Why A Specialized Real Estate Focus is Lucrative for Realtors and Brokers

Imagine each morning, sitting at your kitchen table, having your cup of coffee and looking out at a beautiful sunrise on the lake—sounds like a dream, right? Lakefront Living Realty works to make that dream a reality for those who wish to embrace the lifestyle, buyers and real estate professionals alike.

Lakefront Living Realty is making a name for itself in the real estate space through its specialization, focused solely on the buying and selling of lakefront properties. The niche focus allows the company to expand its client appeal, providing a certain competitive advantage when compared with other generalist real estate brokerages.

Since becoming the only real estate franchise focused strictly on lakefront property in 2003, Lakefront Living has been able to identify and define best practices in the industry to help real estate agents and brokers succeed as franchisees. While the same specialized focus in lakefront properties may seemingly be accomplishable operating independently, the value of the Lakefront Living franchise system is clear through its refined, time-tested processes that turn independent realtors and brokers into lakefront real estate mavens. For starters, the company encourages collaboration between brokers, not competition.

“We don’t believe that our brokers or partners should be competing with each other like other big-box real estate franchises do; rather, we think they should be collaborating,” Lakefront Living Realty founder Scott Freerksen said. “Therefore, we promote territory expansion, not saturation.”

Another best practice the company utilizes is niche-focused marketing techniques. This allows brokers to be viewed as the premier lake experts in their specific markets, even if buyers and sellers haven’t met them yet, said Freerksen.

“When you narrow your focus, you expand your appeal. This provides a true competitive advantage to any broker in our system,” Freerksen continued. “In a crowded marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible. We do not try to be the best at all things, we just try to be the best at all things lakefront.”

Now in seven territories across New England, the Midwest and the southern U.S., Lakefront Living Realty prides itself on its streamlined and easy-to-implement onboarding process. Lakefront Living starts with an evaluation of where the prospective broker is in relation to its ‘10 Keys to Lakefront Market Domination’ by grading the prospect in each category. Then, based on the scores, the company puts together a plan of action focused on getting them up to speed in all 10 aspects as quickly as possible without moving backward in a category they already excel in.

In what Freerksen believes is one of the most important aspects of the onboarding process, Lakefront Living then builds a dedicated state property page on the brand's consumer-facing site, LakefrontLiving.com, that is specific to the broker and their market, allowing the franchisee to begin acquiring leads right away. Lakefront Living also makes a point to keep its onboarding systems as easy as possible to implement, according to Freerksen.

“Each chapter of our online operations manual follows the exact steps as the aforementioned 10 keys,” he said. “It uses a checklist approach to move brokers through each phase, ensuring their success. For the first few months, shared-screen online training happens weekly with our onboarding experts.”

To further support its franchisees in becoming as profitable as possible, each step of Lakefront Living’s process builds upon the previous step’s success—and doesn’t move to the next phase until the current one is fully implemented and functional.

Furthermore, becoming a Lakefront Living franchisee means being integrated with the lakefront community itself. “Our partners have an extreme passion for the lakefront lifestyle,” Freerksen said. “They live on lakes themselves, participate in local events and take pride in educating lakefront buyers and sellers with their extensive experience. We truly believe we have the power to change lives, one lake house at a time.”

Annie Faulstich, a Lakefront Living Realty franchise owner in Missouri, can attest to how the brand supports its franchisees. “The way they have supported me and my business is endless and it continues to be,” Faulstich said. “They have the tools and platforms set up from the beginning, so when you come on as a new franchisee, they have the processes in place to make that transition seamless.”

The brand’s support doesn’t end after the onboarding process is complete either, according to Faulstich. Lakefront Living continues to support us by listening to development changes or any other changes we need to make specific to our individual franchise. We also have monthly meetings going over anything we need and how to make our businesses better,” she said.

Faulstich also highlighted the aforementioned niche-focused marketing techniques as something that really helped take her business to the next level. The techniques she learned from Lakefront Living has allowed Faulstich to focus on reaching a national consumer base, as opposed to only in her starter market—in 2019, Faulstich was able to grow her client base from Missouri to reach those in California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Connecticut.

Through its tried-and-true systems, Lakefront Living is able to set its franchisees up for success right off the bat. “Proven systems permit ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results,” said Freerksen. “By letting systems run the business, and having the right people run the systems, brokers can build a business of value while increasing their quality of life. It’s all about working ‘on’ their business and not ‘in’ it.”

The startup costs for a Lakefront Living franchise range from $32,265 to $39,705, with an initial franchise fee of $25,000. To learn more about franchising with Lakefront Living, visit https://www.lakefrontlivingfranchise.com/.