Being known as a community expert is crucial to your reputation and it can bring you in many more leads. As a community expert, people rely on you to knowing the best listings in the area and what makes that neighborhood interesting for the particular family. What specific information do your followers want to know from you though?

Knowledge of Local Areas

Do your research before starting to sell property in a new neighborhood. Get to know local schools and what they’re known for, along with rankings. Know what the popular form of transport is and if there are any public transit systems available nearby. Recommend good restaurants or local shops that your families may enjoy as well. Are there any parks or dog parks that would be a great aspect to mention to new families? By having this information ready, you will be able to answer your client’s questions and cater open house events to your families by letting them know the community areas they may enjoy. You want to know the ins-and-outs of the neighborhood so that your potential buyers are confident to ask you questions and they can get to know the neighborhood by listening to you.

Involvement in Community

Get to know the community that you’re working in. Interact with local shops and restaurants, get to know the business owners. Become part of the neighborhood board so that you can get a say in how the neighborhoods changes. In addition, by sharing your interests or affiliations on your website, you never know what conversations could be sparked up or realize the connections you have between each other.  By being involved in the community, you build new relationships that isn’t just with your clients. You can form connections with local business owners and therefore you’re able to recommend each other when the time is right. By knowing more people, you’re able to get the name out to a bigger audience.

Share Events

It isn’t enough to simply know the numbers of your neighborhood. If you’re the go-to person for a community, people want to go to you for recommendations on what’s cool nearby, but also on what events are coming up. Whether this is the local farmer’s market that’s held weekly, or an upcoming artist playing at a neighborhood café, people want to know what you know. By providing this information, potential buyers get an idea for what their pastime activities could be as well. Remember that your relationships go past just closing a deal. As a community expert, you will become people’s “it” person once they’ve bought the house too. This is why having social media to promote local events to your followers is a strategic move, further engaging your audience and branding yourself as the expert.

Create a Community

Your sharing of community expertise doesn’t have to end at simply being involved in the neighborhood and sharing facts. Consider started a neighborhood Facebook Group to allow your neighbors to interact. In doing so, you can share upcoming events to keep your followers update on what’s new and you can get them excited to interact with each other. Being a community expert means you know not only what’s in the community, but also who’s in it. Creating a page means you and other local members can posts questions or status updates, creating a close-knit environment. The key here is to not to create the community page with the sole purpose of promoting your business. The goal is simply creating an online community to get people excited about the neighborhood, get to know one another, and have you be the leader of this group, without being the salesperson of it. Certain questions or comments may lead to indirectly promoting your business, however, you should never do it in a direct way or making the page with the sole intention of directing people to your business. Instead, by providing knowledge on the community, people will see you at the expert and want to come to you for their needs, not because you told them to, but because you proved to know what you’re talking about.

The idea of becoming a community leader is a real estate agent’s goal. By proving one’s self as knowledgeable in the area, people will want to come to you because you have the answers to their questions. Establishing this reputation may seem harder than it is. Just ensure that you can provide the facts about the neighborhood and that you know the people involved in it