Jail Calls

As I was filling up today ($62, thank you very much), this truck pulled into the lot…

The first thing that popped into my head was, “Wow, there is a niche market for anything”. (followed closely by, “Wonder what it would cost to put “PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com across that truck?”)

Real estate coaches, brokers and whatnot will frequently preach, “Find a niche! Find a niche!”

And they are right. When Francy and I started out in real estate, we tried to be the be-all-to-end-all agents for everyone, everywhere. We’d go anywhere, and try to sell anything.

We can’t do that. Phoenix is a big giant city. Some real estate transactions need specialized knowledge. We take listings now on the east side of the Valley — roughly defined as east of Central Avenue. With buyers we’re even more focused geographically. We don’t ignore requests on the west side. We’ve found some agents that work that part of town that we know and trust and refer to them.

(soon, we’ll have a little announcement about Thompson’s Realty expanding that will greatly increase our coverage area. But mums the word for now!)

We are constantly thinking through this business, which is evolving fast. How “niche” do you go? What niche? A niche market in real estate can be geographical, demographic, size/type/style/age/cost of home, and more.

Selling phone service to jails and prisons is an awfully focused niche. I have no idea if they are making money (but the “skin” on that truck was not cheap). But it begs the question — do we narrow our niche even more?  

Maybe. One of the beautiful things about opening our own brokerage is we can run our business however we see fit. And if we find a niche we’re not in that we think needs to be covered, we can recruit the right person to cover it.

That, is a beautiful thing.

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