What is the importance of uncovering your real estate niche?
Finding your niche is important in any industry, but none more than real estate. From home flipping to wholesaling, the real estate market is comprised with endless investing options for starting a business. Rather than attempting to be an expert in all phases of real estate, it’s necessary for beginners to narrow down a starting point — specifically, determining their real estate niche.
With a wide array of investment avenues to choose from, it’s important for beginner investors to identify a specific field of interest. Known as your real estate niche, this will assist in not only determining which investing avenue you take, but how you distinguish yourself from the competition moving forward. Because the real estate investing arena is filled with an array of competition — there are hundreds of other people who do what you do — the importance of uncovering your real estate niche in 2017 is second to none.
Uncovering Your Real Estate Niche: 5 Questions To Ask YourSelf
Your real estate niche won’t suddenly appear in your lap. Instead, it will need to be crafted. Every industry has competition, but better understanding your real estate niche will help to demonstrate your brand’s value in that specialized area. Ultimately, this will help to cultivate authority in your niche, as well as limit the competition you face. The following questions will help investors to better discover their real estate niche:
1. What Is Your Purpose?
Before announcing your arrival into the real estate world, it’s important to first ask yourself the million dollar question: why? Why are you interested in becoming a real estate investor and what is your primary purpose for doing so?
Whether financial independence or the ability to control more of your time, the first step to starting a real estate business is defining your purpose. Discovering your “why” will also help to push your until you reach your goal, as there may be times that you question your reason for getting started. However, defining your purpose ahead of time will remind yourself exactly why you’re in the real estate business, and hopefully drive you to continue. The key to grow your real estate business lies in understanding your motivation for getting started, which will ultimately help to propel you when times get tough.
Everyone has a reason for getting started in real estate. Whether to fund retirement or generate passive income, the purpose of understanding your “why” is key to not only determining your real estate niche, but following through on it.
2. What Are You Good At?
The next step to discovering your real estate niche is figuring out your skill set. Although this may seem fairly simple, it’s important for beginners to be honest with themselves when identifying their talent. Whether it’s customer service, negotiating deals or an eye for rehabbing, recognizing the difference between what you’re good at versus what you wish you were good at is critical when starting out.
On the flip side, it’s helpful to pinpoint what you’re not good at. Identifying your weaknesses will help to not only locate areas of real estate to avoid, but refine the process of finding the right match as well.
3. What Do You Enjoy Doing Most?
Another component to determining your real estate niche is identifying your interest and passions. The real estate industry is an arena of opportunity, so it’s important to recognize what you enjoy about the industry and how you can imply it to your business. At some point, the job won’t be easy and it will test you. If your business is focused on an area that doesn’t interest you, the chances of quitting are likely. The ability to persevere will depend on your level of enjoyment and passionate for the trade. Although this doesn’t necessary mean you need to find a perfect fit, it’s critical for beginner investors to specialize in something they enjoy.
That said, it’s also important to recognize what you don’t enjoying doing — and avoid it. Concentrate on the aspects of real estate you enjoy, including the components you can add value to; your business will benefit from it in the long run.
4. How Can You Add Value?
What makes you and your business more special than your competition? Figuring out your competitive advantage is the next step to uncovering your real estate niche. Although competition will exist in every facet of the real estate market, it’s important for beginner investors to investigate what they’re good at, as well as how they can add value to it. No matter which investment avenue you choose, it’s critical you identify what it is about you that’s better than the rest. In addition, the ability to comprehend how you can benefit a specific area of real estate will only assist your marketing efforts down the line.
This question is especially important for beginner investors. Understanding your strengths will better assist in uncovering where your value lies, as where as identifying where it doesn’t. Because customers want the most bang for their buck, the ability to see where you can add value will better improve your odds of success moving forward.
5. Is There A Need?
The final question you need to ask yourself: is there a need? While you may believe so, it’s important to conduct your due diligence. This will not only ensure your potential real estate niche is a viable option, but how the competition stacks up.
To get started, investors will need to investigate the end need they’re serving, including the presence of their competition. This will include researching your competition and keeping a log of all competing companies, as well as uncovering how large of a need your niche encompasses. By doing so, you will better understand how your real estate niche impacts others. In addition, it can also help to uncover other niche areas that may not have been utilized.
For those looking to delve into real estate investment in 2017, the first step is discovering your real estate niche. Although this process may seem daunting and unnecessary, it’s a critical component to longevity in real estate. By better understanding your reason for getting started, including what you’re good and how you can add value, investors will put themselves on the right track to success.
