Time for a New Neighbourhood? Real Estate Leads in a Shifting Market
It can be a difficult position to be in — you’ve specialized in a particular housing market for most of your career, and then the market shifts. Now the area you’ve specialized in that was once so lucrative is cooling, or even dried up and finding real estate leads is becoming nearly impossible.
Housing markets across Canada appear to be going through a shift. Changing interest rates, new Canadian mortgage rules, and higher household debt leaving much of the market uncertain. No one is sure what the real estate market future holds, but you may already be feeling an impact in your chosen market, especially when it comes to generating real estate leads.
What can you do? A changing housing market can be a challenge for any real estate sales professional. But as most of us learn the hard way, change is inevitable and there are ways to make the best of any bad situation.
First, if you’re working in a market that appears to be cooling, a simple solution is to consider expanding your reach. Look at demographic marketing. Demographic marketing is very easy once you understand a neighbourhood’s demographics. Marketing to the specific demographic that dominates the targeted community is smart and will enable you to be more impactful. For example, if you specialize in condos, look for areas where condo sales are doing well or where the population may be more likely to opt for condo living. If you specialize in income properties, you can use demographic marketing information to find neighbourhoods where those seeking income properties might be more likely to flock. If you serve a particular community or have another specialty, using the demographic information available to you could also serve you well.
The beauty of tools that provide insights into demographics is that you can glean important neighbourhood information without being personally familiar with the area or neighbourhood. In theory, demographics information should reveal all you need to know. It can tell you the types of families, ages of homeowners, types of residents (for example, renters vs. owners), amenities, and more.
Another way to key into important trends in different markets is using houseprice indexes. This can help you identify where markets might be cooling and where they might heat up. For example, if you specialize in condos and see that Toronto’s condo market is booming, you may want to expand your market to those neighbourhoods with renters and condo space available. Explore the latest Teranet houseprice index data.
A cooling market doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It can be an opportunity to expand your reach and explore new neighbourhoods. GeoWarehouse has the demographic marketing tools to help you decide on your new neighbourhood.
The GeoWarehouse Demographics Report tells you about who lives in the neighbourhood in which the property searched is located. Demographic data enables you to answer ALL of your client’s questions about an area, community and demographics. These include age distribution, marital status of residents, structural types of housing, owned/rented properties, average household income and much more. This can help you discover new real estate leads you may not have considered before.
Not a GeoWarehouse subscriber yet? Learn more about how you can use this powerful resource to easily and efficiently perform demographic searches.
Visit www.geowarehouse.ca.