1. Think Beyond the Local Real Estate Office
It’s perfectly fine to sell to your local realtors (like any sales/service provider, they have a high need for products to give away that get and keep their name out there), but there is so much more to the real estate market than your local agency. Excluding other obvious parts of the market, such as banks and property management firms, there are numerous other businesses meaningfully related to real estate, such as construction companies, investment firms, market-focused news websites and magazines, local and state governments, and even ecological protection groups.
Compare the real estate market to the promotional products industry. To people on the outside, their understanding of how the promotional industry works is, “Go to the store that sells things with names on it, buy a thing with a name on it.” Without meaningful research or experience, they would have no idea that it’s a multi-billion dollar industry that’s an enormous commerce driver, or that it supports a huge web of businesses, from apparel decorators to marketing magazines to some of the last few true American manufacturing companies.
Try and think of the real estate market in the same way. Dig for the “hidden” web of businesses that sprawls out from this niche and find a thread you can tug. Do you have an in with a bank that might want to promote its mortgage offerings or find buyers for foreclosed properties it can’t move? Have you done some great promotional work for magazine and think you might be able to replicate it for one in the real estate field? Do you know a construction company that might be looking to partner with real estate investors or a property management company? There is a lot of breadth to this niche market, and once you find your angle, breaking in should not be all that difficult.
Next: Know What Matters in the Market
