As our real estate business grew, the number of people we were marketing grew also. Soon, we were attempting to sell ourselves as the best in the business for millennial home buyers, first time home buyers, people who are relocating, condo sellers, multi family buyers, expired listings, FSBO converters – you name it, we handled it.
But sometimes less is more.
So, as our business continued to grow, our focus narrowed. And, instead of flailing about grasping at straws, we zeroed in on the people we were best able to help – people like us. One of our spectacularly ambitious and successful children has flown the nest and the other one is poised to make his move. We have more house than we know what to do with but we aren’t quite ready to retire. We have more free time now that we’re not helping with homework and cheering from the sidelines, and we have a little more cash now that we’re not paying college tuition.
So we started going out more. We joined a few clubs like the Rotary Club and started spending more time at the local observatory and library.
We found that there are a lot of people just like us – poking their heads out after a long 20+ years of raising children, blinking at the sun and starting to remember that there is life beyond little league and girl scouts.
Our niche is empty-nesters in Clark and the surrounding towns.
Our clients baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. They’ve worked hard and bought a starter home twenty years ago or so, and then, as the children came, they traded up for a larger home in Clark. Now that their children are moving out, they are looking forward to retirement but want a few more years to prepare. Moving to a smaller home provides them with the financial freedom to aggressively plan for retirement as well as enjoy their pre-retirement life.
How we market to Empty Nesters
Our Downsizing Guide includes information on Decluttering, how and where to donate your “stuff,” and planning where to go next, each written as a blog post and then mailed to long term home owners in Clark and the surrounding towns. We also market our downsizing guides on boosted Facebook posts. We sponsor golf outings and participate heavily in local charity events.
Where we go from here
As we continue to send downsizing and niche-specific information to the long-time homeowners in Cranford, Clark, and the many other towns that we service, we also are beginning to re-brand ourselves. Up until now, our tagline has always been “Everything we touch turns to sold,” but our goal is to have a more niche-tailored unique selling proposition – may be something as simple as “The Downsizing Experts” or something more complex. I’d love your suggestions!