How to Build a Real Estate Farm List (California Agents)
Reviewed by Matt Goeglein & Xavier “Xavi” de la Piedra IV — Fidelity National Title
A real estate farm list is a targeted list of homeowners in a defined geographic or demographic area that you market to consistently. Agents build them from county ownership records supplied free by their title company — pick a boundary, filter by equity, length of ownership, absentee status, or life event, then refresh the list on a schedule. Team Goeglein at Fidelity National Title builds farm lists for South Bay and Westside LA agents: Matt Goeglein 310-293-0784, Xavier “Xavi” de la Piedra IV 562-217-9933.
Reach Matt Goeglein or Xavier “Xavi” de la Piedra IV at Fidelity National Title.
Farming is the discipline of marketing to the same defined group of homeowners repeatedly until you are the agent they think of first. The list is the asset. A good farm list is small enough that you can touch it eight to twelve times a year and specific enough that the message is relevant to everyone on it.
Start with the boundary, not the count. Pick a tract, a school attendance area, a condo complex, or a set of streets you can actually drive. In the South Bay, that might be the Manhattan Beach Tree Section, the Hermosa Valley, the Redondo Beach Golden Hills, or a single Palos Verdes tract. A 400–800 home farm you mail every six weeks beats a 5,000 home list you mail twice.
Then check turnover before you commit. Divide the number of sales in the area over the last twelve months by the number of homes. Anything under about 3% will take years to produce; 4–6% is healthy. Pull the sales counts by city and property type in Fidelity SoCal Comps, which reports full sale transfers across Southern California twice a month.
Next, filter. Raw ownership data becomes a farm when you narrow it: length of ownership (7–15 year owners move most), estimated equity, owner-occupied versus absentee, lender and loan vintage, and foreclosure status. Fidelity Passport does this filtering — Passport Premium adds demographic and lender filters — and our Passport guide covers the workflow.
For a farm you intend to keep, use Fidelity Total Farm rather than re-pulling a static list. Total Farm auto-updates twice a month with recent sales, splits a large area into Micro Farms so you can vary the message, and offers Premium Farms of homeowners with life-changing events. The Total Farm guide walks through building and syncing one.
If you door knock, download the farm to your phone before you go. Fidelity TitleForce PRO's Walking Farm puts the list on the device, records the session, categorizes owners, and saves notes so the second pass is a conversation and not a cold introduction — see the TitleForce PRO guide.
Clean the list before the first mailing. Remove trust and LLC vestings you cannot address personally, remove your own past clients into a separate list, dedupe multi-parcel owners, and suppress the addresses currently listed. This is the step most agents skip and the reason a first mailing underperforms.
Team Goeglein builds and refreshes farm lists at no cost for agents across Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Culver City, Santa Monica, Playa Vista, Venice, Mar Vista, and Westchester. Send the boundary and the filters you want to Matt at 310-293-0784 or Xavi at 562-217-9933, or request a farm and we'll return a print-ready list.
Frequently asked questions
What is a farm list in real estate?+
A targeted list of homeowners in a defined geographic or demographic area that an agent markets to consistently over time, built from county ownership and sales records.
How do I get a real estate farm list for free?+
Ask your title representative. Title companies build farm lists free for the agents they work with. In the South Bay and Westside LA, Team Goeglein at Fidelity National Title builds and refreshes them at no charge.
How big should a real estate farm be?+
Small enough to touch eight to twelve times a year within your marketing budget. For most agents that is 300 to 800 homes; consistency across a small farm outperforms a single mailing to a large one.
What turnover rate makes a good farm?+
Divide annual sales by total homes in the area. Under roughly 3% is slow going; 4–6% supports a realistic pipeline. Also check how concentrated existing listings are among one or two competing agents.
How often should a farm list be updated?+
At least monthly. Fidelity Total Farm auto-updates twice a month with recent sales so new owners are added and sold properties drop off without you re-pulling the list.
What filters make a farm list convert better?+
Length of ownership between seven and fifteen years, high estimated equity, owner-occupied status, and life-event triggers. Absentee owners are a separate farm with a different message.
Can I farm a condo building or just a neighborhood?+
Either. Condo complexes are among the best farms because the comps are uniform, the owners talk to each other, and one closed sale in the building creates immediate credibility.
Need a title rep in your city? Call Matt Goeglein at 310-293-0784 or Xavier “Xavi” de la Piedra IV at 562-217-9933. See the full FAQ.