You might need to define "small town." How small are you talking? When we moved to Charlotte from NYC it was small town America to me with the average price of a home being around $160K and I was coming from a market where the average price of a coop or condo in NYC was multiples of that.

 Make IT your farming territory and DOMINATE it like a MOTHA!

     How many agents are already in that town?  How challenging will it be to compete with them?  How many houses change hands every month (how many houses in the MLS)?

     What are the chances it will become a "big town", like Nina Hollander says about Charlotte?

Corinne Guest, Managing Broker I have a friend wo moved to a smaller town and wanted to continue working as an agent. He found out the business was dominated by one company who didn't want any more agents. The alternative was to start his own company and compete with this well established company within the community. It ended up being difficult for him to break into the area.

I am in a small town in CT (14K), but we service many surrounding areas that are close by.  Not sure how the isolated small town would work. My concern would be that it might be a little "incestuous" in terms of everyone knowing someone to hire, but with your experience you should be able to carve out a niche. Good luck!

my town of franklin ma has a population of approx. 34,000....7,658 single family homes in town....  I dig everyday for listings...online and offline.... the team members network every day...  

how do we survive? "we market like we mean it".... all of us.... we're not setting the world on fire in this market, but we're certainly holding our own....and at the top of the heap....

Yikes, it's going to be pretty isolated for you used to all the ammenities we have here. I've moved to the boon docks & did not enjoy it at all.

Corinne,

Our Santa Ynez Valley is probably close to the same population.  It is quite rural with equestrian ranches, avocado ranches, farms and wineries.   Of course the pricepoints in this part of CA are less than in Santa Barbara, but still high.  Many of the agents extend their territory to small cities that are 20-25 miles away, and where Vanderbilt air force base is located.  A

Our metro area is about 100,000 but my town is only about 20000. And I like to stay close. But my service area is about 75,000. The big plus of a small town is, if you're good, you can become well known and trusted.

Scoping out answers...love Pete Xavier with X Group Real Estate Advocates's answer, Corinne. I wish you much success in your new market!

When I moved to my town, the population was less than 20,000 (this was 1985).  Now the town is over 90,000 - at the next sensus I will not be surprised to see us over 100,000.  I loved the small town feel in 1985.  We could go to any community event (the 4th of July at the park) and see many people we knew and liked.  Now our town has a city feel, especially with all the CA transplants who have brought their CA thoughts and politics. Not the town I remember.

Great question Corinne Guest, Managing Broker I don't know.

Best of luck to you making this important decision. If you put your mind to it you can be successful regardless of where you are. 

I have a few good friends realtors in small towns, they are doing just fine, since it is much less competition and more exposure since everyone knows everyone. 

Networking, stand out service and relationships.

I partially grew up in an area of Napa County that was low pop & rural. That's how we did it, becoming the go to person for "that".

Got into the business in small town USA 38 years ago. Raised on farm, interest rates in 1979-1980 were 16.5% adjustable. Best time to get in to the business when the incline is steep. Valuable lessons learned. 23,000 is huge by small town standards. Live in town of 6000. Towns we list in have 45, 199, 238 populations in 6x6 mile squares up here on the Canadian border. And the don't lock your doors know your neighbor and everyone smiles, stops in traffic, 4th lowest crime state ranking is what 8 out of 10 people who live in cities are looking for today. Country friendly. Lots of new telecommuters. The average house price is $71,000 here and same house in Southern ME is $200,000. It's easy math on where you can stretch your dollar and have less people, less stress to enjoy life more. Shifting to grow your own food, get outdoors in nature with simpler living. Not racing through life helter skelter. No HOA's, no property stagers, the agent shoots their own images, video, writes the copy and puts up their own signs A-Z. We list and sell both sides, one lawyer, lots of empty chairs at the settlement closing conference room. Welcome to Mayberry!

I moved to a larger market and it was a smart move.

I would think the living costs in small town America are lower also, so the need to sell million dollar homes is no longer needed.

I do some light carpenter work and handyman and a couple of rentals

You have to find your niche and adjust. In my market area, the average sale price is around $190,000. It takes a lot of sales to make it.

Good luck.

You need to know the number of transactions typically available on an annual basis and design and implement a strategy to capture at least 5% of those.  How do the dollars pencil out?

Good question, not sure of the answer.

I compete...

Corinne Guest, Managing Broker - blessed to be working in towns around Boston!

Never a dull day!!!

23thousand is not that small, our town is not much larger than this and it supports plenty of agents.

I am in a small town with 35,000 residents. However they told me there are 2500 licensed agents claim it is their turf. 

Looks like you have some good advice here.  My city is 100k more than what you're looking at and, sadly, still growing.

I have not had that experience.  If I moved to small town it would likely be in retirement ... and "survival" would be with retirement funds.

I average about 12 sales a year and make a good living doing that.  And I really don't try to hit that number, that's just referral business and the like.  I try to stay in the office to run things and help be guidence and support for my agents.

Hot dogs with lots of pork and beans!

Wow, a challenge for sure. And, it sounds like you are determined to make it work!

To be honest 23,000 doesn't seem that small town to me. Small town to me is like 5000 or less. I think there would be plenty to go around with your knowledge and experience. -Kasey

There are some good ideas below. With your experience and knowledge I bet you will do well as a new company - you'll have plenty of oopportunities to meet new people and share what you do and how. Can you also still maintain a referral business in Barrington, given your history, of clients who would trust and want you to help find another agent when the time is right?

Good question...Lets find out more....Corinne

Interesting question. I am of no help. Good luck.