Neighborhood Farming Has Changed. Your Mail Strategy Should Too.

Important Note: PropStream does not offer legal advice. Before contacting homeowners, we recommend doing your own research and/or consulting with a legal professional.

Neighborhood farming used to mean sending postcards to everyone in a geographic area to stay top of mind as an agent. However, that strategy is becoming less and less effective. Sure, it can still generate listing leads, but modern property data lets you focus on just those homeowners who are most likely to sell.

In other words, instead of blindly sending mail to every address in a neighborhood, you first qualify leads based on their likelihood to sell in the near future and then focus your marketing efforts on just them, yielding a higher overall return on your marketing dollars. 

Why Traditional Neighborhood Farming Is No Longer Efficient

The truth is, traditional neighborhood farming is quickly becoming outdated. Agents who rely on it are likely to be outcompeted by agents who’ve taken a more targeted approach.

While individual postcards may not be expensive, your campaign costs can add up fast when you’re hitting every address in a zip code. To get more out of each postcard you send, it pays to narrow your list of prospects to those most likely to respond with interest.  

The Difference Between Geographic Farming and Data-Driven Neighborhood Farming

The difference between broad geographic farming and data-driven neighborhood farming lies in how you generate your lead lists.

Geographic farming qualifies any homeowner in a specific geographic area as a prospect. By contrast, data-driven neighborhood farming takes it a step further. It involves restricting potential leads not only to those who live in a defined geographic area but also to those who meet certain markers for potential selling motivation.

Homeowner Segments to Consider Pursuing

Consider the following motivated seller segments that you could focus on:

• Long-term owners: These are owners who’ve owned their homes for a long time and may be considering moving.
• High-equity owners: These are owners with significant equity in their homes (or who own them outright) and therefore have a lot to gain from selling.
• Absentee owners: These are owners who do not live at their properties and may welcome a sale to avoid managing them from afar.
• Inherited property owners: These are owners who inherited properties they may not want to keep or prefer to sell to split the proceeds evenly among heirs.
• Senior owners: These are elderly owners who may want to sell to downsize to a more manageable property or move into a care home.

A neighborhood farming list that consists of only one or multiple of these lead types within a defined geographic area tends to produce higher quality leads and more successful outreach.

Tips for Creating Consistent, Multi-Touch Outreach Campaigns

Another way to improve your farming outreach is to take a multi-touch approach across multiple channels. This means, firstly, not giving up after your first outreach attempt and, secondly, not limiting yourself to postcards.

According to RAIN Group, it takes an average of 8 interactions to get an initial meeting (or other conversion) with a new prospect. Consequently, having a consistent follow-up sequence is key.

Furthermore, different prospects may prefer different communication channels. To cover your bases and increase your odds of reaching prospects, use multiple channels, including direct mail, email, phone calls, and even social media. 

When you do, follow these best practices:

• Space out your touchpoints strategically. Avoid clustering all your outreach in one week. Spread postcards, calls, and emails over several weeks so you stay top of mind without overwhelming prospects.
• Keep your messaging consistent across channels. Use the same core offer and branding whether a prospect sees your postcard, opens your email, or answers your call.
• Time your follow-ups around key events. Reach out around anniversaries of home purchase, tax season, or local market shifts that might prompt a homeowner to consider selling.
• Respect frequency and opt-out preferences. Don’t over-contact prospects, and honor any requests to stop outreach, especially via phone or email. 

Pro Tip: PropStream Connect makes it easy to launch a multi-channel marketing campaign directly within the platform. Enjoy free skip tracing*, access to Click-to-Dial and Dialer Campaigns, Lead Automator, and discounted direct mail!

Common Neighborhood Farming Mistakes to Avoid

Meanwhile, you should also avoid these common neighborhood farming pitfalls:

Farming Too Large an Area

Casting too wide a net can spread your marketing budget thin and dilute response rates. Generally, narrower lists tend to outperform broad ones.

Ignoring Seller Motivation Data

Mailing every homeowner in a zip code and ignoring selling motivation can waste money on prospects with no near-term intent to move.

Relying on a Single Channel

Postcards alone miss prospects who respond better to email, phone, or social outreach. In other words, you could be leaving money on the table.

Neglecting to Track Performance

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Farming without measuring response rates means you could keep spending money on tactics that aren’t working.

Giving Up Too Soon

Sending one postcard and moving on ignores the reality that it often takes multiple touches before a prospect will respond. 

Improve Your Neighborhood Farming With PropStream

Take your neighborhood farming to the next level with PropStream. It includes over 160 million property records nationwide and 165 search filters, including 20 pre-built Lead Lists. 

This makes it easier to build smarter neighborhood farming lists and campaigns while reducing wasted marketing spend.

Plus, PropStream allows you to skip trace homeowners’ contact information and launch direct mail, email, and dialing campaigns without ever leaving the platform. 

Start your free 7-day trial today!

*PropStream engages an independent third party to perform skip tracing.