As a realtor, are you trying to be everything to everybody? Here’s how to find your niche.

As the real estate market becomes more competitive, it can be tempting to diversify. Unfortunately while diversification is a great strategy for your retirement fund, it tends to fall through as a career model. With an industry as fast-paced and challenging as real estate, finding and filling a niche is often far superior than attempting to do everything at once–diversification is for companies, not individuals. When you specialize, you can ensure that you are always doing the best job possible for your clients. Keep in mind that the old title “jack of all trades” ends with “master of none.”

Finding your niche generally begins with trying out multiple aspects of the real estate industry and seeing where your potential and profit lies. The most successful real estate sectors vary with the economy and the local community along with many other factors. It’s also a question of which aspects of real estate appeal most to you as an individual. It can be extremely difficult to do a job that you don’t truly enjoy and believe in.

Those more confident and aggressive may lean towards higher stakes corporate real estate deals, while those simply looking for a steady paycheck may be more interested in the property management side of real estate. On the other hand, perhaps you’ve just always dreamed of finding people their perfect homes, or maybe you discover that you’re an expert at closing sales quickly. There is a multitude of possibilities that can be explored, and nearly all of them provide opportunities for growth.

As with anything, finding the right niche for your skill set and the current economy is a process. Remember that if something doesn’t immediately work out for you, that’s still progress! Keep taking steps forward and building up a comprehensive knowledge of the real estate industry and eventually you’ll find a market that truly clicks with you.