Introduction

Geographic Farming, or geo farming for short, is a new addition to our lead generation offerings. This feature aims to help Lofty users dominate their local markets by boosting brand awareness and driving cost-efficient lead generation. This feature provides city-specific data, including sales volume, sales price, competitor market share, and GCI potential. 

Note: This feature is not available in Canada

Summary

• Why Use Geographic Farming?
• How Should I Choose a Farm?
• Selecting a City
• Analyzing the City

Why Use Geographic Farming?

Geographic farming is a proven real estate marketing method you can use to focus your lead efforts on a single city. It involves identifying a local area and marketing directly to that area. When done correctly, farming can help you identify opportunities, increase brand awareness, capture leads, gain listings, and earn referrals. One technique that has been used for many years is to select a geographic area and send postcards to households in that area. These postcards may contain market statistics, and recently sold homes, and often encourage homeowners to work with you as their agent. While real estate agents have been using Geo Farming for years, it still works because it makes strategic sense.

1. Farming helps you gain awareness locally: This strategy will be useful to you if you want to become the "preferred agent" in a particular market. As you put more effort into marketing to a specific city, over time and with the right marketing, you will become known for that area.
2. Farming gives you a consistent plan: A farm will tell you the exact marketing demographic and the geographic area to focus on. In Lofty, we provide a steady 12-month recurring plan with preset postcard templates. All you need to do is choose a farm and set up the campaign, then the postcards will be sent out each month automatically.
3. Farming connects the ideal clients: By working in a smaller area, you can learn more about the movements, lifestyles, and interests of potential local sellers, and help you connect with customers smoothly.

How Should I Choose a Farm?

Step 1: Select an area that you want to target. The Lofty system will provide market analysis information.

Step 2: Look at the Turnover Rate. This indicates the number of homes that sold over the past 12 months, divided by the total number of homes in the selected area. Generally, a 5%-7% turnover rate is considered acceptable. 

Step 3: Look at the Absorption Rate. This indicates the number of homes that sold over the past 30 days, divided by the total number of active listings in the selected area. For example, if the absorption rate is 3%, that is, only 3 listings are sold each month. You need to make at least 33 listing appointments to get 1 listing. This number indicates the competition, your stats, and the market stats.

Selecting a City

To get started, first locate Geographic Farming in the Marketing Tab> Campaigns section of the CRM. If you haven't tried Geofarming, you will see a pop-up page where you can enter your target zip code and an intro video.

The page will be shown based on zip code. You may switch or add a new zip code area by clicking the drop-down and +button. The selected city will appear on the map.
On the left side, there is a data dashboard that represents the activity of this area
On the bottom part, there is an introduction to Smart Farm Package and you will be able to self-purchase through this.

On the right side, there is a map that will show 2 filters: Just sold listings & Just listed listings The historical data will proceed based on the zip code.

When you purchase a package, you will need to set up a campaign. You need to enter your preferred listing type and price range to monitor the listings within the zip farm. You need to choose and approve a template for Just Listed & Just Sold. You also need to set up the lead capture rule.

Analyzing the City

Once you've selected your city, we provide some key data points, as shown above. These data points are defined here:

• Total Properties: The number of properties within the selected boundaries
• Total Sales: Total sales amount in the selected area in the past 12 months, based on MLS data
• Average Sales Price: Average sales price for all sold listings in the selected area in the past 12 months, based on MLS data
• Average GCI: Average GCI for all sold listings in the selected area in the past 12 months, based on MLS data
• Turnover Rate: The percentage of homes sold in the selected area in the past 12 months, based on MLS data
• Absorption Rate: The percentage of homes sold in the selected area in the past 30 days, based on MLS data

This section also outlines what agents hold market share in the selected area, and how you stack up against them. This will give you insight into whether or not this is a good market for you to break into! If you're ready to move forward, click "Save" and give this City Marketing area a name.

FAQ

Q: Does Geo farm and direct mail work on CRM only?

A:  You can send mailers but we don't recommend it. You won't have the Engagement (QR Code and Text Code) which means leads won't be captured.

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding this topic or any others, please reach out to our Support Team via email at <support@lofty.com>, by phone at 1 (855) 981-7557, or by chat with us through your Lofty CRM.