How To Pick A Real Estate Niche To Win More Clients

Since real estate, in many markets, is so competitive, it’s beneficial to pick a real estate niche. Real estate agents who choose a niche often have the most success in the short- and long-term.

As they say, “When you appeal to everyone. You appeal to no one.”

But, what exactly is a real estate niche and how do you pick a niche that is right for you? And one that will help you get more real estate clients.

That’s what we’ll cover in this post. We’re going to talk about possible real estate niches, how to pick the niche that is right for you, and what to do once you have picked a niche.

What Is A Niche?

Niche marketing is a marketing strategy, and a niche is a specific segment of a larger market that is grouped by their needs, preferences, demographics, or situation.

So, for example, in the real estate market there are a ton of different niches like luxury, divorce, probate, first-time home buyers, and more.

Every real estate niche can be grouped into three main categories: archetype, demographic or situational.

An archetype niche extends beyond demographics and situations. It focuses on the values, beliefs and missions of a group of people.

This is the recommended niche method. It’s not too broad and not too deep.

It’s the goldilocks strategy. It’s JUST RIGHT.

A demographic niche includes things like income, geographic neighborhoods, occupations, and any other quality that describes a group of people.

Situational niches, on the other hand, share a common situation, regardless of demographic information. For example, many people, regardless of demographic information, experience probate.

So, adult-children who are listed as an estate’s administrative executioner are situational niches. All of the folks are unified by the situation and likely vary in their demographics.

Let’s go through some of the different niches in each category.

Brand Archetype Niches

The best way, and the way we teach in our Agent Profile Blueprint Course, is to focus your niche on what we call brand archetypes. Instead of focusing on situations or demographics (which we share below), you should focus on connecting with people through their values, beliefs, and mission.

There are 12 different brand archetypes and we will go over one and how you can apply it to pick your niche.

Sage Archetype Real Estate

The key to keep in mind when focusing on brand archetype niches is to think about values and beliefs. The Sage Archetype is focused on truths, wisdom, and education. They value research, data, and having the answers.

At a high-level, the Sage Archetype naturally attracts scientists, engineers, and analyst. Pretty much a professional whose job is to work with numbers and data.

But, we can go deeper than that and expand. When we look at the values, we understand that people who have a PhD or a Master’s degree are also good targets. Teachers or tutors can also become great targets.

If you go the situational or demographic route, you tend to cut off a lot of these different groups of people. That’s why it’s much better to focus on values.

We dive deeper into the idea of using archetypes in our Agent Profile Blueprint. You’ll learn the importance of archetypes, how to find yours, and how to use it to create a compelling profile that naturally attracts and converts leads.

Demographic Real Estate Niches

Quick warning with demographic niches. You MUST be careful and follow all Fair Housing regulations. Targeting different demographics can open a can of worms when it comes to Fair Housing violations.

Military & Veteran

The military and veteran community is a large niche in several communities. I’ve grouped them together for simplicity of the article, but in some communities, each segment is large enough to be its own niche.

Example: a real estate agent that lives near Fort Bragg, North Carolina can target active military members and their families. There are thousands of soldiers who PCS, and therefore move, every two to three years.

If you’re unfamiliar with military life, consider obtaining your Military Relocation Professional (MRP) certification from the National Association of Realtors.

I took the course a few years back — even though I have military experience — as part of continuing education requirements.

It will teach you a lot about the process and give you ideas for designing your real estate services specifically for the active military market.

The active military market is a great market opportunity due to the repeat business. If you help a family buy a home off base, then they will likely need to sell it in two to three years. Plus, the military market tends to be very referral focused.

Often spouses will refer real estate agents within their circle. It can be hard to break into the niche, but once you’re in, you can expect a lot of referral and repeat business over the years.

Don’t live near a base? That’s okay. Me neither. You can still niche by targeting veterans. The best way to do this is become the foremost expert on VA loans or partnering with a lender who is.

Luxury Market

Everyone wants to work in this niche. I don’t blame any agent. In theory, it’s great. Why sell a bunch of lower priced homes when you can make one sale of a higher priced home?

Now, defining the luxury market is hard. It’s dependent on your geographic area. Generally, there will be a price point that is considered luxury in your area. In addition to price, some luxury markets are defined by the amenities or style of the home.

Example: In Lansing, Michigan, the luxury real estate market is defined as home values at or above $350,000.

Some real estate agents reading this will laugh. Housing is relatively inexpensive across Michigan when compared to other states.

In Los Angeles or New York City, the luxury market is likely defined in the multiple millions.

A quick note: never use the term “luxury market” in your marketing. People who are wealthy and buy homes at price points that are considered luxury don’t refer to themselves as luxury buyers. Be very careful in your marketing.

Black Real Estate Agents

In the last two years, there has been a growing trend of people looking for black businesses, and by extension, black real estate agents.

Here is a chart I pulled from AHREFS which shows the search volume as well as the increasing search trend for black real estate agents and black real estate agents near me.

Clearly, there is a market out there that is interested in working with a black real estate agent.

Now, I’m excited for this, but we have to tread carefully due to Fair Housing regulations. The regulations state that it is “illegal to discriminate, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability, in the sale of housing.”

If this is the market you’re targeting, watch for any marketing material that is viewed as discriminatory. Your marketing will have to focus on being a black real estate agent.

Marketing that promotes yourself as a “real estate agent for blacks” is likely to get you into trouble with Fair Housing regulations.

When in doubt, I would consult with NARs Legal hotline or another attorney to make sure that you are complying with the laws and rules.

Situational Real Estate Niches

Situational real estate niches are my recommended way to go. This way, you avoid any issues with Fair Housing. A situational real estate niche is defined as a group of people who share a common situation — whether temporary or on-going.

Let’s look at some examples.

Divorce And Separation

In 2021, according to the CDC, there were 746,971 divorces at a rate of 2.7 per 1,000 population. You can quickly calculate the potential market size in your area.

Example: I work within a population area of about 400,000 people. That means there were 1,080 divorces last year, and I imagine many of them included real estate that needed to be sold or bought.

With the divorce market, there are up to three transactions that need to occur. In a worse case scenario, a divorce decree requires the primary home to be sold, then each spouse will look for their own home. So, one list-side transaction and two buy-side transactions.

If you look at divorce trends over the last 20 years, you see that divorce rates are going down. The reason, I believe, is correlated to the fact that the marriage rate is going down, too.

You can’t get divorced if you don’t get married. Instead, people are choosing to cohabitate together.

So, think about ways to target the non-married, cohabitating relationships.

In my years as a real estate agent, I have worked with several clients who ended a long-term cohabiting relationship and one partner needed a place to live.

Probate And Estates

This is the niche market that I chose. It’s the best one for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. Some of the reasons I love probate are:

• Dealing With Legal Matters: I’m not an attorney, but I have always been interested in the law. Working with clients in probate or with their estate, I get to be around the law more than I could as an average traditional real estate agent.
• Listing Focused: I rarely have to work with buyers in this market. A majority of the time, I’m only listing a home. In some rare cases I work with buyers when an adult-child is occupying a decedent’s house and the home needs to be sold.
• Investment Potential: being a real estate investor is part of my real estate career and probate is an excellent market for me to get my own deals. I can help a client list a home through an agent or buy it directly.

Probate is a formal, legal process where a Will is authenticated and the Executor is assigned so that your estate is distributed according to your Will or State Laws.

Example: a homeowner dies without a Will. Probate court assigns an Executor and it is determined that the home will be sold to satisfy current judgements and debt. Any remaining proceeds are distributed to the heirs according to state law.

In this case, the Executor will hire a real estate agent to sell the home.

First-Time Home Buyers

The first-time home buyer niche is relatively broad, but a good real estate niche. If you love working with buyers or educating buyers, then you will love this niche. I find a lot of real estate agents who were former teachers love it.

If you find the first-time home buyer market too competitive still, consider adding a second demographic or situational requirement to your niche.

Example: target first-time home buyers who were recently married. Or, maybe you target single-women first-time home buyers.

A niche market I have been developing for some of the agents at my brokerage is the first-time home buyer grant market. Specifically, we’ve been targeting home buyers that are interested in learning more about MSHDA loans.

Equestrian And Horse Owners

Early in my career, I tried to niche down into the equestrian market. I wanted to help horse owners buy or sell their horse properties.

This is a great market to get into if you’re a horse-lover. For me, my area didn’t offer enough opportunities to really make this a viable niche market.

However, if you live in Wyoming, Montana, Texas, or other states where ranches and horse properties are common, then this is a great market to niche in.

There are relatively few agents targeting this market and it’s an opportunity for someone to come in and dominate the market in their area or state.

What About Other Niches?

There are hundreds of real estate niches to pick. Some more examples include investors, rent-to-own buyers, FSBO, move-up sellers, vacation rentals, relocation, and more.

I merely wanted to provide a few as examples of potential niches. All of the real estate niches I listed might be a bad fit for you.

Instead of giving you a long list, I want to show you how to evaluate each niche and how to pick a real estate niche that is right for you.

How To Pick A Real Estate Niche That Is Right

All real estate niches have potential. However, depending on your market, skills, and resources, some real estate niches are better than others.

Your Market

Every real estate market has specific real estate niches that perform the best. For example, the military market is a larger niche in Fort Bragg, North Carolina (where there is a military base) than it is in Lansing, Michigan (a state with no national military bases).

So, the military niche will do better for an agent in Fort Bragg, North Carolina than it will for the agent in Lansing, Michigan.

A niche that does well near Lansing is relocation. Due to the prominence of Michigan State University, there is a huge market of people relocating in and out of East Lansing and the surrounding cities.

Many people move to East Lansing for employment at the university or to continue their education. For example, I once helped a client who was moving to East Lansing to pursue their Veterinarian education and residency.

In Wayne County, Michigan — the county where Detroit is — MSHDA buyers and first-time home buyer grants are large markets. Since these programs are income specific, this market won’t do well where income exceeds lending requirements and state averages.

Think about your real estate market. What do you have in your market that creates a unique niche that you can target? I’ve listed some examples in my real estate markets. What are some in yours?

Create this list and use it as a guide. If you can’t come up with any from scratch, use the list above or find other real estate niche articles.

Go through all of those niches and ask yourself if it’s a well-defined real estate niche in your area. Filtering for your market will leave you with only a handful of niches.

This makes it easier to pick a real estate niche, as well as giving you the highest probability of success.

Your Skills And Resources

Once you have a list of potential real estate niches that work for your market, it’s time to figure out which market you can target based on your skills and resources.

The goal is to give you the highest chance of success. You can do this by aligning your skills and resources to your niche real estate market.

Personal Example: I have a military background. This makes me a suitable real estate agent for the military and veteran market. I speak their language and share a common experience, which will make it easier to build trust.

If I happened to live near a military base, this is a real estate market I would target.

Let’s take the probate market. Much of the success of probate hinges on having compassion, sending direct-mail, and making phone calls. If you don’t have phone skills or the resources to hire a sales calling company, then this market is a poor fit.

If you want to target this market, then you can identify the gaps in your skills and resources and work on getting those.

Here are some questions to help you think:

• What specific knowledge or experience do you have? Do you share anything with your list of niche markets?
• What are some skills you have? Do any of them translate into a way you can help a specific niche?
• What resources do you have? Do you have the capital to target a specific market?

Another example is the investor market. Say you have a finance background. You are in an excellent position to help investors purchase multi-unit properties and apartments by performing discounted cash flow models and valuations.

You can help apartment owners and landlords sell their properties by creating discounted cash flow models for potential buyers.

Pick Your Marketing Channel First

It’s most common to pick a real estate niche and then figure out marketing channels to target your niche. Less common, but totally acceptable, is to go in the reverse direction.

Pick your marketing channel first and then pick your real estate niche.

There are certain niches that perform best in certain marketing channels. What do I mean by a marketing channel?

It’s your method of marketing and includes channels, such as:

• Direct-mail
• Facebook marketing
• Real Estate SEO
• Referral marketing
• And more

Instead of picking a niche and then putting together a marketing plan, you can pick your marketing channels first.

Here’s an example experiment I ran back in late 2021. I wanted to find a way to make Facebook ads a viable marketing channel in my business.

So, I asked myself what niche would do the best? My hypothesis was that I could get results with first-time home buyers. The age demographic tends to align with Facebook and Instagram users.

I created videos and content to target first-time home buyers. One video ad generated substantial traffic for a small amount of money.

Do you have specific knowledge or skills with a certain marketing channel? Consider picking your niche based on the market that aligns with that marketing channel.

How To Use Your Real Estate Niche

Once you have your real estate niche chosen, it will form the basis of your marketing efforts. For example, it influences the marketing channels you choose and the message you put out.

You won’t use the same marketing strategies to target probate as you would active military.

Your niche will be the focus for writing a killer real estate bio.

Looking to dive deeper into building a real estate agent profile that generates and converts more leads? We dive into all things writing your bio, picking a niche, and picking a headshot that attract leads naturally and authentically through our Agent Profile Blueprint course.

There is a temptation to target everyone. Usually this is out of fear and scarcity mindset. Agents are afraid to niche because they think it will mean less business.

Generally, it’s the exact opposite. An agent who is for everyone is a real estate agent for no one.

Final Words To Pick A Real Estate Niche

There are two rules I want you to keep in mind. Picking a real estate niche is an iterative process. You won’t get it 100 percent right the first time. That’s okay. Even if you get it right, you will have to adjust as the real estate market shifts.

For example, REO properties and foreclosures were an excellent niche during the recession. In the 2022 real estate market, you won’t survive if you try to target this market.

Second, you’re not stuck to the real estate niche you pick. You can adjust and change real estate niches whenever you want.

I tried to target the equestrian niche. After a few months, I decided to pivot and exit this niche market. During Covid, I had to pivot a bit, too, as courts pushed off probate hearings.

Don’t feel like you’re stuck with the real estate niche you pick today. Do pick a real estate niche to compete in a competitive real estate market. It’s your best chance at success as a real estate agent.

A real estate agent niche will help you build your agent profile and write your agent bio. When you focus on writing to one person, it becomes easier.