Carving a niche for your real estate business

Due to the variety Real Estate offers, it is important to carve out a niche for your real estate business to flourish. In this piece, Debo Adejana talks about how you can carve a niche for your real estate business.

It’s no longer news that the real estate venture is ladened with a lot of opportunities to get rich in due time, as a result it endears a lot of people into its fold. However, its major bane is that new comers in an attempt to make it worth their time and energy misplace their priorities.

Evidently, my conclusion springs from their attempt to delve into every facet of real estate with no holds barred. For instance, an estate agent starts a one-man business in the Ikeja suburbs of Lagos state then decides to go on a wild goose chase in his real estate business.

A client comes to him to seek a property in Lekki, another needs an office in Ajangbadi while someone else hopes to buy a house at Apapa. Lo and behold the estate agent throws out his net to reach every depth of the ocean to catch every fish in and outside his perimeter till his net breaks and he loses every fish that he caught; he decides to take on every offer of service at his disposal regardless of the fact that it’s outside his service area or market.

From residential properties to commercial properties; he goes about every property or every facet in real estate business with reckless abandon. As a result it will be almost impossible for the estate agent to make a useful impact or become the cynosure of all eyes in his real estate business. He may never emerge as a force to reckon with in good time and may consequently throw in the towel.

Carving a niche for your real estate business is like being a master ball juggler.

Who is a ball Juggler? A ball Juggler is someone who juggles different balls in quick succession at different times usually in a split of seconds.

Comparatively, when a master ball Juggler wants to juggle twenty balls, he would be losing the chance to juggle the balls before he even starts if he decides to throw all twenty balls into the air at the same time just like it was with the estate agent who goes after every deal in every location; that will be suicidal.

Instead the ball Juggler being a master of the game will start with three balls in a three ball cascade pattern then gradually and steadily increases the ball having found the right velocity, pattern and balance to up his game till he gets to twenty balls.

The level of success he attains adopting this method goes beyond whatever mark he would have attained while attempting doing the impossible with twenty balls at a go.The same goes with someone who wants to attempt everything in real estate business at a go, knowing fully well that real estate is quite broad.

Without much dilly-dallying, suffice to say that real estate is the basis for life in its entirety and as diverse as life is, that’s the same diversity real estate entails; so many types of interest, properties, land use, investments, details, location et al and all these come with their differences. As a real estate enthusiast, you have to get accustomed to all these bits and pieces in the act of real estate market. It is then essential that you carve a niche for yourself.

A developer in the act of real estate may decide to focus on residential building. By this singular act, he has carved a niche for himself. Also,he may go into low cost housing projects, medium housing, high end housing, luxury residential, commercial buildings, malls, e.t.c. Going further upscale will mean going the extra mile without losing your focus. Regardless of the building projects that draws your fancy, you would have succeeded in carving a niche for yourself.

As a real estate agent, if your office is in Ikeja then it will be best you channel your arsenal towards the target area which ideally should be Ikeja and environs. This will attract clients to you when they come to realize that your market is not miles away from your centre of operations. In summary, you can’t be everything or be everywhere at the same time neither can you attempt or want to do every business venture that comes your way. Like the saying goes Jack of all trade, master of none.

To grow and increase your coverage in real estate business, you need to start with your niche area and ensure that you master it, only then can you move on to the next level; only then can you delve into another area that tickles your imagination.

Just like it was with the ball juggler who started his ball joggling exercise with 2-3 balls before gradually and steadily increasing the number having gained momentum and the needed balance to thrive and excel in his game.

Delving into every aspect of real estate business that meets your eye all at once may get you confused or lost on the long run. Invariably, you will be having the same outcome that would have arisen if the ball juggler aforementioned had started out with 20 balls.

Carve a niche and get it right! Then you can proceed to the next level.

Debo Adejana
MD/CEO Realty Point Ltd