Happy New Year! 🥳 🍾 🥂 ✨ Hope you’ve enjoyed some downtime with the fam, but now, it’s time to dive back into the hustle of things!

What’s new on the work-front:

I’m officially a business: “Good Events Co.”

And I’ve booked my second client for the year. Excited to partner with Spring Bengtzen & Sisu to bring Real Spring Break 2025 to life.

Spring’s a power-house. Couldn’t be more excited to partner with them on bringing Spring Break to life!

If you know of anyone trying to plan an epic event in 2025, I’d love to talk to them!

Now, onto to today’s newsletter …

Building Your Real Estate Marketing Moat

Warren Buffett talks about “economic moats” — competitive advantages that protect a business’s long-term success. In real estate, a marketing moat is your key to standing out in a crowded market, creating sustainable growth, and safeguarding your reputation.

A great marketing moat:

• Grows stronger with every deal closed and client served
• Works even when you’re not actively marketing your business
• Compounds value as your audience and reputation grow
• Is difficult for competitors to duplicate

In a world where everyone is vying for attention, your moat ensures that you’re not just another agent — you’re the go to agent in your market.

Three Marketing Moats Every Agent Needs

1. Community Moats: Build an Audience You Own

Stop relying solely on social media algorithms to get noticed. Instead, create direct, reliable connections with your audience through email newsletters, private groups, or exclusive events. It’s a safer bet to market, grow, and leverage an asset you own than to constantly be trying to go viral no social.

Real Estate Example: Top-producing agents often send curated monthly newsletters highlighting local market insights, community events, and buyer/seller tips. By consistently showing up in their inboxes, they’re positioning themselves as trusted market experts.

How to Start: Launch a neighborhood-focused email list or create a private group for local homeowners. Use these platforms to share value, not just listings.

My friend and long-time realtors, Jason Farris, author of Fresyes.com comes to mind here. A beautifully executed hyperlocal website that serves up everything hyperlocal and boasting well over 30,000+ subscribers.

Experience Moats: Leverage Your Unique Data & Results

Your unique experiences, market knowledge, and client successes are assets no one can replicate. When you highlight the insights you’ve gained from helping buyers and sellers, you set yourself apart as someone who doesn’t just know real estate — you own the local market.

Real Estate Example: An agent who tracks and shares hyper-local data (like days on market, price trends by neighborhood, or seasonal selling tips) builds authority. Or someone that consistently shares their knowledge about buying and selling in a particular market. Your own experience becomes a “data moat” that competitors can’t replicate.

​Ellie Ridge comes to mind here.

Her knowledge of Bar area homes and the construction of a home, makes her expertise unmatched (IMO). And she shows up delivering nuggets of wisdom consistently!

How to Start: Use tools like Homebot or local market reports to provide personalized updates to clients and prospects. And find more ways to deliver your own unique insights. The more insight you provide, the more valuable your expertise becomes.

3. Trust Moats: Become the Go-To Expert

Reputation is everything, especially in real estate. When clients trust you to deliver results, they’ll refer you without hesitation. And that’s the goal. A steady stream of constant referrals because clients know, like, and trust you.

Trust compounds over time — and the more you nurture it, the harder it is for anyone else to compete.

Real Estate Example: Think of agents who are always the first call when someone needs a referral. They’ve built that reputation by delivering consistent results, over-delivering on service, and showing up as the authority in their market.

How to Start: Ask for client reviews and use them everywhere — on your website, in listing presentations, and on social platforms. Then, double down on consistent follow-up and exceptional service to make your name synonymous with trust.

I’m proud of my friends Elmer Morales and Jackie Soto on hitting 3,000 reviews on Zillow last year.

According to Zillow’s 2023 Consumer Housing Trends Report, 42% of home buyers consider online reviews and ratings of real estate agents as a very or extremely important factor in their agent selection process.

It’s important to showcase your “work” by highlighting those testimonials because it influences the consumers decision to use you, or not. But then it’s just as important to deliver on the “promise” of service so that you become referral-worthy.

Your Next Step

Building a marketing moat isn’t an overnight process, but I want you to think about how your marketing activities throughout this new year are adding to building your moat and how every effort you make compounds over time.

Start with what you’re strongest at:

• Do you have a great local email list? Focus on growing it.
• Are you already gathering unique market insights? Force yourself to share them consistently. Have a unique perspective to share? Don’t be afraid to share it.
• Do you have raving fans? Get their testimonials and amplify them.

Your marketing moat ensures you’re not just another agent in your market — you’re the go to agent that people think of first.

So, how will you start building your moat this week?

Ricardo