“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” - SethGodin
Our Story. Our Marketing. We are indeed a rare breed in the fast-paced world of real estate. Please take a moment to learn about who we are and what we do.
Serving New Hampshire’s Horse, Farm, Antique & Country Home Communities Statewide
An Introduction to Farms & Barns Farms & Barns Real Estate, LLC www.farmsandbarns.com
800-639-4057
Who We Are. Farms & Barns is made up of a group of dedicated, knowledgeable brokers and salespeople whose hearts are in line with the lifestyle that our listings represent. We are farm owners/avid gardeners, beekeepers, horsewomen, livestock owners and more but are Realtors® first and foremost.
We are smaller on purpose - this is a specialty market. The horse, farm and country home market can be very specific and it is not as big as you might think. Owners of properties with large acreage, those with working farms or farm businesses and horse farm owners, large and small, tend to associate with others who have similar interests, therefore their worlds are filled with like-minded people. This can lead to an erroneous perception making owners THINK that the numbers are much larger than they are. The reality is those who want to own, maintain, and operate one of these properties is miniscule in comparison to the number of buyers purchasing “ordinary” homes. Very few people want to spend the weekend mowing, pruning, managing a barn, or being tied to their property in other ways. Times are changing.
We are well known statewide for our specialty services. We are very grateful for the referrals that come to us from places like the State of New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, NH Farm Bureau, veterinarians, farriers, former horse and farm owners, and happy sellers who looked finally retired and happy buyers living their dream. Referrals and repeat clients are the backbone of our successful business. Our buyers are those very people your property needs. Who are they you ask? Those who want to expand what they are already doing on a smaller scale, bring their horse(s) home, upgrade to a facility of their own for successful trainers, make a lifestyle change that involves a more healthy and less hectic way of life, with or without animals, or just a move to the country from urban areas for peace and quiet, as either a first or second home.
For you, an owner of one of these properties. Points to ponder if yours is a farm or country home or farm vs a suburban home. Here are the facts: These days people in general are more interested in good food, farms and outdoor lifestyles than ever before as they learn about and feel the benefits of these things over time. There are thousands of social media pages and websites that encourage people to make changes in their daily lives that help to lower their stress levels. And doesn’t EVERYONE want chickens or pygmy goats now? Deep down people know that lifestyle does affect them and they are evolving but not in the way you might think. Most people have no desire to do what you do (or did) or own what you own. Yes, people want to eat well, but they prefer to BUY good food, not grow it. Yes, they want a horse, but they prefer to board it, not tend to it every day. They want to go on vacation, out to dinner, sleep in. We are certain that every substantial country homeowner, horse property, facility owner or farmer has heard at least one of the following from someone visiting their property: • “Wow, it’s beautiful here! Who takes care of all of this?” • “Love your property. It looks like a lot of work.” • “The fields are beautiful. Do you have somebody mow them?” • “It’s really nice but who would want to live way out here?” These are all statements about, “it’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t live here or do what you do.” And that is the opinion of most of the buying public as evidenced by New Hampshire’s consistent sales statistics. Only about 10% of all residential sales are homes on substantial acreage, whether a farm or not. Acreage = extra work/expense to most people and they are just not interested.
How Do Buyers Find Our “Boutique” Agency? That is what the big guys call us when competing for a listing, “boutique”. We call it our specialty! They tell sellers that we are irrelevant and can’t compete. We beg to differ. How do we know how well things work for us? We track our visitors, where they are and how they find us with several sources including Google Analytics and Web Statistics. We are as worldwide as the next guy. Most traffic for us generates in the U.S. but Germany, France, England, as well as Canada and Australia are always on our monthly visitors list. Google search results bring buyers to us most often. Isn’t that what you want, to be found by buyers from afar who land on the right website out of the gate?
People shop online for real estate that appeals to them using keywords. They do not shop for an agent or agency which blows a hole in the box companies’ theories that buyers always use their websites to find real estate. When looking for ‘ordinary’ real estate, perhaps, but not so with our specialty!
GOOGLE Queries that landed viewers on farmsandbarns.com farms and barns farms for sale in nh new hampshire farms for sale farms and barns nh nh farms for sale barns for sale in nh farms for sale nh farmsandbarns nh farms and barns
Copied directly from our Google account, to the right are the actual random search phrases used by shoppers that landed Farms & Barns right in front of them. The search phrases in yellow show that many of these viewers were already familiar with us but didn’t know or remember our web address. You can’t argue with statistics. This information should matter to you more than any "exposure" another agency tries to sell you!
farms and barns real estate farm for sale nh farms for sale in new hampshire new hampshire farm real estate nh farm for sale farms and barns for sale NH horse property nh horse farms for sale in nh horse property for sale in nh farm for sale new hampshire new hampshire farm for sale farms and barns realty Horse barns for sale near me farm land for sale in nh
Google searches alone brought over 20,000 sets of eyes to our website in the 2nd half of 2023! Add another 13,000+ from other sources and your listing will be presented, front and center, to the right audience.
Why is there a General Search Bar splashed across the middle of the home page on 99% of all real estate websites?
Above is our state’s largest real estate office, Keller Williams in Bedford with over 440 agents now. This is a snapshot their home page (February 2024) with a screen wide video to recruit new agents. There is no mention of their listed properties anywhere on the most prominent page on their site. What about their seller clients?
The 2nd example above of seller omission by another “box company” as we call them, this one being one of NH’s ReMax agencies. Same thing. Their listings are MIA. There are thousands of agents in NH with not enough business to go around. The goal of most company sites is to connect online visitors to that agent sitting in the office, sitting and waiting. Their seller clients seem to take a back seat-the very seller clients whose interests Realtors® are legally bound to promote first and foremost.
Curious as to where the General Search Bar is on our website? It’s there somewhere but it is hardly front and center. We are beholden to provide this service to site visitors as IDX participants and to keep potential buyers coming back, but we are not willing to mix other companies’ listings in with ours nor ignore our seller clients on our home page. We’ve been told over and over by buyers that trying to find properties on box company websites like the ones we list is nearly impossible. Scrolling through hundreds of listings frustrates them. We listened to them for YOU.
We promote our SELLER CLIENTS properties on our home page where they belong.
Our Early Approach to Technology. At our inception in 2002, we already understood the value of properly worded web search phrases which not many businesses thought about 22 years ago. We were at the forefront of understanding how people were using search engines that seem second nature now. At that time, we made a calculated decision to buy relevant URLs (web addresses) based on what we considered to be smart search phrases that buyers might use when looking for horse property, farms, antique homes or country property in New Hampshire. It was a commonsense approach to where things were headed, and it helped us capture this niche market! Within a few short years, we started getting offers from other agencies to buy our coveted URLs. We knew right then and there that we had made a good investment on our clients’ behalf.
Here's the list of the URL’s we’ve owned since 2002! Follow each link to see where it goes.
www.farmsandbarns.com - of course!
www.nhcountryestates.com
www.nhfarmsforsale.com
www.nhcountryhomes.com
www.nhhorseproperty.com
www.nhcountryproperty.com
www.nhantiquefarms.com www.antiquehomesteadsinNH.com www.farmsinnh.com
www.nhhorsefarms.com www.nhhorsefarmsforsale.com
Depending on your device and/or browser, you may have to mouse over the address and tap the control key to activate the live links above.
If someone searches for your type of property using any of these phrases (or even close to one) these days, they will “land” on farmsandbarns.com and will see your listing on our website. Our plan worked brilliantly. Why is all of this so important? Because our sole responsibility is to expose our clients’ properties to as many potential buyers as possible. We are relentless in our quest to accomplish this. When interviewing agencies, you MUST ask how potential buyers will find your listing. Listen carefully. You now know that being ‘big’, living in the town where the listing is located or having ‘global connections’ isn’t how it works. When buyers find US, they’ll find YOUR property for sale! Our agents live and work all over the state for a very select group of sellers - horse and farm owners whether professional or not, on large or small farms. Antique homes and great country homes are also on our buyers’ radar. We understand your property, can speak intelligently about your home or farm’s features, we know equestrian disciplines and can relate to a buyer’s enthusiasm as well as intelligently make suggestions that assist them in making the decision to call your property “home”.
“This time, we smartly used Farms and Barns to sell our property and it couldn't have been more seamless. Their team has the knowledge and experience which is needed when selling unique, antique and specialized properties. They are professional, personal and would be the first people we'd call if we were looking to sell another NH property
Exposure for Our New Listings Rest assured; buyers are still plentiful despite the interest rate rise in mid-2023. Our new listings get special exposure at the onset as this is when buyer interest is at the highest level. So, what exactly do we do? Be prepared to be impressed.
As We Introduce Your Listing: A complete and thorough listing packet for your property is compiled, ready to email to out to interested buyers and Realtors® whose buyers will see your property on Realtor.com, Zillow or another real estate site shortly after it is submitted to PrimeMLS – our Multiple Listing Service. Once published (live) in MLS it is shared with all Realtor® members across our state and beyond. Since we are ListHub subscribers, your listing is also fed from MLS out to 51 real estate related sites for optimum exposure. Your MLS details are quickly populated onto our and most other agencies’ websites. We link your Features page to your MLS listing. This is a custom page describing what your property has to offer above and beyond what can be promoted in MLS, those features that are important to your buyers. Here they can watch the aerial tour read all the details not able to be inputted in MLS, and link back and forth to the MLS page on our site. Once this step is complete, an email announcement goes out to our many website subscribers. This list includes many of our fellow Realtors® who look to us for listings for their buyers, too. Then it’s on to Farms & Barns social media platforms to announce your new listing. Depending on the property, we’ll use the email photo announcement or a short video clip, exposing your property to an audience of thousands on: • Facebook • Instagram • Pinterest ▪ TikTok ▪ X-formerly Twitter • YouTube We have over 3,400 Facebook followers alone!
Within the Next Few Days: We begin Paid Online Promotions and prepare for print publications as they are due. Where you are advertised depends on the property as it isn’t a one-size fits all promotion feature. Online and print advertising avenues include: AntiqueHomes.com CountryHomesofAmerica.com FarmandRanch.com Haven.com – price point required. Haven Glossy Magazine – price point required. Hommati.com – artistic photographers and videographers also share you listing on their site HomesandLand.com Homes and Land – Our Luxury Online Partnership with them (price point restrictions): • Barron’s • Mansion Global • Penta • The Robb Report • The Washington Post • Unique Homes • Boston.com • World Property Journal • Global Listings HistoricHomes.com HorseProperties.net Land.com LandsofAmerica.com LandandFarm.com LandSaleListings.com LandWatch.com OldHouses.com Print Advertising, timeline based on each publications copy submission deadline: Antique Homes Magazine NH Farm Bureau-Communicator Newspaper – bi-monthly Haven Magazine, NE Edition – full page color ads at certain price points Homes and Land Magazine - Lakes Region (regional) Homes and Land Magazine – Seacoast Region (regional) Seasonal and Other Advertising: Farm Forest and Garden Expo – Active listings scrolling on monitor at our booth. We also routinely support many horse and farm organizations and their events.
We Are as Worldwide as the Next Guy and Great at What We Do! We often hear from sellers that while interviewing different agencies when they were preparing to sell, they were told that Farms & Barns can’t compete with them as their company is big and has worldwide exposure. Frankly, everyone is worldly these days if they are found online, and size has nothing to do with it. And bigger is not always better. Because we have excellent knowledge of our specialty listings, it makes sense that sellers utilize our services. Below are the consistently top 15 visiting countries to our website.
Your listing will not only be well-presented and represented on our website and wherever we market it, but as member of our IDX partnership with our fellow Realtors®, your listing will be shared on all MLS members’ websites. Having your property presented well both visually and factually wherever it is seen should matter to you. We understand the mechanics of what we well. If something is new to one of us, we make the effort to learn about it. Because we do this every day and have good knowledge of most things horse and farm, we are quick to explain what other agents might not understand and we are knowledgeable enough to answer most questions buyers’ pose on the spot, whether our buyers or theirs. All agents are invited to share our good work and great presentations with their qualified buyers. It is in your best interest that we do so. Our professional photographers and artistic videographers do a great job for us, even when it’s out of their comfort zone! Maneuvering the drone through an indoor arena or down the center aisle of the barn is not the norm for these guys. Flying over a herd of cows that spook or close, but not too close, to snorting horses in a pasture isn’t always easy for them but they come though with flying colors every time. The point we’re making is that Farms & Barns as your conduit to the marketplace is beneficial to you. We strive to be the best of the best in the niche market we have chosen to pursue.
We Invite You to Compare Us to the Rest. Thank you for taking the time to read in-depth about our Seller services and how we are far and wide the best choice for your farm. ✅ We highlight the things that matter to your buyers. Your listing has its own Features page tied to its MLS listing on our site only. The description is well-planned and gives potential buyers the farm, facility or property facts that MLS can’t. Our listings have always been presented this way – and very much appreciated by buyers who NEED the extra information. See examples on the next page. ✅ We provide these important property features in great detail. Buyers of most of the properties we represent have a sincere and eager interest in the land, the barns and/or outbuildings and other horse or farm-related features. We also utilize a variety of great visual presentations, including still shots, walk-throughs, aerial videos and aerial still flyovers. ✅ We aggressively promote your property, not everyone else’s. We pledge to you to promote your listing first and foremost. As previously mentioned, we are under no obligation to show competing properties next to yours on our website. When you look at our home page, you see our listings, our sales, information for consumers, etc. Sure, we have a place for visitors to look at everything for sale in New Hampshire as a courtesy and to keep them coming back but it hardly dominates our website. We caved in and changed to automated listing presentations in the interest of accuracy and instant access for viewers. It took months of hard work to accomplish this with an IDX partner who customized everything we asked for! Each listing has the important features YOUR buyers need to know first, customizing features to be seen first. See the red arrows above. The custom buttons link to our listings’ features, and they are VERY POPULAR with buyers.
A Word About Antiques. We LOVE our state's heritage, its historic roots, its old homes and ancillary structures. With homes dating back to the late 1600's near our seacoast to the isolated farms high in the hills that once thrived in local commerce in the 18th and 19th centuries, we are intrigued by and love promoting these properties to New England buyers and those from away who associate them with a simpler time and less complicated way of life. To teach younger buyers to appreciate everything about old homes and farms is a continuing goal of ours. HG-TV has taken over with their tear-out, remodel (as opposed to restore) and modernize everything. Ugh. Our marketing for antique properties is specific and targets those with a strong desire to live in local history and marvel at the ingenuity of prior owners. We promote these properties to those who farm because they generally have the best soils, and to those with horses or livestock for the same reason. We are one of only two NH real estate companies that support and donate to the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance. We've been a member for over 18 years, the other joined in 2020. A few of our favorite antique farm sales:
Brookfield Corner Farm c 1845
Two Maples Farm c 1792
Donny Brook Farm c 1810
Sunninghill Farm c 1750
Maple Hill Farm c 1800
Driscoll Hill Farm c 1810
Arkhive Farm c 1790
The Roost Farm c 1810
Granite Post Farm c 1815 c 1815
Why You Should Choose Us to Represent Your Listing.
We Have Horse, Farm, and Country Home Sellers Covered! First and foremost, as you just read, we have the BEST internet results of all real estate companies in New Hampshire for horse, farm, antique and country property searches. Second and equally as important, we have a captive audience. Our customers, other agencies’ customers, people who bookmark our website and visit often are there for one reason only. They are interested in the listings we have to offer. For a company of 8, we have a HUGE following on our website and on social media and that is to YOUR benefit, with over 3,400 followers on Facebook alone! These enthusiastic folks are our best advertisers even if they are not in the market for a farm or horse property at the moment. They share, comment and otherwise spread our listings far beyond what we could accomplish alone. We do nothing else. We are recognized all over New Hampshire for our specialty services. NH Farm Bureau (members), veterinarians, farriers, NH Preservation Alliance (members), NH Horse Council (members), the University of New Hampshire, etc. often recommend us to clients and customers. OTHER Realtors® continually ask for our help evaluating horse and farm property, how and where to advertise - even for their personal residences!
Our Goals for You, Our Seller Client
1. To afford our SELLER clients YOU the very best exposure possible to what is a very limited audience.
2. To provide your potential buyers with the information they need beyond MLS to make the decision to view your property in person.
3. To secure an a cceptable offer for YOU.
4. To guide YOU through to a successful closing.
We thank you for taking the time to understand how Farms & Barns Real Estate, LLC will make you stand out above the crowd and how our horse, farm, antique and country real estate knowledge, targeted marketing and superb property presentation will help you make your move.