it sometimes seems that we might not live long enough to reap the harvest of all this "farming". 

What if there was a way to find out who planned to move soon?  Is there any kind of a community issue that deserves a homeowner survey?  Perhaps a new transfer tax? A highway going through?  Or a school or political issue?

Put together your community issue survey (no more than 5 questions) and ask these final two questions: 

• What year did you move into this neighborhood?
• And how long do you plan to be a member of this community?

The survey is most effective when done in person.  Phoning is the second choice.   Don't bother to mail them out.  You'll be killing trees for no reason!

What you can do with this information:

• First forward the community information to whoever needs it; the school board, the village or whomever.  Prepare a report for those who participated in the survey.  Then take a look at the answers to the last two questions.

      Statistically, 20 per cent of the population usually moves every 5 years.  So those who've been in their homes for more than five years deserve special attention. 

When you asked the last question lots of interesting information probably popped out.

• "Just till we retire."  Which leads into a nice conversation about where they plan to retire and when.
• "Till we can afford a  house in......."  You say:  "Wouldn't that be wonderful!  When do you plan to do that?"
• "Not too long.  We get transferred every few years."  That obviously, is a live one!
• And, of course, many will plan to stay put forever.

Once you've targeted who's planning to move and when, you can adjust your marketing.  The "live ones" get contacted fairly often, the possible movers get contacted half as often, and the ones who have no intention of ever moving get an annual or bi-annual contact.  All homeowners are not created equal for Realtors®.  Concentrate your attention on those who will need you soon.