Every single real estate agent in the world should be blogging.
How’s that for a statement?
Realtors, are you reading this? Do you want to earn a reputation as a knowledgeable, trustworthy expert?
Blogs offer you a simple way to do just that. A while back, I wrote a description of business blogs that basically went something like this:
Most cities and towns have free neighbourhood newspapers. In mine, we have columns about investing, real estate, and fitness written by local experts. The columns are written as straight news and information ??? no selling or schilling at all. At the end of the article there is a line to the effect that John Smith is a financial adviser for Smith, Smith and Smith.
A blog is exactly like that column.
A realtor’s blog should ideally be a place to talk about what’s going on in the market, trends, tips on how to prep your house for sale, tips on how to manage the buying process, how to hire a home inspector, what streets are particularly hot, changes to zoning that may affect pricing, and so on.
I would be sure to open up my site to comments. Comments would be a wonderful way to connect with prospective clients. By responding to comments and engaging in a conversation you begin to build a relationship based on trust and respect. Pretty powerful stuff.
Just about every realtor already has a web site. If I were you, I’d replace the front page of your site with a blog, and change the rest of the site over to your blogging system. This will allow you to simply and easily upload photos, update listings, make edits as prices change, update lending rates, etc etc.
If you’re concerned that you won’t have the time to manage all this, there are a number of options available that I’d be more than happy to discuss with you!