Very often when I encourage a student to start a blog I'm told that they don't because they don't know what to write. Today when I was walking , I came across an inspiration for a blog post...if I were an active Realtor. Since I teach Realtors, my mind immediately turned it into a way to demonstrate how to get ideas to write a blog post. So Chug! and I are walking and we come across a house in our neighborhood that had chickens, baby chickens, in the front yard in a cage. Before I go on, you should know that I don't live on a farm, nor a trailer park; it in fact will cost you quite a bit to buy in my neighborhood which is in central-west Austin. Everyone in the neighborhood knows this family has some chickens and that they use the eggs (I just didn't know they were multiplying - but I think still legal!). They are incredibly nice and their children are well behaved. When I first brought Chug! around, the kids asked permission before approaching the dog, asked my name, said thank you and knew how to handle a puppy. You won't catch the kids wearing Abercrombie like their neighbors but they probably don't like those stuck-up punks anyway! The whole situation is refreshing and very Austin. In fact, it's very much fits this neighborhood's personality and exactly the type of story a prospective buyer might want to know. If I actually did have listings to sell here, I'd probably have interviewed them and shot a little video then posted the story on my blog.
For many years I farmed (haha, pun intended) a condo complex and had 90+% market share for much of the time. I can't even begin to tell you how sick I was of describing the same damn units every time I got a listing. That was long ago, but still today, most of the marketing of residential property focuses on the features of the home. Don't you ever get sick of describing kitchens and baths and master bedrooms? No one said you had to, most Realtors have just followed the herd. I say let the pictures, virtual tours and data fields in your MLS describe the house. Spend you time in that precious "internet remarks" field on describing the lifestyle. And for sure, use your blog to expand on the life and activity that surrounds your listings. Keep your eyes open, especially around your listings and you'll find all sorts of things to blog about. Isn't that what buyers want to see? Won't it make them more likely to contact you? Please share your thoughts in the comments section!
Note: I wrote another very short post about the story buyers tell themselves way back in 2006. Now maybe you can use your blog to help them craft that story.
Another note: Don't even start with the animal jokes! Most of the time you don't even know the chickens are there. ;-)
Because I can't resist, here's 4-month old Chug!:
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