Unpopular Niche Markets with Incredible Potential | The Zebra Blog

Unpopular Niche Markets with Incredible Potential

When I first started selling real estate, I sought out the expertise of a high-producing agent. I was itching to learn how he found so many transactions. His answer was simple – he simply found the transactions that no one else wanted OR he uncovered potential in niches that no one else had thought of. I took that advice to heart and made a very strong business for myself following these principles. I am constantly on the lookout for new potential markets. Here are a few I have recently unearthed! 

Inherited Homes

I have been talking about Baby Boomers being the largest generation to inherit wealth in decades.  Baby Boomers are born between 1946 to 1964. Their parents are passing away and leaving their wealth to the Boomers which has created a huge surge in inherited homes. In fact, over one million people per year inherit a home.  This makes for a huge opportunity for the agent who is willing to become an expert on working with people who have inherited homes.

When someone inherits a home, very few of them decide to live in that home.  The home could be a wonderful home but chances are that the home could be too old, in the wrong location, too outdated, in need of too many repairs, or simply not the right style and the heir does not want to manage it from afar. A large majority of these new homeowners end up selling the property and this is where you come in.

If you want to work with this group of owners you can easily find this information.  Some agents look for this information at their local court house by looking for probate cases.  Other agents pay a fee to a company that finds this data for them.  Either way the key is to send the correct message to the newly inherited property owner.  You must understand their concerns and create a mailing campaign that will get their attention and keep it.  This is a highly neglected niche market that is there for the eager agent who wants to make it their specialty.

Vacant Homes

This is by far the most overlooked niche market that I have ever seen! Very few agents even know there is a huge number of vacant homes in the market.  According to the Census Bureau, the national home vacancy rate is 1.5% while the vacancy rate in the West is 1.2 %.  This may seem like a low number but if you do the math, you will see there are almost 17 million vacant homes in the United States.

The reason this is such good news for real estate agents is because it represents an untapped opportunity. Many owners of vacant properties are either investors who no longer want to be landlords or people in lifestyle transitions like divorce or senior housing transition.  These potential sellers are motivated and ready to sell.

If you are looking for a niche market to dominate I would highly recommend you take a much closer look at these two possibilities.  With so few agents working these niche markets this could give you an incredible competitive edge.


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If you would like to learn more about these untapped niche market sources as well as many others, you can’t afford to miss this upcoming opportunity coming up on September 28th in the Seattle area:

September 28, 2017
Hotel Nexxus in Northgate, Seattle
9:00 am – Noon

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Sources:

https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/index.html

https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EVACANTUSQ176N

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