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The Hidden Gem of the Real Estate Market - Military Families As a business professional, you realize the importance of
thinking beyond the traditional and finding target markets that
will enable you to enhance your business. As a real estate
agent, you realize the importance of serving the community while
enhancing your advertising in ways that attract the specific
niche market within your local area. Finding the perfect balance
between these two goals often seems like a daunting process. We
can help you ensure that you are meeting the needs of home
seekers while enhancing your own business practices and
advertising in a very successful manner. Next, we move onto
targeting a specific demographic. Many agents will form
relationships with large employers in their area who are
frequently relocating employees. Forming a successful
relationship with a hospital, large corporation or even a
university can prove an effective means of gaining successful
leads. However, if you work in an area where military personnel
purchase homes you are fortunate to have access to one of the
largest and often most under-addressed demographic in the real
estate business! Earnings & Housing Budgets Military families
earn approximately 18% higher than the average American family!
With an average income of around $80,000 per year, this
demographic group consisting of around 1.4 million people in the
United States provides an opportunity to increase your customer
base while increasing your sales volume. Familiarize yourself
also with lending programs that specifically target military
personnel. Often, there are housing assistance programs (other
than VA) offered by lenders that allow lower up-front costs and
fees for these families due to a continual lending relationship.
Because of their BAH (basic allowance for housing) many can
afford home ownership, but can't necessarily afford all the
closing costs. Frequent Relocations - Continuous Opportunities!
Military personnel generally move between locations every three
years, and many of these personnel come with families who
purchase a home at each new installation. Also, with nearly
one-third of the entire military relocating each year the market
for new home sales constantly replenishes. Because of the close
relationship among military families, forming a good
relationship with a few families in their home buying process
could offer you countless good referrals to other relocating
families. They have no choice; they need to find housing options
on a regular basis. Thus, you can see how the opportunity to
develop and constantly expand a large renewable customer base is
right at your fingertips! Advertising Let's focus for a moment
on advertising opportunities. Advertising can be an expensive
luxury that new agents specifically cannot afford to take
lightly. However, the successful agent will look for
opportunities to advertise services (and his or her name!) for
FREE! Yes, FREE! Often there are neighborhood newsletters,
websites or even bulletin boards where service providers within
the community can advertise at no cost. Also, a good way to get
your name out into the community as a reputable agent is to
offer free seminars on home buying, mortgage options, etc. as
mentioned above. There are several opportunities for serving the
military community while generating advertising. One way in
which to generate advertising within the military community is
to offer free seminars about the option to sell a home "For Sale
by Owner." Because the homeowners are frequently moving, they
would often prefer to save the agent commissions and to broker
their sales alone. This may not seem like a profitable
situation, however providing assistance in FSBO sales could net
you 1-2% of the sale for simply providing advice and guidance on
the process. A second and often overlooked method of FREE
advertising is to contact the on-base housing office in your
area in order to provide then with your contact information.
Many times, the office publishes a packet of housing information
for those relocating to the installation in which they might
include your information as a source for locating off-base
housing. A third option is to provide a discount to military
families who are relocating to your area, in the form of an
appreciation program. There are restrictions on the amount of a
discount on agent's fees in some areas. It is important to
investigate this prior to committing to such a program. These
discounts might include, in addition to agent fee reductions,
home inspection discounts, coordination with utility companies,
etc. in order to ease the transition for the new family. It is
especially important to realize the process that a military
family will engage in prior to their relocation. Because there
is often a limited timeframe for the relocation, they will
generally begin searching in advance for homes near their new
installation. With almost all military families having access to
the internet, (92.8% according to Department of Defense
statistics - 2003) it is crucial to have a great online
presence! We recommend that your form relationships with local
businesses in order to establish as many reciprocal links from
area businesses as possible. This allows you to have more links
to your site, as well as to show your connection with and
knowledge about the military community. On your website, it is
helpful to provide information about the area schools as well as
transportation and entertainment venues. There are other
possible advertising opportunities not mentioned here. Just take
some time to look around your community and find out what other
business owners are doing that is working for them. Some
carefully spent time and consideration will afford you the
ability to extend your advertising at a lower cost. Because the
military housing market is a constantly renewable resource for
real estate agents fortunate to be working in a community with
installations nearby, and because this demographic is often
overlooked by most in the real estate profession, it truly is
the hidden gem of real estate. By simply taking some time to
familiarize yourself with the needs and resources of the typical
military family, you could expand your customer base and income
potential exponentially. It is important, if you decide to
target this demographic group, to form excellent relationships
with your clients because you never know when they will be
coming back to your area! Take advantage of the free and low
cost advertising methods listed above in order to reach these
families, and enjoy the camaraderie that evolves from becoming a
part of the military community.
Michelle McClory More Articles Becoming A Battle Hardened Real Estate Veteran Without All The Scars: - Chris Anderson PhD
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