Working with Vacation and Resort Home Buyers as a Real Estate Niche

In general, the vacation home buyer is not living in the area. They may have vacationed there many times, but their focus is different when they're having fun. Their need is greater for area information specific to real estate, market areas, and local government & building codes.

Marketing, especially with a website, should be focused on the liberal sharing of this type of information. The more you share, the more they'll value your site and your expertise.

In my real estate practice, I really enjoy the fact that the competition for the vacation home real estate buyer, and even many sellers, begins on the Internet. And, as many of my clients have told me, it ends there as well. They tell me that my website was very informational, and that I responded quickly with email to their requests.

Even though my sale cycle from a visitor providing me with their contact information to the closing can be from eight months to a year, I'm never competing with other local brokers. Once I capture their contact info, we generally maintain a relationship through to a commission.

When a buyer can afford a significant expense to purchase and maintain a vacation property, they are generally a more savvy buyer. Though they know how the process works, they'll be expecting prompt and knowledgeable service, even to the point of being a bit demanding at times.

In return, you'll usually be working with a reasonably tech-savvy buyer, with good email skills, and the ability to respond quickly when you need something signed or an answer to a question.

Once I move a prospect from a general information seeker and casual searcher to signing up for automated new listing and price change alerts, an extremely high percentage will use me for their transaction. They like a bargain, and are careful shoppers, so these alerts give them the opportunity to spend a lot of time learning the market.

If you don't want to spend more time than necessary in answering their questions via email, make sure that you're sending them as detailed a report as you can in their automated alerts.

Though I no longer work with sellers, when I did I found that my resort and vacation home buyers usually came to me first at listing time. All I had to do was maintain contact with them through either mailings or email newsletters until they were ready to sell.

Each vacation or resort market is different, but in general they all experience turnover that brings more buyers. People buy a vacation home, tire of the area, or just decide that they want to try another area. Many have the disposable income to do this shuffle around their favorite playgrounds.

They'll generally turn over a vacation property in five years or less in my market. This means that I need to help them to get the best deal possible, as appreciation is unlikely to aid in offsetting their transaction costs in that short of a time frame.

If you practice real estate in a resort area with a large vacation home and condo market, specializing in this real estate niche can provide a comfortable income, or even a large business if you want that.

Yes, if vacation homes are a large part of your market, you have a lot of competition from other brokerages. But, many of them are trying to do too much, and not focusing on the specific needs of a real estate resort buyer. To truly specialize in this niche, you may alienate some prospects for future listings. Why? I do a lot of posting on my blog site that concentrates on information of value to buyers. This includes telling them how to negotiate with area sellers for the best deal. I talk about the tendency to overprice homes from the outset. Some sellers may not appreciate this, but it brings me business.

I have found that dropping listings and concentrating on vacation home buyers, I enjoy a freedom and clean focus on one side of the process. This allows me to fine tune my marketing and process for the best results. It also allows me to cut brokerage overhead significantly. I don't have to spend money advertising listings. I focus all of my marketing efforts on the Web, via my site, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

A vacation and resort home buyer real estate niche could be just right for you, so check out the possibilities in your area.