What's the "tipping point" when it comes to hyper-local real estate?

It’s not often you are credited with creating a new or popular phrase in the English language.

Writer Malcolm Gladwell took the term “tipping point” to a whole new level with his book of the same name published in 2000.

He pointed out there are three characteristics of a tipping point – one is contagiousness, it spreads on its own; two is that fact that little changes can have big effects and three, that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment.

Now, when it comes to items that can capture the attention of a nation, for example, the show American Idol or the web site Pinterest or electric cars, there are influencing factors of a different nature moving about on a larger scale.

But when it comes to real estate, the same principles can apply. Take the tipping point characteristic regarding how small things can make a big difference.

Say for example, you want to be known as the guru of hyper-local information in your town. The King of Neighborhood Knowledge. The Lady of Local Expertise.

There are several small strategies you can use that will eventually pay off big, and set off the light bulb in the minds of potential customers in your favor.

For example, you can do the following:

– Blog, tweet and Facebook about local housing market data in your area. But you already know this.

– Blog, tweet and Facebook about construction going on in your area – that new subdivision, the new shopping center.

– Blog, tweet and Facebook about local economic news – is county unemployment going down, a new company moving in, a hospital expanding? As you know, this has a huge local effect on everything.

– The odd and strange – people love this stuff. Is someone building a crazy modernistic home? Are they just building a crazy home made out of shipping containers (that’s happening).

– Shoot photos. People love this stuff as well. And one great photo is a good as a 500-word blog.

– Get the right hyper-local tools. SpatialMatch is a hyper-local database of IDX listings combined with an array of neighborhood data – businesses, schools and relevant information about them, municipal boundaries, parks, etc.

The beauty of all of the items above, is that this does not necessarily have to take up a whole bunch of your precious time, although you might look at the list and go, “Oh man, not more stuff to do!”

Because the flip side of providing this information on the web, is that people only want small snippets. Keep it brief, to the point.

So, take one hour per week gathering relevant local data. Once you find some sources, then its easy street because you can go there every week.

While you are driving around, keep an eye out for little occurrences that make might a great post or photo. Takes you 10 second to snap a photo on your phone.

As for SpatialMatch, it’s easy to embed into your web site. Once it’s up, you can point out homes for sale, cool restaurants, all sorts of goodies displayed right there on a map. You find what you want and then post the link. Bingo – rich, interactive hyper-local content in an instant.

People might not make a decision over one blog. Or a SpatialMatch post of a $10 million house that just went up for sale.

But keep doing it, and as Gladwell says, they are going to start paying attention.

And then, at some point in a person’s mind, their thinking is going to tip. And they are going to tell themselves, you know, “This real estate agent truly knows this market.”

They say the “tipping point” is that magic moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold.

But getting there doesn’t require you to be a magician. Just supply the best local content with the best tools and you’ll go far.

For a demo on SpatialMatch and how it can tip the scales in your favor, click here.