Editing
As an English major, I've always been accustomed to having my written work edited. Peer review, professional editing, and even doing a second (or third..or fourth) take myself are all ways I've caught errors, improved works, and put a best foot forward. In real estate, editing isn't a regular part of the business, but it should be.
Between contract work, creating addendums, marketing, and even email communication, we do a lot of written work. When things aren't properly edited, misspellings & poor grammar abound, and every so often, something pops up that makes you scratch your head and say, "Huh?"
I stumbled upon a listing recently for what appears to be a pretty decent house. By all appearances, a great property, priced well and appealing to many buyers in the market, especially first time buyers and investors. That listing description, though? It ends with-
"There is many local fast food restaurants around this location.".
I'm not even going to talk about the grammar. My first thought was "Hunny, we may have to offer over-list for this beauty...there's a Carls Jr within walking distance!". Despite the obvious fact that this home, like every home, is sure to have flaws, the only redeeming quality to get this home sold cannot be that a new buyer will be within walking distance to a daily Grand Slam breakfast.
You have a home. You have a neighborhood. You have schools. You have attractions. You choose to talk about fast food restaurants? Congratulations, your listing has something in common with just about every rest stop on our country's highways.
Editing. Peer review. It could have really helped here. Simply saying "hey, what do you think of this?" would have inspired me, and I'm sure any other professional in the real estate industry to say "maybe focus on something other than the local Burger King?".
Not everyone is a terrific writer, and there's not enough time in the day for many people to become the John Steinbeck of real estate, but what does literally every real estate mentor, coach, and marketing system stress? Outsource your weaknesses!
We work in a lonely industry. We may love our coworkers and want to see them do well, but even the person next to us in the office is our competition. For this reason, most people go at things alone. We're one of a very few industries where even within the walls of our office, group-think is not something that is taken advantage of, and it should be.
Want to improve your marketing? See what your office neighbor thinks of it. Ask for suggestions. Toss it out there as a members only blog post & ask for comments. You may learn a lot. You may get a chance to fix a spelling or grammatical error before announcing to the world "My work is sloppy!" (whether that perception is deserved or not). EDIT.
Sometimes in the haste of writing a blog, I make an obvious screw up. Often, I'll get a friendly email from a fellow rainer saying "hey dummy, it's 'there', not 'their'" (usually it's a bit nicer than that), and I greatly appreciate the editing help! Between your family, your clients, your office, and the internet, you have thousands of editors waiting to help, so start reaching out.
Otherwise, you'd better get really familiar with the local fast food options, because you'll be submitting applications soon.
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