How to Master Writing for Real Estate

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Writing is an invaluable skill in real estate. Whether you're emailing a client or crafting a caption for social, your words hold meaning and create possibilities. 

In marketing, your language can be used for not only sales, but also as a way to form connections. In daily communication, your writing sets an impression of your agent branding and also reflects your customer service. 

From creative listing descriptions to everyday emails, writing is a fundamental aspect of real estate. Yet, it's a skill that many agents haven't had the opportunity to improve. 

So, in today's episode, I'm sharing how you can finally master writing for real estate!

When I was a kid, I loved the process of getting ready to go back to school every year. We'd head to the store and work our way through the back-to-school supply list. And I had big decisions to make, like which Lisa Frank folder would I choose? Dolphin or leopard? Which spiral-bound notebook and gel pen would I use for my favorite class, English?

I couldn't wait to raise my hand and volunteer to label the parts of a sentence on the blackboard. Summer reading? I'd completed that months ago. Reading and creative writing filled my days in elementary school, and I'm not ashamed to admit that same passion followed me into adulthood. 

However, as the years move on for most people, the time spent on improving their writing dwindles and dwindles, which is a shame because people are writing more now than ever before. Think about your own day so far. How many emails have you sent or read? How many texts have you responded to? Have you recently worked on a listing description or written a caption for social?

All of the communication that makes up your day plays a crucial role in your marketing, your branding, and even your customer service.

When I receive an email from someone full of typos or using terse language, it sets an impression. That impression might be that the sender didn't care enough about our relationship to simply proof their work.

This might have been completely unintentional, but the damage is already done. I have a bad impression of their professionalism, customer service, and even knowledge. As a Realtor, that's the last way you want a customer to feel.

Likewise, your writing is a powerful tool in your marketing. With the right social media caption, you could attract a new buyer or seller to work with you. The language on your landing page can mean the difference between generating no leads or dozens of leads. Your agent bio might be the deciding factor between you and another agent. And examples of your listing descriptions might cost you a listing or get you one!

Your writing skills are essential to successful real estate marketing and are a reflection of your business practices in general. So, let's work on some easy ways you can improve your skills right away - no college classes, boring lectures, or excessive exercises required!

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1. Build Off Your Agent Branding

How you express yourself with words is a key aspect of your agent branding. If you want to appear professional, your language needs a base of professionalism. If you are more casual, your writing can reflect that.

The first step to improving your writing is recognizing that your tone of language and style represent who you are as an agent. So, decide right away how you want to be seen and keep that vision in mind every time you go to write something. (If you need more help with branding, check out my agent branding series starting at episode 39.)

Yet, I understand just how challenging this concept can be for some. So, here's a cheat for you -

Write how you talk. It's that simple. If you want your branding to be reflected in your writing, type out exactly what you would say in person to someone. From there, you can polish it up, but you'll have a base that sounds like you, makes you more relatable, and can be molded to fit any marketing efforts!

2. Know Your Medium, Audience & Goal

You don't write the same way across every medium in your business and marketing. Your texts are probably much different than the copy on your website. Your social media captions don't look the same as an email. Writing is situational. What works for a quick reply might not work for a more serious discussion. Recognize this and write appropriately.

For example, nobody likes to receive multiple paragraphs in a long text message. Just seeing the amount you need to scroll through is overwhelming. You don't want your customers to dread receiving messages from you! Always be mindful of what works best for each method of communication you're using.

Next, keep in mind your audience and the goal of your writing. Who you are writing to can shape exactly what you say. Instead of thinking, "what do I want to say?" switch your perspective and think "what would the person reading this take away?" We often get so caught up in trying to get our point across that we lose sight of the person who is actually reading our writing. What would benefit your reader the most? This concept naturally leads you to your goal.

Every time you write something, you should have a goal. This increases your clarity and helps you accomplish whatever you set out to do. At the end of reading whatever you write, I should know exactly what I need to do with the information you shared, how it impacts me, and if I need to do anything next. If you have a clear goal, you'll have clearer writing!

3. Use a Tool to Proof Your Work Like Grammarly Business

"Fix your spelling and grammar" is Grammarly's simple tagline, and I couldn't agree more! You cannot rely on the spellcheck features within your email or word documents. These built-in tools miss all kinds of embarrassing errors.

I've been using Grammarly Business for many years now, and I highly recommend it! Grammarly checks your writing not only for misspellings and incorrect punctuation, but it also checks for complex mistakes and makes suggestions to improve your writing. For example, if you have a lengthy sentence that's difficult to read, Grammarly will flag it and suggest a new sentence for you. It will also remind you of all the English rules you learned in school but have forgotten, and will then show you exactly how to fix your mistakes.

To use Grammarly, you can download the extension to your internet browser. So, if you're using an email platform like Gmail, Grammarly will automatically check your work as you use Gmail. You can also download the desktop app and use it on your computer or the keyboard extension for your phone. All of these options make it easy for you to integrate Grammarly into your daily workflow.

Now, I will say that I think it is 100% worth it to upgrade from the free version to the business account. I don't find that the free version works as effectively at finding all of your errors and making suggestions. At the time of this recording, an annual plan for business is only $12.50 a month, a small price to pay to ensure that you're not embarrassing yourself with typos and to improve your overall writing.

If you want to give it a try, head to ideasforrealestate.com/favorites. There I have a link for you to try Grammarly Business for free. 

4. Create Templates to Guide You

How many times have customers asked you the same questions? How many times do you send a welcome email to a new customer or reach out to an industry partner to check on the status of something? Next time you write an email that you know you'll use again, simply save it as a template.

This not only saves you time but it ensures the quality of your writing moving forward. You only have to focus one time on writing a quality piece, and then you can reuse it!

The different email systems have features for this, or you could use a tool like Evernote to save your templates.

If you're somebody who already uses the email template hack, you're going to love my next one!

Use a fill-in-the-blanks approach or save sentences to reuse across your marketing. For example, look at your last listing description. Was there a flow to your description? Would it be possible to reuse this for another listing in the future?

If your listing description started off with "Welcome home to 123 Main St. located in the picturesque community of XYZ and just minutes from XYZ feature," you could easily reuse that same sentence. "Welcome to 123 Main St." can become, "Welcome home to 789 Magnolia Lane situated in the charming neighborhood of Wild Groves and around the corner from Baker's Park."

The more you write intentionally, the more you'll be able to pick up on your own themes to create templates that you can reuse. I've been using this writing hack for years - as long as your audiences and where your writing changes, nobody will notice you're doing this!

5. Incorporate Storytelling into Your Writing

If you want to connect with more people, tell a story. If you want people to remember what you said, tell a story. If you want to be interesting and entertaining, tell a story!

There's a reason why people have been telling stories since the dawn of time. We're interested in them! So, if you want to educate your customers on a concept, try telling a story instead of writing out instructions or best practices. This form of communication is so much more impactful because it's relatable on a personal level!

To easily try this concept, consider adding a story to your next social media caption to illustrate a point or to give people a glimpse into your life. See if you can't liven up an email newsletter with a true story that demonstrates a lesson. Instead of sharing a social post with a graphic that says "home sold," take people behind the scenes on the story of the transaction - just like you'd see on HGTV. If you want to dive deeper into this concept, tune into to Episode 62: The Art of Storytelling for Real Estate Marketing & Branding!

6. Come Up with Multiple Versions

The first time your write something, it might not be your very best work. It takes some time for our minds and skills to warm up. So, if you have something important you are writing, give it a go more than once. 

For example, the next time you send out a marketing email, instead of writing one subject line, write 15 options. This challenges you to push yourself not only creatively but to be more effective with your marketing. 

I do this and often find that my 10th or 15th attempt was the best. You can use this same concept to come up with stronger language for your lead capture efforts in your marketing or when brainstorming intros to videos. In marketing, it's important to catch people's attention right away. So, take the extra time to nail down your into. It will be worth it!

7. Read and Save Inspiration

I can honestly say that my writing skills are greatly improved by my love of reading. I'm somebody who reads every night and goes through a book or three a week!

Now, you don't have to turn into a book worm, but I firmly believe that reading and writing go hand in hand. Make it a point to exercise your brain by reading more in your daily life. Whether you read for fun or read for business, the act of reading exposes you to more writing styles and techniques.

Then, when you find writing that you like, save it for inspiration! You can do this for published works, but you can also save websites, listing descriptions, and bios from other agents to use as inspiration. Just be true to who you are, and set those inspiration pieces aside when you write so you don't inadvertently copy.

All of these tips combine to form your writing style and ultimately connect you with more customers.
So, let's recap what we've learned in today's episode:

1. Build Off Your Agent Branding

2. Know Your Medium, Audience & Goal

3. Use a Tool to Proof Your Work Like Grammarly Business

4. Create Templates to Guide You

5. Incorporate Storytelling into Your Writing

6. Come Up with Multiple Versions

7. Read and Save Inspiration

Writing is a daily part of your real estate business. Instead of treating it as an afterthought, treat it as an opportunity. 

What you say and how you say it can create new business for you, lead to long-term relationships with customers, and define how you're seen as an agent. 

So, the next time you need to send an important email or write a marketing piece, think about how impactful your words are. Over time, you'll master your writing for real estate just by being intentional - something I know you can do!

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I’m Heather Colby, host of the “Ideas for Real Estate Podcast.”

If you like what you read here today, I’d encourage you to take a listen to the episodes. :