Fall Real Estate Content Guide

This article was originally published on the Home Value Leads blog.

Can you believe that summer is winding down? Where did the months go? That means fall is coming and with it specific real estate content to share with your leads and clients. School is starting for so many families that we thought an appropriate theme would be to provide our top content ideas around real estate in alphabetical order. 

Autumn Gardening Guide

Fall showcases some of the most beautiful foliage of the year. Homeowners are eager to turn their landscaping over to the brilliance of the season's bright yellows, oranges and rich browns. Inspire them with a post here and there that covers a variety of autumn gardening topics. Your first post could be an overview of the latest trends, watering tips and other general information for fall. You can then follow up in subsequent week with blog topics covering flowers and maintenance, for example.

Back-to-School Safety Tips

It's an exciting time come late August or early September when school starts back up again. If you have a particular farm that has specific schools, highlight them and their important fall dates then provide back-to-school safety tips. This can be in the guise of a top ten list. Your list can include walking or biking to school, reminders about school zones and even a map with school zones and alternate routes.

Cleaning Out the House

Every new season inspires a massive clean-up from the season before. With fall, it's time to clean out the outdoor spaces (clean and store pool accessories and water toys), give the house a good scrub, replace any decor with autumn looks...to name a few.

DIY Around the House

Who doesn't love a little do-it-yourself project here and there? How-to's are what every homeowner will look for at least once a year. There's no better time than fall to start a DIY project. Here is a short list of ideas for new and seasoned homeowners alike:

• Painting
• Power washing
• Sealing gaps in windows and doors to keep out drafts
• Cleaning, repairing and protecting gutters

Entertainment and Restaurant Guide

Entertainment and restaurant guides are helpful for both past clients as well as leads considering listings in your farm. By providing a constantly updated list of where to go and where to eat, you will be a true go-to for what's happening as well as attract new site visitors. You can even do single posts that focus on a new grand opening or that reviews a restaurant that you've recently visited.

Football Tailgate Party

If you're a big football fan, then share your love of the game with your audience with a few party tips. A focus on how to make an outdoor or even indoor fete a success doesn't have to be long. You can simply provide a quick list of tips on recipes (don't forget to link), themes, decor and more.

Garage Sale Guide

Just like cleaning out the house can be cathartic, making one's trash another's treasure is a fun activity with the changing of each season. Provide a step-by-step guide for your audience on how to run a garage sale. Include how to organize items, price them and advertise. You can also provide resources who can haul away donated items post-sale. 

Halloween Safety Tips

Halloween is such a fun time for not only kids but also the parents. Share some of the hottest events for both families and adults in the area then include a list of safety tips for making it a safe journey from home to home. As a sidebar, you can also provide some fun Halloween party tip ideas that includes recipes, decor and more.

Instagram Highlights of Best Listings

What better way to highlight some of your best listings each week than from your Instagram feed? You can easily embed separate photos that link back to your Instagram profile with these simple instructions from Instagram:

Just Listed Weekly Feature

Speaking of listings, why not feature your most recently listed properties weekly, too? You can then have a form on the page that leads can fill out to receive the weekly list as an email update. This will get them back to your website and consistently looking at your listings. They can then easily share and forward your emails to others, expanding your reach with less work.

Keeping Pool Clean in Fall

Summer is sadly coming to an end, and that means homeowners with pools need to think about how to maintain and take care of their pools before the freezing weather sets in. Some of the most pressing issues for homeowners with pools include how to deal with falling leaves, pool covers and fences, etc. In fact, this could be a great opportunity to have a local pool expert you trust do some cross-promotion with you and guest post FAQs for you!

Labor Day Hosting Tips

Labor Day is the last official holiday before the big holiday season - or, another way, the last big hurrah from the summer. Either way, this first Monday of September is always a great opportunity for homeowners to host their last outdoor fetes. As with other outdoor events held at home, you can provide a handy tip list with recipes, decor ideas and how to prepare efficiently for a Labor Day party.

Mortgage Questions Answered

Ah...the age-old confusion on mortgages! With changes happening left and right, you will know doubt have a ready audience of leads and clients ready to learn from you. You can do a two- or three-part series that covers the process and then specific areas of financing a home that homeowners have always been curious about or have the most trouble understanding or dealing with. I think you know where this is going...that's right, guest post opp! It's a wonderful opportunity to introduce your preferred lender and to turn writing duty over to someone else for a change.

New Homeowner Guide

New homeowners, especially first-time home buyers, always need a little guidance. Who better to give them that guidance than the very person who got them into that new home (that's you!). Provide a list of reminders that they need to take care of and things to look out for, especially for fall home maintenance, as well as a handy list of service providers for any and everything to do with the house.

Open House / Showing Tips

While you are no doubt the one hosting the open house for your clients, it doesn't hurt to prepare clients with the process and how to prep for a successful one on their part. Line out for them a timeline of how you usually hold your open houses and what they can expect. Part of how they can help can include ways to maintain the house for easy clean-up for last-minute showings.  

Preparing for the Fall and Winter

For current clients, give them ideas on how to prepare their homes for fall. A short list of tips that you can write about include:

• Cleaning downspouts and gutters that fill up with falling leaves.
• Give your house a fresh coat of paint while the weather is cooler.
• Roof maintenance to prepare for winter weather.
• Fireplace and chimney maintenance.
• Furnace or heater tips, such as replacing filters and cleaning systems.
• Window and door seals to keep out cold air and save on energy costs.

Questions from Both Buyers and Sellers

We've gone over before having a handy FAQ (frequently asked questions) page on your website. While we recommend keeping that as evergreen content for sure, we also think having a mini-FAQ in the form of a blog post is good content practice, too. One way you can get the most content out of your list of questions is to focus on one type of questions. For example, questions that only sellers have when it comes to financing, staging or the basic steps in the process of listing a home. For buyers, you can have a set of questions for each post that cover different areas for them: how you work with them specifically, narrowing down their options and market-specific data.

Running and Other Events in the Area

The fall is a great time to find a plethora of running and other events like festivals and seasonal markets. If the area you cover has a list of these, write about them! You can either put together a list that links to each event and has a short description or focus on a few events that you personally love and have attended and share your experience. Bonus if you plan to participate in an event or sponsor one. You can then talk more personally about why you have committed to the event, how long you have, your initial attraction to you, etc. All great ways to share local information with your audience and make a connection!

Staging Tips for Fall

Staging is a pretty evergreen topic. To bring a little fall flair to it, you can talk about the latest in fall decor to make the home more attractive to buyers from a seasonal perspective. If you do some research online, you can find lots of home decorating ideas and include them in your post. Don't forget to reference each source!

Thanksgiving

The holiday of fall holidays, Thanksgiving offers a number of different topics you can present on your blog or in your newsletter. Some ideas:

• Thanksgiving decor for family get togethers
• Your favorite Thanksgiving recipes
• How to safeguard your home while your gone for the Thanksgiving holiday

Unique Listings

Who doesn't love looking at cool listings in their area? If you consistently list your unique listings on your blog, you can give your audience something to look forward to, whether they are looking for a house or not. Every real estate agent has at least a few homes that stand out among their listings. What are yours? Simply create a post around a property by calling out its most awesome feature. Perhaps one has an insane backyard with a bar and grill area to rival even the coolest local hangout. Or perhaps a house underwent a major overhaul for which you can share the befores and afters. Think about what stood out and excited you about the house when you listed it.

Vacation Preparation

Between Thanksgiving and Fall Break for some families, your leads and clients could be taking a lot of vacation time away from home. Be a great resource for them on how to make sure their house is safe against certain weather conditions, potential unwanted visitors and also how to keep it maintained over a long week (i.e. air flow, water, etc.).

Why Sellers/Buyers Should Work with You

A blog post is a great opportunity for you to share with potential clients, whether buyers or sellers, what you bring to the table. You don't have to feel like you are bragging. You can simply communicate your passion for real estate. Is it easy to work with you? Why? Do you communicate often? Bullet point out your top five reasons and include a little explanation for each point. Bonus if you can include...

eXcellent Reviews, Testimonials and Stories from Clients

You can use bits and pieces of these to support why buyers and sellers should work with you or make reviews, testimonials and client stories the centerpiece of their own blog posts. Be sure you have the permission of your clients to include their information. You can also just include their first name last initial if they'd like some anonymity. Even better if you can include a video testimonial and/or an image of your client to make it more personal.

Yucky Weather Precautions

Inclement weather is inevitable during the fall and winter months. Help your potential and current clients prepare for it with a handy tip list. Provide tips on how to autumnize and winterize their homes while saving money in the process. Some ideas from Good Housekeeping:

• Protecting outdoor patios
• Sealing gaps and cracks in windows and walls
• Upgrading windows and doors
• Adding insulation
• Using heat tape
• Chimney maintenance
• Plant care
• Furnace filters

Zzzz...You Snooze, You Lose

Encourage your clients in a strong seller's market to pounce on a property they love. If they don't, then they could lose it! Share your tips with them on what challenges they can potentially face and how to overcome them with your help in order to secure the house of their dreams.

Don't forget, that with every post, you should share the link on all social media channels and share excerpts and links (get them to that website!) in your newsletters. That way you have all media avenues pointing to your website and, ultimately, more about you and your listings.