The short answer is no. The detailed answer is simple. Real estate professionals spend thousands per year to get in front of clients and potential clients. Having a heart to heart or wallet to wallet conversation with a potential home buyer or seller is why you get out of bed each morning.
If a home seller asked you about listing their home, would you print off some article you read online and and shove it in their face and walk away? No, you would talk to them for as long as you could, you would attempt to earn their trust, and you would ask for the appointment or go all in and ask for the listing.
Many attempt real estate blogging and take advantage of canned content, and I would relate this activity to the above- shoving a so-called piece of content in their face and walking away. There’s nothing to it, there is no attempt at anything, and your potential client walks away.
As I said, you spend thousands per year on the the off chance of meeting a potential client, yet somehow an hour or two a week to sit down and have a heart to heart with buyers and sellers escapes even those with the best of intentions.
In great market conditions, writing may have seemed more complicated when all you had to say was how easy it is to buy and sell a property, but today, that’s all changed. This economy has given way to virtually thousands of topics impacting all local markets around the country. One great example would be the downward pressure of banks wanting 20% down minimums. Don’t copy a news story, rather, if you’re truly the expert, or have them at your disposal, this is one of many many opportunities to engage both buyers and sellers looking for answers.
Many argue that because you blog doesn’t mean consumers or Google will come, but I would argue that sitting it out and doing nothing insures that fact. It takes a few hours a week to get a great blog humming, but approached with the intention of sitting down with potential clients for a one-on-one chat via your blog has value and meaning, and it’s your best foot forward in this new social economy. It’s conversation for your Twitter fans, as well as your Facebook fans, it’s genuine targeted traffic, it’s real and it’s meaningful.
If sitting down a few hours a week to discuss issues that impact home buyers and sellers is a time suck for you, then I’m not sure that a communications tool like a blog will help you.
However, if you do get this, and you understand the fundamentals of the conversation I’m having with you right now, then I applaud you and wish you well. I hope you’ll drop me an email and invite me for a visit to your real estate blog. Should you have questions you’re shy about asking, I certainly invite you to drop me an email- otherwise, drop us a comment and let AG readers help…
Andrew McKay
February 20, 2011 at 9:03 am
Benn, I know I’ve bored people with these facts before but anyway I moved to Wasaga Beach Canada ( population 16,000, approx 350 homes sold per year and 80 to 90 agents) in November 2007. I got my real estate license in August 2008 just as the credit crunch hit and spent 6 months (dis)believing my brokers training methods would work; door knocking, wearing a badge in the store ( I never did this) networking through clubs etc ( never did this either.)
Started the blog in April 2008 via the Real Estate Tomato and from then on rightly or wrongly all my prospecting is on line. Obviously I meet people socially who may ask what I do but I’m not “That Guy” handing out 10 business cards a day or even 20 if I give 2 to each person so they can give one to a friend:)
Number 1 I enjoy it and this makes the commitment to try and do it properly easier; I have to watch my sarcastic English sense of humour though as my writing is not skilled enough to convey it correctly.
Number 2 for me it works. I am very cynical of the self congratulatory nature of Real Estate awards but as a simple measure I was number 4 in an office of 23 agents in 2010 all with more experience than me and all having lived in the town a lot longer.
Number 3 it differentiates me from 99.9% of local agents who rely on the more traditional marketing techniques and that gets people talking to me.
I just wanted to add this rather long comment to confirm in my case that real estate blogging is not a time waste and give a real life example to agree with your post.
Also there has been a tipping point. Since January the number of on line enquiries has shot up.
Last year was ok but now the flow of potential clients is fairly constant day to day and I think the 18 months ground work since April 2008 has suddenly broken the dam so it isn’t a quick fix/magic bullet but IT DOES WORK.
Apologies for rambling on and please do swing by wasagabeachtalking.com
Andrew
Andrew McKay
February 20, 2011 at 9:08 am
PS I moved to Wasaga Beach from London England and the only people I knew in town were my wife and daughter so really did start from ground zero and hadn’t work in real estate before.