2 Tips on Writing for Real Estate Consumers

Aug 26, 2021

It’s safe to assume that most home sellers and buyers don’t know the meaning of “LTV,” they may have never used the word “contingency”, and the word “title” is just a name of a book.

Studies show that the average adult reads at a 9th-grade level and that we actually prefer our reading material to be at a 7th-grade level.

The words you choose to use on your website, in your listing descriptions, and direct mail pieces can make or break the visitor’s or recipient’s experience.

The good news is that writing for an audience of everyday people isn’t at all like what you learned in high school or college. It’s easier, and it’s more fun.

1. Ditch the insider lingo

Unless your audience consists solely of other real estate professionals, using real estate lingo is like writing in a foreign language to an English-only reader. Check out this real-life example:

“If you’re buying a home and apply for a mortgage, one critical factor in

whether you secure financing is your loan-to-value ratio.”

There’s no crime in using normal, everyday American English. So, let’s redo it:

“Something you’ve probably never heard of may stand between you and the interest rate of your dreams: The loan-to-value ratio, or LTV for short. Welcome to the world of real estate, my friend, this is just the beginning of a list of terms you’ll be hearing a lot in the months to come. So, what is the LTV?”

Don’t’ assume that your reader understands commonly-used words and acronyms used in real estate, such as LTV, CMA, contingency, addendum, consideration, and one that we see frequently in the current market, absorption rate.

Take the time to explain them, in plain, friendly English.

2. Why so overly-formal?

“Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is to use the first word that comes to your mind if it is appropriate and colorful,” author Stephen King cautions in his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.”

Let’s take another look at our first example. Check out the formal-yet-clunky vocabulary. “Critical factor” can easily be replaced with “an important factor” and “secure financing” should be changed to “get a loan.”

After all, when one of your clients gets the mortgage he wants, that’s exactly how he describes it: “I got a mortgage,” not “I obtained” “procured” or “secured financing.”

Take off your real estate hat for a minute and imagine that you’re a consumer, wanting to buy a house. You run across this on an agent’s website or a direct mail piece:

“Our agents will apply their extensive community knowledge and professional

resources to find your dream home.”

Is there anything in that sentence that would make you pick up your phone and ask to hire one of their agents? All we can imagine is sitting in a car, hour after hour, with someone who speaks like this.

No thanks.

Consider replacing some of the most common formalities you find in real estate blogs and other written content:

“Use our services” rather than “utilize” them.
“Talk about the process” instead of “discussing” it.
Dare we suggest this one? “home loan” instead of “mortgage.”
Finally, can we all agree that “real estate” and “properties” are things investors buy and that everyday people buy homes, condos, houses?

An engaging, friendly writing style will help potential clients get to know and like you, and offering them valuable information in an easy-to-understand form gets their trust.

Use the same, short, easy-to-understand sentences you use when speaking with a friend and you’ll be on your way.

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Struggling to create intriguing real estate content? Four Quick Fixes.

Blog Success

Oct 28, 2018

At the risk of sounding cliched, content is even more of a king now than when Sumner Redstone coined the “Content is King” mantra.

Gone are those days when a 100-word post, unartfully packed with keywords and links, ranks anywhere near Google’s first-page search results.

It’s not merely content that is king, it’s quality content. Writing for the reader and not the search engine, with relevant, valuable and shareable content is today’s challenge.

If you struggle with content creation, read on.

Determine a content strategy

Your content strategy is best determined by first figuring out your goal in writing it. Sure, we all hope to generate leads with content, but go deeper than that. Are you looking to close more deals, build a referral base or maybe set yourself apart as a niche expert?

Once you’ve nailed your ultimate goal, you’ll need to figure out your target audience or audiences. Creating personas helps you narrow down your audience and helps you provide more relevant and, thus, valuable content.

Need help? Hubspot.com has available, Make My Persona, as a fun tool to help you build your target audience’s persona.

All of your content must be appropriate and of value to this audience. Kelton Ried at Coppyblogger.com calls this an “audience-first mentality.” He goes on to suggest that “Without a deeper understanding of the needs, hopes, desires, and dreams of your audience, you’re doomed to turn them away.”

You have your goal in mind and you know who to target, so let’s get started creating a content strategy action plan.

Creating content to help you meet your goal

If you’ve taken our advice and you are clear on your target audience’s persona, you’ll find that writing becomes a whole lot easier.

If you specialize in a niche, writing content is even easier. An agent who specializes in military relocation, for instance, has an endless number of topics to write about. The same holds true for condo, ranch, waterfront, and luxury real estate specialists.

Generalists, on the other hand, just need to keep the focus on what type of information is valuable to their target audience. Buyers naturally want to know about mortgage rate changes, how to get a mortgage, the mortgage process broken down into layperson’s terms, information on the area’s neighborhoods and, of course, they want to see listings.

TIP: Ask the pros in other industries to write guest posts. This might include your home inspector, favorite title company representative, and lender. Hang on to these for those days when you’re too busy or too writer-blocked to come up with a post.

Make your content work hard

Content should act as a magnet to draw people to your website and it can’t do that if you don’t promote it. The best place to do that is on social media.

Remember, posting a piece of content to your website isn’t the end of that piece. Push it out on social media.

Since most social media platforms are visually oriented, repurpose your content into quick, easy to read infographics. The most commonly shared post on Facebook, by the way, is an image.

Whatever you post, ensure that it grabs the eye – use Canva.com or a graphics program to create compelling photos.

Create a content schedule

Ask any SEO specialist how often to post content and you’ll get a ton of different responses.

We think it’s important to come up with a posting schedule that meshes with your business schedule. Sure, you can promise yourself that you’ll write and post content three times a week, but if you don’t have an assistant or you get busy, the posts won’t get written, posted or promoted.

The best time of day to post and promote your content is another hotly contested issue. Many of the big SEO pros we follow to claim that mid-day or lunchtime is ideal.

The name of the game when considering a content schedule is to bite off just enough that you can chew and stick to it. Consistently.

Start by writing some content centered around the Free Report, “How to CHOP $24,000 & 4 Years OFF Your Mortgage”. Order 100 of this Free Report today to have on hand for requests.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 3 free ways we can help you STILL CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook.

2. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

2. The Free Online ROI Calculator.

Also…check out these cool tools

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