To be successful in real estate and many commissioned sales jobs, it is essential to learn how to blog. It can be time-consuming and painful for those who dislike writing, but it’s best to figure out a way to do it. Some agents believe a blog is a waste of time. Realtors that don’t see the urgency of it are either in denial, overwhelmed, in shock from their new undertaking, or just plain lazy. Some seasoned agents have been around for decades with a long list of buyers and sellers they can rely on from year to year that never gravitated towards technology, believing there was no reason to approach it, but they should have. Everyone needs to expand and refresh their client list no matter how many connections and clients they may have.
No one knows when the markets and economy will change. Things could be going great and then something happens like a stock market crash or a war and suddenly the economy tanks. This is a cycle that happens over and over again. Sometimes we see it coming and sometimes we don’t. What matters is it affects almost all things in finance including mortgage rates.
It’s happening right now in this writing during February of 2023. The Fed continues to raise interest rates to slow inflation causing a ripple effect. Over the last year mortgage rates have climbed from an average of 3.2% to above 6% locking out many new buyers from the housing market. The economy was in a seller's market for some time giving agents, especially in southwestern cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix, and Denver, with low inventory, the upper hand. Agents and Brokers listing homes on the MLS were getting multiple offers to pick and choose from, leading them into a bidding war. That is no longer the case.
When times get tough top sellers at a brokerage with the Lamborgini and $3000 suits might be scrambling for a sale like everyone else unless he or she has some type of exclusive client list that can overcome the rising tide of interest rates. If they don’t they’ll have to go back to marketing the old-school way because they didn’t keep up with technology. Because they ignored blogging and social media they could fail miserably no matter how many homes they have sold in the past.
You are not a seasoned agent with a long list of clients you’ve been dealing with for years. But if you dig in and apply strategies and tactics using blogs and social media to build your brand, you will eventually find yourself in a top seller position with more options than the ones who have built their business by ignoring technology and continue to rely on old-school methods.
It can’t be emphasized enough; to make it in real estate you have to build a brand, and as an agent, the brand is not the brokerage or the broker, it is you. The hardest thing to do in business is brand building. Large companies spend millions on marketing to do it. You are a new agent, and you probably don’t have millions of dollars to spend on marketing to brand yourself. So, this is a huge effort that takes time and hard work. If done with the right content, and a firm grasp of rasp social media, creating posts and videos, and then publishing them on a weekly basis will eventually land you on the map. It takes time so be patient. If you’re not up to snuff on social media there is plenty of reading material around, plus YouTube videos that I found to be as helpful as classroom learning.
My suggestion is to start your social media campaign with blogging. A good blog with the proper content should paint a picture of who you are and what your knowledge base is. When that buyer or seller comes to you because they read your blogs they should feel confident that you as their agent can lead them through the buying process without ever allowing them to endure undue stress and confusion. They are looking for someone to protect their fiduciary interests, and shield them from the pain triggers they may suffer without proper guidance. Your job as an agent is to safely lead them unscathed through the buying or selling process. Remember, you are not just a tour guide showing homes or a listing factory. Your job is to protect your client from all things that may impact them negatively throughout the entire transaction.
Blogging is one of the most effective ways to display your knowledge and expertise to buyers and sellers. It will get your name out on the internet as your website grows organically through SEO. Your only cost will be time and effort. Good, long, meaningful blogs will move you up on those search engines. If you want to keep the search engines happy, I would suggest blogging at least two to three times a week. If you are doing video feeds place them up twice a week. Doing more content will alert the search engines that you are spamming.
You will have to decide what topics you want to write about and how to develop good content. Experiment with the subject matter to determine what blog topics bring the most attention. Google Analytics is a free resource keeping track of which blogs get the most lookers. Through trial and error, you will decide what potential buyers want to read about.
Think about what you would visualize when moving to a new neighborhood. What factors come into play? Most people who move are dreaming about a better life. They want a nice home in a neighborhood that fits that dream. They have been on Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, and other real estate sites viewing homes and pricing them out, but chances are they haven’t spent time in the neighborhoods where the homes they are interested in are located. You on the other hand have should have spent time in those neighborhoods, allowing you to display your knowledge and insight about them.
Because people have a dream in their heads when moving to a new home your blogs must enhance that dream and create content that illuminates the greater aspects of neighborhoods in which you have become an expert.
Begin your blog writing about the perks of the neighborhood. Talk about walking and biking trails, golf, tennis courts, parks, local events, businesses, restaurants, supermarkets, libraries, summer camps, and community pools. If the streets are attractive and treelined bring it up. If the neighborhood has a community center with activities for kids and adults write about it. Speak about other homes and dwellings in the area. Are there luxury homes, inexpensive homes, or highrise living lying within the boundaries?
Make a list of the properties that meet the buyer's price range. Create another list of recent houses sold. Include hard facts like property taxes, special assessments, zoning laws, and the nature of HOAs if they are prevalent in the neighborhoods you are marketing. What about the schools? Look up to see how they rank. Be honest about them. If you can find articles that show the local schools in a glimmering light add that to your post. Blog about all things that would entice a buyer to move to the neighborhood you are describing.
While describing a particular neighborhood talk about the age of the homes. If the homes are older let the reader know if most of them have been renovated. Whether they are new or older describe the exterior layout of homes you think may be of interest to your client. Are there some great views? What are the average setbacks from the house to the street? How large is the average backyard? Are there several houses with pools? If the house doesn’t have a pool is there a community pool? If the buyer wants to install a pool will the lot size of the lot accommodate one?
Get out of the office. Drive around neighborhoods that you are interested in marketing. You might be surprised to find an overlooked little enclave with well-kept homes and cars either parked in the garage or far up in the driveway. Go a few blocks further down the road. Look around to see if the houses are consistent with the ones you just looked at or have you run into a development that has hit the bottom of its cycle? It happens all the time when I’m driving around Las Vegas looking at houses. You can be in a beautiful neighborhood, but when you leave and drive less than a mile down the road you find another development with junky cars, hoods up, car parts lying on the ground, old RVs stuffed against the side of the house, the homes themselves run down and in disrepair. These are the places you want to avoid and never market to your clients unless you find one that wants to live in a neighborhood that is on the downslope to save money.
This is the reason you have to drive around and learn where the sweet spots are because there is no shortage of places where homes are run down and in disarray. I grew up in Philadelphia where one or two streets were nice, and that third or fourth street away lay a danger zone where you couldn’t walk down and come back alive. It’s better in Las Vegas, but some neighborhoods are not so dissimilar to what I described in Philadelphia. If it’s that way in two of the cities I spent many years of my life in then I have to assume it’s the same in many other cities across the United States.
You might want to stay out of the marginal neighborhoods and stick with marketing the nicer ones that don’t tend to change drastically from one street to another. We have some great neighborhoods in Las Vegas. Walk through them, smell the air, and talk to the neighbors. You’ll find out more information about a place from nosey neighbors who like to talk and gossip about other neighbors and things that are going on inside the neighborhood than you would be spending time tracking properties on the MLS, Trulia, Zillow, or some other real estate site.
Take pictures of houses, streets, flowers, bushes, and trees. Take videos along with still pictures. If you have a later iPhone it will do the photography for your purposes just fine. You don’t have to run out and buy an expensive digital camera right away. After practicing it will be fun to see what images you come up with to entice the shopper. As you improve and begin telling stories through imagery the clients should follow.
You should determinedly blog about your area of expertise. Pick a niche that you are willing to learn about from the inside out. What type of homes interest you? Remember that residential real estate is a local market. Some agents expand nationally and globally, maybe someday you’ll get there. But for now, concentrate on the areas you know well, and keep on learning so you can share your knowledge with your clients and customers.
When I was an agent I became infatuated with mid-century modern homes, and I wrote all about them. On the weekends I would get in my car and look for them in areas where they have them in the valley. Over time I gained enough expertise that people would seek me out when they became serious about buying one.
I placed a chatline on my website so I could field questions and give answers. Once your chat line becomes active and you find yourself answering several questions in a day, that means you are on your way to building a community. Building a community between customers, and clients; other agents and brokers, plus all other stakeholders in the real estate world is the key to the beginning of your success.
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