Tom Hopkin's Farming System


I'm not writing a dictionary, so if my definition of real estate farming differs from yours, well, that's to be expected.

Real estate farming is a term used to describe a system whereby you can get to become extremely familiar to a large group of people (generally in a specific neighborhood or geographic area). This is accomplished through a slow and laborious (but fun) process of working the people over a long period of time, until they are ripe and ready for harvest. If it's done correctly and with the right intent, the piece of "farmed" ground can create results year after year.

Can you "Farm" online alone? NO! Internet Farming And Prospecting by Jim Crawford This article is what your fellow real estate professionals are reading about real estate farming. In this article, the author, Jim Crawford, states: "Farming is the most effective prospecting tool for cultivating and identifying new potential leads that will generate sales and income for our business." yet, after saying this, he discourages the reader from getting into TRUE real estate farming by stressing the "downside" of farming: the work of it. Oh, and that it's so successful that other people do it as well.

Ok. That also reminds me of the downside of most of most careers, isn't it. The work. Oh, and that SOOOO many people are doing farming.

Let me ask you, how many real estate professionals do you know truly FARM an area? Sure, I get a postcard from one Realtor every month, but has he ever met me? Has he ever done any community service in our neighborhood? Do I know anything about him other than that he sends me a postcard every 4-8 weeks?

Yes, farming is work, but no, although it's admittedly the most successful, nobody is really putting the system to work effectively. For those that do, it works wonders.

Now, this particular article claims that it'd be more effective to do "virtual" farming online. Right... I don't know any realtors with a website!!! Yeah right! Because that which is easiest gets done most and first.

Is spitting a watermelon seed out the side of a pickup truck farming? Well neither is having a website that a customer will come and go from in the middle of the night on their laptop from their bedroom. Even if the customer's email is captured, how is simply e-marketing or sending e-newsletters to people all over town going to give you the synergy of having multiple sales in the same neighborhood?

If you want to include your website in your farming effort, why not create a community website, seperate from your own. The site can list phone numbers for the local utilities, list community news, provide contact info for babysitters in the neighborhood, of course with a section covering the neighborhood real estate activity. This section could list the homes for sell in the neighborhood, as well as some success stories from those that you've recently helped buy or sell?

The web can be a supplement for your real world farming.