Start with turnover
A farm only pays if enough homes in it sell. Turnover is the share of homes that changed hands in a year. An area where 6 of every 100 homes sell each year gives you twice as many chances as one where 3 do, for the same mailing cost.
How we estimate it
- Sales are the homes sold in the ZIP code over the last 12 months, from Redfin’s data.
- Households are all occupied homes, owners and renters, estimated from Census figures: population ÷ household size.
- Turnover is sales divided by households. It is what a mailing to every door reaches.
- Owner-occupied only divides the same sales by owner-occupied homes. It is higher, and too high where many of the homes that sell are rentals.
A neighborhood of owner-occupied houses usually falls between the two figures. Use them to rank ZIP codes against each other, then count sales and homes in the MLS for the exact streets you have in mind.
What to look for
Farming guides commonly suggest 5% to 6% of homes selling each year, measured in the neighborhood you’d farm, and 250 to 500 homes to start. Those are practitioner conventions. A whole ZIP code averages fast and slow neighborhoods together, so most will come in lower. For context, Redfin reported that 2.8% of all U.S. homes changed hands in the first nine months of 2025.
Price matters too. “Commission per household” multiplies turnover by price and commission, so you can weigh a slow, expensive area against a busy, cheaper one. Next, run your pick through the farm ROI calculator, and read how to choose a farm area.
Questions agents ask
What is a good turnover rate for a real estate farm?
Farming guides commonly look for 5% to 6% or more of homes selling each year. That is practitioner convention, not research, and a higher price point can make a lower rate workable.
How do you calculate turnover rate?
Divide the homes sold in the last 12 months by the number of homes in the area. An area of 400 homes with 24 sales has 6% turnover.
How many homes should be in a farm?
Many agents start with 250 to 500 homes, a size they can afford to mail every month for at least a year. Grow it once the first area is paying.