Realtors shouldn’t read this post if they don’t like to be challenged!

I follow a lot of industry blogs. 

I prefer to read blogs with catchy titles that also make me laugh or think.  Believe it or not, they’re often pretty difficult to find!

Why?

Because too many industry blogs are solely about listings & market data with no analysis or added value.

Homebuyers & Sellers – this section is for You

If you’re reading this and you’re looking for an agent to represent you on a home purchase or for the sale of your home – how are you evaluating agents from their online presence?

Is it by who pops up the most on Google?  How about who’s most entertaining?   Or, is it by how knowledgeable they seem to be?

I’m sure all those items factor into evaluating who to choose to do business with. 

Just be sure not to confuse volume or the mere presentation of market data with actual expertise and market knowledge!  A true expert understands and interprets data.  That’s what you should be looking for.
 

My Listing’s Presentation is Better Than Yours

It seems posting about a listing is the first thing every agent does when they start blogging!  Unfortunately, few do it well and they all start to quickly look the same.

Ever hear the phrase, “you can’t be everything to everyone”?  Apparantly a lot of agents haven’t or have forgotten that phrase or what it means.  Many listing blog posts are pretty VANILLA as it appears they’re written to appeal to anyone & everyone – despite the fact that only one person will eventually buy the property.

Of course, many posts on listings are probably written solely to show the seller that their property has “maximum exposure” to get it sold.  That doesn’t mean a listing post can’t be well written and entertaining.

There are several books and articles written about how to analyze the features and shortcomings of a property and then discern the characteristics of potential buyers.  This is supposed to help agents focus on a narrow target market for better success, but it appears to be rarely done.

So, because they don’t know how to aim their marketing efforts, shotguns rule over rifles.

How come agents don’t get more creative & daring when presenting their listings? 

Why always several pics, a laundry list of features and a poorly written title?  Where’s the pizzazz?  The emotional words that will grab attention?  You can’t bake cookies and publish the aroma on the internet (yet) to help in selling a property.  You have to use words and creative pics.

By the way, did everyone forget that most buyers can find your listings at Realtor.com?  What is blogging about them supposed to do?  Get them more exposure than the thousands of dollars Realtor.com and the other related websites spend?

Have you ever read some of the comments written on listing posts?

“Nice house, good luck with the sale”.

“Hope it sells quick for you”

“Charming house and nice presentation”

Are those vanilla or what?  But what else can someone write in respone to a vanilla post?

Data Overload

Now let’s talk about market data.  Does anyone really think that in this “Age of Google”, that agents have some type of exclusive access or control of housing market data?

Have you been to Zillow or Trulia lately?  The public can Google just about any data they want these days – recent sales, foreclosures, short sales, school rankings, crime, sex offenders, etc.

It’s almost impossible to own data these days.

So, what do many agents do? 

They post data, sometimes including nice looking charts & graphs.

That’s just great, but what the heck are readers supposed to do with the data?

What’s it mean to a buyer?  To a seller?  Are they supposed to draw their own conclusions?

It’s no wonder agents aren’t highly thought of by the public!

What would happen if you took your sick child to a doctor and he said something like, “blood pressure is 90 over 130, temperature is 99.1 degrees, and they have swollen glands” – and that was it.  Didn’t offer a treatment, any suggestions to take care of the symptons or anything.

That’s what I think of everytime an agent posts data without bothering to analyze what it means for their patients, err, I mean clients or target market.

Where’s the expertise?  What are you’re clients paying you for?  To be their Best Friend Forever, or for at least as long as it takes to complete their transaction?
Be a Lean, Mean Blogging Machine!

The great thing about blogging is that you can find an audience for just about anything written.

A target market though, should be clearly defined as opposed to trying to be everything to everybody.

There’s nothing wrong with blogging about listings & market data and even vanilla blogs are better than no blogs at all.   Over time though, one should strive to improve their creativity and targeting to improve their results. 

Experiment, be daring with your posts and try to distance yourself from the herd.

Be true to yourself by not conforming.

MORTGAGE, EXPERT, MICHIGAN, BIRMINGHAM, BLOOMFIELD, DETROIT, ROCHESTER, ROYAL OAK, TROY