Differentiating Yourself from Your Real Estate Competitors

Differentiating yourself from your competitors in various ways is an important step toward being a top producer.  It’s because differentiation is the foundation of branding yourself and your business.  We all know it’s no longer all about what company you work for as it used to be.  Today, who you are and what you bring to the table are paramount.  The more unique your offerings, the better. 

When you follow the pack and do all the conventional things you think real estate professionals should do, you’re little more than a face in the crowd to most prospects.  But when you’re different, people remember you.  When you become known for something few if anyone else is doing, people remember you.  That’s differentiation.

Here are a few ways you can differentiate yourself from your competitors:

Brand Yourself

Your branding should be a direct reflection of you: who you are, your experience, your knowledge and expertise, and so forth.  So make this identity very clear in all your marketing materials.

It’s amazing how few real estate professionals use personal branding, even in their email addresses.  The majority of them are still only using their company name.  Worse yet, far too many are still using free email accounts such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo or their Internet provider.  This does nothing to brand your business.  It only costs about $10 per year to buy a personalized domain for your email address and website (www.yourname.com).  You can take it one step further and also get a domain describing something about your expertise.  For instance, register www.your-farm-area-real-estate.com.  This will help you become known as a specialist in this area, making you more attractive to prospects buying or selling in that area.

Another big step towards branding is having your own real estate website.  It’s your face on the internet, and yet many real estate professionals still do not have a website, so just having a website is differentiation by default.  My Moneymaker website provides powerful ways of building your brand.

Become The Recognized Expert

Become known as an expert in some aspect of real estate in your area.  The more specialized this knowledge is, the better.  Becoming an expert on a particular neighbourhood in your farm area is way easier and way more valuable to clients than if you try to become expert on your entire city’s real estate market.

One of the best ways of becoming a recognized expert is having articles on your website on the topics you want to be known for your expertise on.  For example, if you want to become known as a neighborhood expert, have lots of information about the neighborhood’s real estate market, current events, new developments, and anything else of interest to current residents or people considering moving there.

My Excelling In The Real Estate Professional course teaches many other ways you can brand your business and take it to the next level.  This course has been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 9 credits.