It’s essential to consider targeting a real estate niche. Why? Selecting and targeting one informs many aspects of your real estate business.

And it ultimately affects your lead gen success rate.

However, it has its upsides and downsides:

Upsides of Targeting a Real Estate NicheDownsides of Targeting a Real Estate Niche
Fewer competitorsTarget audience not large enough
Fewer CompetitorsLimited Market
Easier to Cater to Specific Seller and Buyer NeedsRisk of Changes
Easier to Become the ExpertNeed to Stay Updated
Easier to Determine Your Target Audience’s Wants and Needs
Developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Is More Straightforward
Less Effort to Find Potential Partnerships and Referral Sources
Marketing Channels and Messages Becomes More Effective
Higher Chances of Loyal Customer

Read on, and you will learn more about them in depth.

 

What Is a Real Estate Niche?

This is Wikipedia’s definition of a niche market: 

A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality, and the demographics that it is intended to target.

So, a real estate niche is a subgroup or segment of a larger real estate market with its own demands and preferences.

When you focus on a real estate niche, you can often provide better solutions to the needs of specific consumers than competitors. 

Namely, competitors that target a larger or broader audience.

For instance, as a real estate developer, you could focus on building and selling only green homes under a certain green building standard.

This would be instead of building just properties in a specific price range.

8 Upsides and 3 Downsides of Targeting a Real Estate Niche

8 Upsides of Targeting a Real Estate Niche 

1) Fewer Competitors

Offering more specific services to a particular real estate niche will enable you to have less competition. 

There is also a lower risk regarding competing with price and getting into a draining “price war.” 

Between realtors, this would correspond with increased commission discounts.

 

2) Easier to Cater to Specific Seller and Buyer Needs

You can better target the specific needs of your target customers.

Let’s say you focus on second homes in geographic areas that attract vacationers.

This would make you more competitive as a realtor.

Or suppose you focus on second homes with great views.

In that case, you can make yourself unique and differentiate yourself from your competition.

You would cater to the specific needs of a potential home buyer in this vacation spot.

It will also be easier to develop additional service offerings.

Let’s stay with the second homes with great views niche.

An additional service offering could be a concierge service during the owner’s absence.

If you don’t target a niche, your additional service offerings may be all over the place.

3) Easier to Become the Expert

Focusing on one real estate niche topic or field of knowledge is easier than being a jack of all trades.

This will also allow you to become a specialist in the respective real estate niche with its related products and services.

So you could do a certificate such as “Certified Seniors Specilist” or “Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.”

This wouldn’t make much sense if your business would operate in a broader niche.

Once you are a leader in this niche, you can expand your products and services into broader markets or adjacent real estate niches.

 

4) Easier to Determine Your Target Audience’s Wants and Needs

When you cater to a large variety of different seller and buyer types, you will find that each can have different needs and wants. 

Marketing and selling to such a variety can get pretty complex.

When you have just one target real estate niche, this complexity simplifies.

So, it gets much easier to determine your target audience’s wants and needs.

And the better you know them, the more persuasive you can be and thus increase your lead gen success rate.

Knowing their needs also ties into your sales process. 

Suppose you specialize in the luxury real estate niche and nothing else.

You would know exactly what buyers and sellers typically want. 

If you had all kinds of sellers (lower-end properties, distressed, probates, etc.), you would have to be pretty versatile in your sales communication.

5) Developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Is More Straightforward 

Differentiating from competitors helps position yourself uniquely.

This makes your offerings more attractive and improves lead conversion.

In addition, when you target a real estate niche, developing a USP gets easier.

Sometimes, just the niche you target can already be your unique selling proposition.

This happens when your competitors stay generic.

6) Less Effort to Find Potential Partnerships and Referral Sources

This can extend your reach and provide you with new channels for lead generation.

Suppose you decided to target the probate real estate niche.

In that case, the choice for potential partnerships becomes pretty clear. 

One obvious choice would be working with probate attorneys.

This wouldn’t be as straightforward when you follow a broader approach.

7) Marketing Channels and Messages Becomes More Effective

Imagine you were all over the place regarding seller prospects.

You would go after commercial property owners, townhouse owners, single family, etc.

This would create quite some overhead regarding the marketing message and channels to choose from.

You would need a marketing campaign for each property owner type to be effective.

Targeting one real estate niche (e.g., commercial property owners) becomes much more streamlined.

You would only have to determine the most effective marketing channel for this type of seller.

And you could also better tailor your marketing message (sales copy).

 

8) Higher Chances of Loyal Customer

This is related to becoming an expert when targeting a real estate niche.

Why?

Let’s say you become an expert and specialize in a real estate niche.

Then, seller and buyer clients will perceive you as having more knowledge in a specific area of interest.

As mentioned earlier, targeting a real estate niche also helps by offering a personalized service.

This offering can also lead to higher customer loyalty. 

Finally, you will be able to create a community of investors with similar interests more easily when you target a specific real estate niche.

This also increases the chances of having more loyal customers.

 

3 Downsides of Targeting a Real Estate Niche

While I think there are more upsides than downsides to targeting a real estate niche. Let’s not forget some of the things to watch out for…

1) Limited Market

You’re saying no to a broader market when you choose a niche. 

This means you’ll have fewer potential clients. 

If the niche is small or gets less popular, you might find it harder to keep your business strong.

That’s why selecting a profitable niche from the start is so important.

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2) Risk of Changes

Markets can change, right? 

You could find yourself in a tough spot if you’re all in on one real estate niche and the market shifts, like new regulations or changes in what people want. 

And some real estate niches are more sensitive to economic ups and downs. 

That’s the case for commercial real estate. 

During the pandemic, I had a rough ride to find new tenants for one of the commercial properties I co-own and manage.

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3) Need to Stay Updated

Your clients might expect you to be a top-notch expert in your niche.

This is great if you are, but it also means there’s more pressure to live up to those high expectations.

It also means you want to stay super sharp in your niche. 

And this requires continuous learning and staying on top of trends and changes. 

If you don’t, you risk falling behind.

However, this downside is kind of weak.

Because the same is true when you have a broader real estate market approach.


This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.


Tobias Schnellbacher