BOTH!

Personally shrunk and focused regarding buyers and I cast a wider net geographically for sellers. But, I built a team so it's bigger than ever in reach with trusted friends & associates covering what I choose to refer away (a lot of distance buyers):

Shrunk. I just drove 2 hours to a listing to check on property. Never again. Think i'll stay within a one hour drive, unless it's something too good to turn down.

What a wonderful goal Michael Elliott 😎  I shrunk mine during the covid days and began revisiting residential.  Prior to that I was selling hotel properties.  I am now further niching to working with people who are not high maintenance.  We must be a fit to proceed with my time, energy and effort for all segments of real estate acquisition and disposition😎

I'm thinking about the same Michael. As the area grows, one more stoplight and one more housing neighborhoods makes the same trip to an area even longer. 

Neither.  It remains the same.  I serve a niche county-wide ... Santa Clara County.  I do not go outside the county ... I refer to agents who know the areas outside the area I serve. 

Oh, shrunk in the extreme.
When I opened my office in 2005 I wanted us to service all of Mohave County, the 5th largest county in the country! 14k square miles! We worked all over the place and it was not practical . . . 

My niche is within a few miles of my home these days.

For a long term client or regular, I'll break that and I have  2 listings an hour away that are easily serviced (land) but otherwise I'm happy to refer out that business if it comes in 'cold' . . .

I like my area and know it well and it keeps me busy enough to not need to own the world!

Your thoughts mirror mine.  I no longer feel that I can serve a market area that I live geographically distant from.  My 100 mile days in the car are gone.  Saying that,  I would go the distance for a friend.  

Our brokerage has expanded to many new markets.

I go where the business takes me as long as it makes sense. Yet, I am rarely tempted to go far. Most of my business has been and will continue to be within a half-hour drive.

It's remained the same.  We work in a vacation/second home market and my "market area" is around the 15,000 acre lake.

Stayed the same.

Wenatchee is a relatively small market area, so geographically there wasn't much shrinking to be done. I did niche as I "aged in the business" but didn't really serve a smaller geographic region.

Smaller area.  I am less inclined to drive the extra distance for a listing and prefer they are closer to home. 

I would say my area was ever shrinking Michael Elliott . As I added more and more developers, builders, and contractors I was obligated to be at more and more model homes. I ended up with hours at each model home that kept me in City limits every day. 

Michael Elliott 

You ask a good question, I have aged in my business, but I was thinking of expanding my area a bit. Keeping it in the same county.

It's pretty much the same for me... a 50 mile radius from the center of Charlotte. With 90% of my business being repeat and referral, I go where my clients want to go.

For the years before my retirement, my market area was less than 25 miles from the office. 

Still increase even with me getting older.  I know I should cut back at my age but still want to help otheres.

Towards the end of my career I was involved in new construction and that limited me to the development. 

Both - I've added licenses in various states for various reasons, but am also focused on local marketshare.  This has served me well as areas ebb & flow in sales volume and I'm able to maintain a pipeline independent of market conditions.

Luckily, in general it has shrunk.  :)

Mine shrunk year after year.

Agents in my office used to make fun of me as I had listings on only 3 to 4 streets.

My geographic market area has done a little bit of both.  I will go further afield for my regulars (as I have more repeat clients as I've aged in the business)... but I won't travel as far for new customers.

So while my geographic market area might have shrunk, my waist has expanded as I've aged.

Good plan Michael, good to keep a smaller geographic market reach, especially in residential sales.

We have a fairly diverse business, both in Forestry and Real Estate.

In our forestry business it depends on he project, for large inventories and appraisals we are nationwide.  While more followup intensive projects like timber sales and management plans we like to stick closer to one of our offices.

In our real estate business, land sales are state wide, residential sales are within an hour of one of our offices, and much shorter when working with buyers.  And all rental properties are within a mile of the offices.

Both. From a pure geographic perspective- I am in the process of expanding about 20 blocks southward. Historically, I was really only working the northern most portion of the Upper West Side consistent with my Harlem/Morningside Heights/Hamilton Heights focus- and will now start covering a larger part of the UWS- about 20 blocks further south.  It's not a quick expansion as the UWS is a very crowded market- and I really feel I need to learn a lot more about the individual buildings before I fully dive in- as I am known as a building expert. 

In the last few years, I have further refined what types of listings I don't want to work with- i.e. HDFC Co-op's and I don't want to spend as much time in northern Washington Heights/Inwood because if the inventory is nor there- then buyers tend to give up, look outside my coverage area, or it's a multi-year search at a price point that doesn't make sense for me to invest that kind of time.