100 Real Estate Blog Topics
Writer’s Block - Be - Gone
Real estate blogging topics range widely but most topics can be focused locally. Every community needs a local expert to answer questions, concerns and keep them informed on their local market conditions. Our last weeks post about How to setup a blog should give you a good base in creating your local online community of local readers/followers.
Most people aren’t looking to directly buy or sell real estate from your blog, they are looking for information or answers to industry related questions. Keep the conversation informative and light, forgetting that you are doing this to sell houses or gain leads. They will use your services, without you even asking them, if you do this correctly. You will create a personal following by just updating people on what is new in your life, what activities you’re involved in, what you’re about to do, etc.
Keep yourself in front of people so they don’t forget you and provide them with useful information to keep them coming back to you for more. This includes friends, family, and even strangers who find your life interesting. Now the time comes that one of your readers has a need for your service, and you are in their face everyday because of the useful information you provide, guess who gets the sale?
Here are 100 real estate blogging topics to help get the creative juices flowing:
1. Local Market Data
2. Top 10 Lists
3. Not Top 10 Lists - (MLS photos for example)
4. Video Property Post - write a little bit about a featured listing and embed a YouTube video with the write-up.
5. Mortgage Rates
6. Tax Credits
7. Neighborhood Showcase
8. Local Business - provide them with a copy of your post.
9. Credit Reports
10. National Market Trends
11. Renting a House vs. Buying a Home
12. Community Meeting Summary
13. Types of Mortgages
14. Home Improvements
15. Home Maintenance
16. Photo Montage - Take a picture of something local, post it and write about it.
17. Historic Buildings
18. Housing Styles in Your Area
19. Events for Kids
20. Advice for FSBO’s
21. Interview Someone
22. Featured Parks
23. Featured Schools
24. Zoos
25. Furniture/Staging a Home
26. Crime Rates
27. Property Taxes
28. Senior Housing
29. Rental Properties
30. Churches
31. A Closing
32. Showcase a Lender
33. Things That Have Gone Wrong During A Real Estate Sale
34. Second Homes
35. Breaking Mortgage News
36. City Council
37. Transportation Systems
38. Home Safety
39. Local Real Estate Websites
40. Art
41. New Construction Homes
42. Building Trends
43. How to Sell a Home
44. How to Buy a Home
45. What Not to do When Selling a Home
46. Interior Decorating Ideas
47. Improving Curb Appeal
48. Lawn and Garden Improvements
49. Consumer Scams
50. Credit Scores
51. Foreclosures
52. Real Estate Investing
53. Legal Real Estate Terms
54. Book Review of a Real Estate Genre
55. Best Restaurants in the Area
56. Shopping
57. Moving Tips
58. A Story of a Client That You Enjoyed
59. Local News Topics - you can add some commentary if you so desire.
60. Funny Story
61. Commercial Real Estate in Your Area
62. Waterfront Properties in Your Area
63. Write About What it’s Like Being A Realtor
64. Conserving Energy or Going Green
65. Final Walk Through
66. Real Estate Internet Trends
67. Short Sales
68. Dealing With Tenants
69. Home Ownership
70. Property Taxes
71. Condos
72. Earnest Money
73. Types of Mortgage Loans
74. Lots or Land
75. Your Marketing Strategy to Sell Their Home
76. Vacations
77. Real Estate Investing
78. Zoning
79. Charities
80. Market Predictions
81. Is it the Right Time to Buy?
82. Luxury Properties
83. The Price is Right (hosted by your home)
84. Government Involvement With Home Owners
85. Flood Zones or Natural Disasters
86. Home Equity
87. Family Living
88. Online Media and Real Estate
89. Appraised Value
90. Closing Costs
91. Good Faith Estimate
92. Liens
93. Refinancing
94. Create a Walk Through Checklist
95. Highlight a Community
96. Bang for Your Buck Home Improvements
97. List The Pros and Cons of Working With an Agent
98. Top Things to Look for in a Home
99. First Time Home Buyers
100. List Community Resource Links
This Little Piggy Went to Marketing…
Times have changed. People are hunkering down and learning to live within their means. They are foregoing weekly dinners out, opting to stay home and have movie night instead. They are shopping more and more at Discount stores like Wal-Mart or Target and even small scale discount boutique shops (see Bloomberg News).
In today’s environment, it is NOT chic to overspend or to be wasteful. Personally, I think its a good thing to live within your means and its good to have conversations with your kids about the VALUE of creating a budget and STAYING on a budget. But what if you’re a business owner, or an entrepreneur? How does this affect you?
Here’s what I’ve noticed. The minute that financial times are tough, the first thing that gets cut is excess spending, and most people count MARKETING in this venue.
Should you be concerned? YES! Why? Because there is a way to market yourself without spending much money, and yet most people give up on marketing themselves and when times change, money comes in and they start up again, they’ve already lost a wide audience. Those that stay in business are those that continue to reach out to their consumers. Those that continue to MARKET themselves and their services. If you’re going to give up traditional OUTBOUND marketing strategies (cold calling, TV or print ads), you need to replace with INBOUND marketing strategies such as engaging videos, websites, blogs, social networks, search engines, etc. (see The Customer Collective).
We are so lucky to have online marketing. Companies are flocking to the internet to let their clients know about their products. They hold raffles, give-aways, community fund raisers, etc, to engage the client. A prefect example of this is Dell - There they are, bright as day, engaging their consumers! Become a fan, they ask, and if you do, you will find out all about their promotions. “Great!”, you say, but I’m a REALTOR (or a lender, or sell dog biscuits). “It wont work for me!” I beg to differ! Look at these examples: GMAC has created a Facebook Fan Page and are giving their clients community information. The Canal Fultons community page focuses conversation on reaching out to the COMMUNITY and not talking all about themselves! The ALL-ABOUT-ME mentality is gone and you need to shift as well. So, I say, make adjustments to your budget if you must, BUT replace what you’re giving up with new engaging online marketing strategies. Interact and win!
Guest Post by: Amanda Wernick
Real Estate Bloggers
Blogging – A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video (this is our blog)
How can a blog help grow your business?
An office blog can enhance the communication and culture within your company. It also builds credibility, branding your company as one that is “the expert” in your local market or niche. As an agent, you can really give prospect buyers and sellers an idea for who you are as a Realtor and as a person. The importance of community is huge in such a relational industry and that is why blogs have been so effective in communicating this aspect in a way that has previously been difficult to obtain through online avenues.
I’ll give you an example of how I found a blog useful: Last October I did a Google search for “first time home buyers tax credit”. One of the first things that came up was a local real estate agent first time home buyer article on their blog. I was able to get some great information and post a comment with some questions I had on the credit. “Can I get it early? Can I use it towards my down payment?” That is one case of how a Realtor was able to generate a lead (me) from their blog.
Connecting with the local community and it’s members is a great quality of blogs. Charities or area events will build credibility for you and your business. Posting those events to your blog gives you a platform to share what you are doing to make your city and world a better place. Now who wouldn’t want to work with a Realtor who has a blog dedicated to them, the local community?
Getting Started
1. Find a blog platform: Beginning a blog can be one of the hardest parts if you don’t know where to look. A few great free blog sites are Active Rain, Blogger or WordPress. Active Rain is a Realtor favorite because it’s build specifically for you! There are groups of agents and specialized niches where you can connect with others that write about similar topics as yourself. Blogger.com is a very easy to use platform that doesn’t really have all the bells and whistles but it’s a great starter. WordPress.org is a bit more complex but can be customized to specifically what you are looking for. If you have some experience in blogging, than you may want to check out WordPress for additional themes and functionality.
2. Post articles: Once you have your blog setup, it’s now time to start writing. What should your write about? Start with writing about what you specialize in or excel at. You can always post tips for buying or selling to get started. We will be posting a bunch of topics later this week so stayed tuned for more information. Here are a few examples of top real estate blogs: Real estate agents Teresa Berry and Amanda Wernick both use Active Rain for their blog platform of choice. Teresa uses her blog to post events and charity causes very well. Amanda is more focused on posting about current market trends and controversies to spark discussion. As an office, Jumper Realty & Associates provides national news and trends in the industry with the majority of their posts.
What direction have you guided your blog? Where do you go from there?
Please share with us successes, failures or other experiences that you have had from your personal blog in our comments section below.
Staying LinkedIn the Real Estate Industry
LinkedIn is often called “The Redheaded Stepchild of Social Media.” Most people create a profile and leave it in a dormant state.
Mistake #1 Most real estate professionals underestimate the search engine power of LinkedIn. This social network has a very high internet search engine ranking. Take some time to run a search on your name on google.com. If you currently have a LinkedIn account, you will notice your profile will be on the 1st page.
Mistake #2 Most real estate professionals leave their website link with the default names such as My Website, My Blog, etc. Given the ranking authority of LinkedIn, it is best to rename those to keywords that people can find your business via an internet search. A great example to be found by consumers in my neighborhood would be: Santa Clarita Real Estate Agents or Santa Clarita Mortgage Lenders.
Here is another example, I changed my main mortgage website to: Foreclosure Options
I changed “My Blog” to: Real Estate Marketing
I changed my Facebook fan page to: Facebook Marketing
This can easily be done by clicking on edit website or blog, then click on “Other” and enter in your specific keywords and save the changes.
One key feature of LinkedIn that makes this social network stand out from all the others is the recommendations feature. There is no better way to promote your business than by others sharing your expertise.
How do you go about obtaining recommendations, you ask?
The best way to increase your recommendations is by giving them. Of course, it’s best to start with your known business contacts and ask them to return the favor. Be sure to import your email contacts as that is the fastest way to initiate your LinkedIn network.
It is also important to update your status updates on LinkedIn as it is visible to your entire network. I highly recommend hootsuite.com as a site to manage your social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook fan page & profile, and LinkedIn. It is possible to update all of these sites using hootsuite. Here are the posts that describe how to integrate and manage these sites with your hootsuite account.
http://blog.hootsuite.com/hootsuite-integrates-lists-facebook-and-linkedin/
http://blog.hootsuite.com/manage-facebook-fan-pages-with-hootsuite/
Now it is time for you to take action. Go to your LinkedIn account and setup your profile in the right way so that consumers can find you on the internet. Let us know in the comments about your most pressing LinkedIn questions or issues.
Learn more social media strategies by using this Social Media Real Estate Marketing ebook
http://www.profcs.com/app/?af=1135252
Guest Author - Naomi Trower
Real Estate Broker & Social Media Strategies
Social Media Real Estate Marketing
“Teaching Professionals Social Media”
