Recently some words jumped out at me from a web page. They were “Farming vs. Hunting.”

For some reason they stayed in my mind and I kept coming back to those words and pondering them all day. Words and their meanings fascinate me.

Later it hit me: For months now I’ve been using the word “prospecting” to describe the many marketing methods real estate agents use to gather in new customers and clients. The letter sets I’ve written for agents to use to connect with new buyers and sellers are even on a page that’s labeled “prospecting.”

But I was wrong.

In truth, what I’ve been advising real estate professionals to do is not prospecting; it’s farming. Prospecting is more like the “hunting” reference that got me started on this train of thought.

You’re not sifting through the sand hoping to find a golden nugget. You’re planting seeds and nurturing those seeds through the growing season and into harvest. Or at least you should be.

Your first letter is the seed, and your subsequent letters are the sun, rain, and fertilizer that helps those seeds grow. When you do it all correctly, you reap the harvest of a new client or another closed transaction with a past client.

By the time your future customers have read your 3rd or 4th letter, the seeds that are good will have sprouted, and the rest of your letters will serve to nurture them. The remaining letters will add more sun, rain, and fertilizer until they blossom and reward you with a harvest.

Farming isn’t limited to planting seeds via letters and e-mails you send to new prospects.

You plant another seed every time you meet a new person and give your elevator speech. You plant another every time you speak with someone on the phone and offer your advice or assistance. You plant a seed when you send a Twitter message or put a nugget of real estate advice on your Facebook page.

Your monthly or quarterly newsletters; your phone calls to past clients; your participation in community meetings; and even casual chats with those in your sphere of influence all provide nurturing for seeds you’ve already planted.

You may be prospecting at the same time – sifting the sand for those folks who might need your services in the future. But by continually offering your advice and assistance once you’ve found them, you’re farming – nurturing your relationship and increasing the chance that when they need the kind of help that customers pay for, they’ll call on you.

I’m sure there’s not a real estate agent on this planet who doesn’t know what I mean when I talk about prospecting. The word has been interchangeable with farming for as long as I can remember.

But there really is a difference between prospecting and farming, and we as marketers need to use both activities.

Marte Cliff is a freelance copywriter specializing in writing for real estate and related fields. She offers custom copy for websites, email campaigns, press releases, postcards, direct mail letters, newsletters, and more.

Marte also offers pre-written real estate letters for agents who know they need to prospect but just don’t have the time or desire to write their own letters. See how she can help build your business by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com

For those who prefer the “do it yourself” method, Marte has a free report on how to organize and and write a “drip campaign” that will build trust and reel in new clients. Just visit her at http://www.copybymarte.com/dripmarketing.html to request your copy.

One of the top headlines in the Economy & Business section of the Washington Post on March 24, 2010 was “Existing-Home Sales Fall for Third Straight Month”. My first reaction was, “Here we go again, more gloom and doom from the press about the residential real estate market.” But then when I thought about it, perhaps there is a ray of light in these statistics. The graph illustrated in the article shows that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of existing-home sales in millions peaked in November 2009. The end of November 2009 was the original deadline set by Congress for first-time home buyers to contract and settle on a home in order to qualify for the up to $8,000 tax credit.

Sometime in November, 2009 Congress determined that the housing market had not recovered sufficiently and so extended the first-time home buyer credit to contract date by April 30, 2010 and settlement date by June 30, 2010. Further, Congress expanded the program to include a repeat home buyer tax credit of up to $6,500 to stimulate that part of the market.

Fannie Mae is quoted in the article to say, “Unfortunately, despite the high hopes associated with the extended and expanded home-buyer tax credit, housing activity appears to have faced a setback that went beyond the impact of adverse weather conditions.” First quarter 2010 saw some of the most severe winter in 112 years for parts of the United States. But these statistics apparently have accounted for that.

Housing inventory is still rising, which economists determine is due in part by lenders’ decision to put foreclosures on the market. Until home inventory is consistently in line with demand, the market has not fully recovered. According to Tim Quinlan, a Wells Fargo economist, “If we can just… stop the increase in inventory, we could finally get to a point where we’re turning the corner on the housing market.”

In my opinion if existing home sales were on a positive trajectory nationwide, Congress would be compelled to allow the home buyer tax credit to expire as scheduled. Since housing is such a critical component of a healthy United States economy, perhaps Congress will not pull the rug out from under a still recovering housing market and once again extend and perhaps even expand the tax credit. That’s the ray of light at the end of the tunnel I’d like to see.

This is a link to the article: http://bit.ly/d28gvR Should you or someone you know desire guidance from a professional Realtor, please visit our website for more information at: http://www.HuckabyBriscoe.com. Or contact Karen Briscoe with the Huckaby Briscoe Group at 703-734-0192 or Homes@HBGroup.us as we would be delighted to be of assistance.

Scottsdale real estate without the assistance of a realtor. Even if you find something in the newspaper that is listed by a Scottsdale real estate agency, you must remember the listing agent is interested only in selling a house for the seller of that property. In the event you do not like that property after seeing it, you will be back to step one again.

In any red hot real estate market you’ll find boatloads of real estate agents. Figuring out which agent to work with may seem like a relatively trivial task. In fact, it is one of the most important decisions you can make. You can’t go wrong with realtor assistance from a real estate agent in Houston.