Real estate is a that everyone is blogging about, from realtors to financial websites to wannabe investors. If you’ve ever read or written anything even remotely related to real estate, you’ve probably seen hundreds of ways to add curb appeal to a home. That’s because curb appeal is essentially making your home stand out from all the others on the block.
The same principles apply to your real estate blog. To generate a regular following or stand out from all the other real estate agencies in your area, you’re going to have to give your website a little curb appeal.
Good Ideas
There’s a reason you can find thousands of posts titled “6 Things First-Time Homebuyers Need to Know” or “3 Ways to Get Your House Ready for Sale.” Most people, at some point in their lives, will consider buying or selling a home, and they need to know these things before they jump in.
But are these the best topics for your blog? Your readers have most likely already read six different iterations of these posts before they ever landed on your website. It doesn’t mean that you should skip these topics altogether, but if you make them the primary focus of the blog, your blog will blend in with thousands of others.
Better Ideas
For the sake of being unique, it helps to narrow your scope a little bit. While everyone and his brother has written “How to Know You’re Getting a Deal on a Home,” not everyone has written about the stuff that is relevant to your area. Think news, market information and statistical data.
- Are big businesses bringing new jobs to the area? Tire-kickers just might turn into buyers if they know it’ll be easy to land a great job.
- What is your market up to? Blog about how the builder’s market is hot or how commercial properties are a wonderful investment right now.
- Does your area have an outrageously high median incomes or some other excellent statistic? Feel free to brag about it!
Posts like this make great content, but they’re still not the best ideas because they’re very timely in nature. Sprinkle a few posts like this into your blog, but keep in mind that statistics change, markets fluctuate and those new businesses can close their doors as easily as they opened them.
Best Ideas
Along the path towards buying a home, most people run up against seemingly insurmountable obstacles. For instance, how does one buy a fixer-upper if it’s not listed as a Fannie Mae HomePath property? The average homebuyer has never heard of products like the FHA 203k Rehabilitation loan. Use your blog to answer tough questions, like:
- What should you do when a bank appraisal goes sour?
- What permits does your neighborhood require before building a new home?
- What is a fire protection class and how does it affect homeowners insurance?
These seem like niche topics, but there are thousands of people asking questions like this every day.
Think of your real estate website content in the same way you’d think of an investment property. If you just slap a coat of neutral paint on it and put it on the market, your blog will look like the rest in your neighborhood. You’ll need to invest time, money, and effort into it to see big returns.
Amber K loves everything about real estate and home improvement — so much so that when she’s not writing about it, you’re likely to find her working on her own house or eyeing local real estate trends.
