No I am not talking about vegetables and fruits my friend. I am talkig about Realtors but I know some people may consider me a fruit! LOL Many of us are locally grown Realtors that have had the benefit (or curse) of knowing most people in our market area. Some of us are transplants from one end of the country to another and feel like we have been thrown into the water to swim with the sharks!
Locally grown Realtors like myself have a distinct advantage of knowing everyone in the area and having such a connection via our school friends, church, organizations, years of advertising, etc. There is a real advantage to being locally grown but one can take it for granted and it can become a curse! I sure took it for granted at one point of my life. There was a time when I got over confident and thought that I would always do well because everybody new me. My business started to slow a little and I started seeing a difference in my bottom line.
I decided to give myself an attitude adjustment and get off of my rear end and I started to kick it in gear! After all there were some young guns in town and I was not about to lay down! I had never before advertised I was bi-lingual because everyone knew right? Why should I have to tell them? I began advertising I was bilingual through print advertising, information fliers, internet, emails, etc. I started getting out of the office more and meeting face to face with builders, farmers, etc. My world started to change and my business started to take off again and I have never looked back. I started sending a message to those young guns "Bring it on baby"!
Organic Realtors on the other hand have to work harder but I have heard of Organic Realtors dominating their market in a relatively short period of time of 1-2 years. Howard Brinton with his Star Power program http://www.gostarpower.com has interviewed quite a few Realtors in his monthly interview program that have gone into unchartered waters for various reasons. Sometimes their spouse was relocated and sometimes family emergencies forced them to relocate. Many of these Realtors dominated their new markets because they got "Back to Basics" and started doing the things they needed to do and did it will. We have all heard of success stories of imigrants that moved to the U.S. from a foreign country and were very successful. If they could come from a foreign country and have to learn a new language just think about what you can accomplish!
If you are new to an area and have a passion in your heart for this business you are in my opinion a real threat to some of us "Locally Grown" type. When you start passing out those cards, using mulitiple signs for every listing (directional signs on every corner), making lots of calls, getting out of the office and meeting people face to face you will see your market grow leaps and bounds. People want to be around people with energy and a passion for what they do. When you start doing all the right things you you will see your business grow leaps and bounds.
So for all of us locally grown type, lets keep our business fresh and lets keep doing the things that got us to the dance.
If you are organic what an opportunity you have! You can be excited about a new environment and be like a little child discovering a new world out there. Go into that new world and "Kick it in gear" and watch people be drawn to you.
I have been in Las Vegas for almost 10 years so I think by those standards I am local :)
Seriously, I know more than some of the born and raised because I made it my mission to learn the area.
Organic but hired at the same time as two home growns, which has been very interesting. One of the home-growns comes to work 1-2 days a week and is doing pretty well because she has an endless stream of family and friends to work with.
Fran