REALTORS® across Texas are using their talents and interests to focus their real estate careers and differentiate themselves from other brokers and agents.

by Ward Lowe   It sounds so elementary: match your talents and real estate knowledge with a customer base seeking your skills. That’s the formula behind finding your niche in the real estate services market.

In a state with as diverse a population and landscape as Texas, opportunities for specialization abound. Whether you possess linguistic skills that facilitate communicating with recent immigrants or are a former cattle hand who knows his way around ranch property, unique knowledge and skills make you stand out in the crowded real estate services market.

Specialization not only promotes you as an expert in an area, but it also helps you focus your business. While you cannot discriminate against customers, as stipulated in the Fair Housing Act, you can target your marketing and sales efforts.

Many real estate professionals have found their niche and generously shared their experiences with Texas REALTOR®. They target historic and high-end homes, first-time homebuyers, and ranch properties, as well as "techies" and seniors. Some planned to pursue these specialties; others fell into their niches through luck or happenstance. Regardless, they all found a little piece of the real estate market to call their own.

Historic homes

Call them old. Call them rundown. Just don’t call them cookie-cutter. "When you go out to the suburbs, every third or fourth house is the same," bemoans Debbie Richardson of Bayou City Real Estate in Houston. She and her husband Dale specialize in selling old and historic homes in downtown Houston.

But their move into the historic-home niche wasn’t a calculated maneuver. While driving around downtown Houston looking for new office space, "we stumbled upon this perfect old home in a perfect location." They rehabbed the building themselves and then bought another historic home, which they also renovated, to live in. During this process, they fell in love with the charm and uniqueness of older homes.

"If I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn’t, because it was a lot more work than I thought it would be," confesses Richardson. But the rehab experiences gave them firsthand knowledge about what it takes to buy and renovate an older building. And that knowledge provides an incalculable edge when dealing with potential buyers.

Jeff Harris of the Residential Group in Austin also knows his way around older homes, having purchased and renovated many himself. Harris purchased his first older home while working in the mortgage business. "I was bored with my job. ... It was a good creative outlet."

Soon he was buying, fixing up, and selling homes in Austin’s central neighborhoods. Harris saw a skyrocketing demand for properties near downtown and a need for his design talents. He quit his job in the mortgage business and pursued a career in real estate.

Because of his experience with renovations and contacts with contractors and architects, "I end up finding people a house and then I end up continuing on as a remodeling consultant." To complete his client’s homebuying experience, Harris presents them with a certificate for a two-hour session with his favorite designer as a closing gift.

First-time homebuyers

When Tom Williams of WestMark, REALTORS® in Lubbock recently began his real estate career, he spent time observing his office’s clientele. He recognized that the majority of his colleagues sold to older, repeat clients who were comfortable with the homebuying process. Williams realized, "No one was selling to first-time homebuyers."

Despite advice from some REALTORS® that first-time homebuyers were "too much trouble" and not worth the small commissions, Williams threw himself into his newly discovered niche with great success. His clients found his dedication and upbeat attitude refreshing.

J.P. Willis of Arbor Realty in Richmond takes a similar attitude of enthusiasm and patience–especially patience–with her first-time homebuyers.

She began her career at an apartment-locating service. Although she wasn’t satisfied with her job and wanted to sell real estate, Willis always took the time to provide outstanding service to her clients. That attention to customer service brought them back and earned her referrals. When Willis made the move into sales, her former apartment-hunting clients who appreciated her dedication to service now came to her looking to buy homes.

Rather than turn away from a ready-made customer base of first-time homebuyers, Willis focused on them. Her niche had found her.

Willis enjoys working with first-time homebuyers and "putting the puzzle together." Although they sometimes need a little hand-holding, Willis says, "That’s OK. That’s part of the job."

Seniors

Like first-time homebuyers, senior clients often require that extra effort. Seniors look for honesty, patience, and understanding from their REALTORS®, and are not always in a hurry to perform a transaction. When working with seniors, Mary Helen Asher of Coldwell Banker First Equity in Amarillo doesn’t mind the lack of fast-paced, money-making deals. She derives immense satisfaction from assisting older customers who require her unique services. "I just love helping these people. Some of my clients have become my best friends."

Before becoming an agent, Asher enjoyed working as a volunteer with the largely senior population in an extended-care hospital. She left to earn her real estate license, but it wasn’t until a close, senior relative sold her home that Asher considered helping seniors as a real estate professional.

"She sold her own home for about 60% of what it was worth. She lost so much money because she was uninformed. That bothered me a lot." Determined to prevent other elderly people from being taken advantage of, Asher looked into becoming a Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES).

The SRES designation was created in 1998 by Tim Corliss, a California broker. Real estate professionals earn their SRES certification by attending a two-day course that helps them learn about the unique market of seniors.

Asher realized that she had to shift her thinking when dealing with senior clients. She had to provide them with more options, more information, and more of her attention than other clients. "I give them a lot of time," confirms Asher.

While she can’t focus exclusively on seniors because she wouldn’t be able to support herself, Asher treasures the relationship she has crafted with those clients.

"More than other people, seniors want to know that you’re being honest and that they can trust you. I think I’ve built a business on trust."

High-end homes

Fran Hoover of Keller Williams Realty knew from the start of her real estate career in 1986 that her niche would be selling high-end homes. "The real estate market was bad, so if I wanted to make any money, I had to list high-end homes," she says. But this Metroplex REALTOR® found out early that her path to success in real estate was not going to be easy.

"When I was in real estate school, the instructor asked each of us to share with the class how we intended to be successful. I said, ‘I plan to specialize in the $300,000 and above market, and this is how I plan to begin my career...’ The instructor stopped me in mid-sentence, told me to sit down, and explained to the class why I would be out of the real estate business in a year."

Unfazed, Hoover set out to craft an image and reputation for the high-end market. Drawing on her previous experience in the corporate world, she created professional presentations and gave herself the fancy-sounding title of marketing specialist. People in the high-end market expect more from a REALTOR®, so Hoover focused on providing them with exceptional service.

Gradually, she gained the experience to go along with her image. And 15 years after her instructor predicted her failure, Fran Hoover continues to prove him wrong.

Ranch properties

Everyone dreams of transforming a hobby or interest into a successful career. Leslie and Brian Smith of Ellen Terry, REALTORS® in Dallas have done just that.

"Brian loves the outdoors. If he could live outdoors, he would," says Leslie Smith. His knowledge of the outdoors combined with her marketing and real estate experience drew the couple to selling farm and ranch properties.

But diving into a farm-and-ranch niche in the mid-1980s real estate market tested their resolve. "Brian grossed $8,500 one year. I had to go to work for a title company for the steady paycheck," Smith recalls. However, his love for his niche kept her husband going. "I don’t know how Brian got out of bed some mornings."

Thanks to the economic prosperity of the 1990s and the advent of telecommuting, people with new-found wealth began looking for rural properties far away from congestion and urban settings. Eventually, Leslie was able to join her husband full-time.

Now, their hard-earned expertise in farm and ranch properties sets them apart from other brokers. "It’s very different from residential real estate. The properties are difficult to find. Most REALTORS® don’t even know how to read a county road map."

Their sales include poultry farms, cattle ranches, hunting retreats, dude ranches, and even a castle. The couple has listed properties in Mexico and Belize, and recently turned down a listing in Ireland.

Techies

Four years ago when Dianne Moore of The Michael Group in Houston started at her first real estate office, "few people there relied on technology as they do today." But Moore was fascinated by the new media and focused on bringing herself up to speed on the Internet and its off-shoots.

She slowly began teaching herself the basics of Web design and programming. She delved further into technology and soon found herself the resident expert, teaching classes at work about the Internet, Web, and cellular phones.

The more she learned and incorporated into her Web site, the more business she garnered from the Internet. In time, all of her business was coming from her site, and most of her clients were self-described "techies."

The tech-savvy crowd found her grasp of new technologies refreshing and enjoyed being able to perform much of their transactions with her via the Internet. Word of mouth–or more likely e-mail–provided her with more techie clients and has encouraged Moore to stay on the cutting edge of realty technology.

These examples represent only a handful of the niches that exist in today’s real estate industry. As competition among real estate professionals continues to increase, many REALTORS® looking for an edge will discover their own area of specialization.

While finding a niche doesn’t guarantee success, it offers a way to fully utilize your skills, pairing your strengths with a complementary real estate market. Some find this process easy, while others search in vain for the specialty that best suits them.

With experts predicting everything from a mild economic slowdown to a full-blown recession, the competition for customers can get only more fierce. How will you differentiate yourself from the REALTOR® down the street?

Photo by Dennis Fagan, art direction by Sheryl Stone, medallion provided by the Texas Historical Commission, saddle provided by Virgil Limon.

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