You want to hire real estate writers.
You know how important it is to have great real estate copywriting.
And you want to generate leads real estate leads online and offline.
Great.
But before you hire real estate writers (like me) to do all your real estate copywriting, it’s a smart move to actually understand just what exactly good real estate copywriting is. That way you can make the most of your marketing budget because you can accurately measure the quality of your real estate copywriting.
As an expert real estate copywriter for hire (feel free to contact me via this site) I’ve learned what does and does not work in real estate copywriting. And I would like to share what I know with you so you, the real estate agent, end up getting the best copywriting to market your real estate agency.
Good copy is the key to good marketing, and good marketing is essential for real estate lead generation.
But how do you get good copywriting for real estate?
You can follow the basics of good writing, that’s a great start.
But real estate copywriting is a little different.
As a professional copywriter for real estate in Hamilton Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area, I’ve learned all the tricks and hacks that you can use to create effective real estate copywriting. And I’m going to share my top tips with you, right now, for free.
With this guide you will learn:
- How to write effective copy for real estate marketing
- How to know if your current real estate copy is good enough
- And the benefits of working with a top real estate copywriter such as myself.
I’m sure you’ve already researched online about good real estate copywriting. And you probably found some thin content about basic tips, along with a slew of people asking you for money to so much as look at your copy, right?
You deserve better.
That’s why I have produced the guide you’re reading right now: I guide to help agents such as your self to get the best copy for their real estate businesses whether you hire real estate writers or DIY it.
In a moment I’ll reveal my top tips as a professional copywriter. But first, let’s look at what’s in it for you.
When it comes to generating leads for real estate copywriting is king. That’s why it’s smart to hire real estate writers
When it comes to generating leads for real estate, you’ve got certain tools at your disposal:
- You’ve got realtor SEO
- Direct mail
- Your real estate website
- Real estate ads
But it’s all worth nought if you don’t have good real estate copywriting.
Your real estate copy is often the first time prospective clients will hear of you.
Think of it like this: The average first-time homebuyer probably does not know of your business. They know nothing about you. Then one day they see you blog post or the brochure you sent in the post. At that moment, they form their opinion of you. 100% of their opinion is based on the piece of content that they’re holding, and all that content has on it is a couple of photos and some copy.
In other words, 100% of your average potential client’s first impression of you is based on a few photos and some copy. And that is it.
This is why so many successful agents hire real estate writers instead of attempting to write their own copy.
We all know how hard it is to change first impressions.
Your real estate copywriting is your first impression. And first impressions are everything. That’s why you should be darned sure you hire a real estate writer that rocks.
Imagine being able to control everyone’s first impression of you as a person. That would be a huge advantage, wouldn’t it? Sadly, that’s not always possible in real life. But it is always possible in marketing.
Through effective real estate copywriting you can control your potential customers’ first impressions of you.
There are hundreds of benefits of having good marketing copy, but really it all comes down to that: with good copy you can control the way people feel about your real estate business. And that is just one reason to hire real estate writers. There are many other reasons to hire a freelancer too.
Different Types Of Real Estate Copywritng
Here’s a selection of some of the most important types of real estate copywriting a professional copywriter (like me) can produce for you.
- Property Listings / Ads
- Website Pages / Blog posts
- Guest posts
- Real Estate Sales Letters
- Real Estate Agent Marketing Brochure
- Property Marketing Brochures
- Data Sheets & Flyers
- Direct Mail
- Ads for Online and Offline Marketing
- Social Media Content
- Blog Posts
- Press Releases
- Online marketing copy
You can hire real estate writers for all these assets, and many writers specialise in one area.
What Is Good Copywriting For Real Estate?
You might think that good copywriting for real estate is simply copy that sells properties.
Actually, there’s more to it than that.
Yes, sales are your bottom line. But copy also communicates your brand. Bad copywriting in one single piece of copy could seriously damage your reputation—that’s one reason it’s good to work with a professional real estate copywriter.
Good real estate copywriting is copy that:
- Actually, gets read in the first place
- Generates leads
- Helps sell properties
- Communicates the right brand personality
- Speaks to your customers in positive ways
- Makes your customers feel positive emotions
- Strengthens your relationship with your clients
When you hire real estate writers, make sure their work meets these criteria.
Why you need to know about real estate copywriting, even if you hire a real estate writer
Copy is so important to your marketing that you need to understand the basics of good copywriting even if you intend on working with a professional copywriter like me.
Hiring a real estate writer is a bit like having a personal stylist.
Yes, your stylist knows how to make you look good. But your style also needs to communicate you. And you need to know what you’re wearing before you put yourself on parade.
Same with copywriting.
When you hire real estate writers, the writer will know how to produce effective real estate copywriting, but you, the realtor, still need to understand what that copy is communicating, and how it is affecting their relationship with their clients.
Let’s now look at the most important aspects of copywriting for realtors. These are good to know whether you DIY your real estate copywriting or (probably a smarter choice) hire real estate writers.
The 10 Magic Ingredients For Real Estate Copywriting
1. Your copy communicates your brand
The single most important thing to realise about real estate copywriting, is that your copy is your brand.
This is also the main reason to hire real estate writers. And those who do not would be very wise to at least hire a proofreader.
Somewhere right now, a person, let’s call her Sam, is tending to her mailbox. She’s looking through her mail. And she’s finding all manner of direct marketing. We’re talking letters, brochures, postcards.
Sam picks up a direct marketing postcard from a realtor. She’s never seen the guy on the postcard. She’s never hard of the business. One hundred percent of Sam’s perception of this realtor is based on the postcard.
Sam notices that there are grammatical errors in the copy on this realtor’s postcard. She presumes the realtor rushed it. She presumes the realtor doesn’t take care of his business. She presumes this is not a realtor she would want to sell her home.
Oh, the realtor’s actually a great realtor. But Sam doesn’t know that. Because her entire opinion of the realtor is based on a postcard full of typos.
Wow. This realtor should have hired a real estate writer. That would have been a smart investment.
Point is this: To prospective customers and clients, you are your copy. So your copy had better be darned good.
Too many realtors think that copy is just a means to an end. It’s more than that. When you read your copy, imagine you’re looking in the mirror, because that is how your prospective customers and clients will see you: through your copy.
That’s why even if you do DIY your real estate copywriting you should in the very least hire an editor.
2. Everything the real estate writer does should be for your client, not for you
There’s a painful thing that happens to moat people in business. They’re proud of their job. They want to tell people about it. It’s natural. Hey, as a professional real estate copywriter I wanted to tell the world about it too.
Your marketing copy is not the place to discuss yourself.
Every single thing that is written in your real estate marketing copy should be about them not you.
- You’re not a realtor. You’re a person who can sell their home to make them money
- It’s not a property. It’s their future home that they will come to love and care for
- It doesn’t have three bedrooms. It has a room for them, the parents; a room for the kids; and a room for their special guests.
Good real estate copywriting is writing that is 100% unequivocally about them.
3. The right language for real estate copywriting is their language
There’s a funny sort of snobbishness that permeates a lot of real estate writers. They believe that good writing must follow the laws of the English language, that “whom” is the proper form of who when writing in the subjunctive form, and that the longer the word the better.
You may have noticed this if you hire real estate writers. And it’s a big mistake.
The right language for real estate copywriting is the reader’s natural language, whether they speak English in accordance to the Oxford dictionary or in accordance to the lyrics of Biggie Smalls.
Your real estate copywriting should speak the same language as your prospective clients, and in the same tone of voice. When people read writing that echoes their natural language, they inherently consider the writer to be like them and they thereby view them favorably.
If you want to earn your reader’s favor, speak their language.
if you do hire real estate writers bear in mind that their first task is to write in the client’s language, even if that language is not your own usually manner of writing.
4. Just pretend for one moment that you’re writing real estate copy for your own home
By mere familiarity, it becomes quite challenging to keep your writing zesty.
You’ve probably experienced a similar thing when selling houses. Sure, you were excited when you sold your first house. But that excitement had worn flat by the time you got around to your hundredth property. And if you weren’t careful, your clients noticed.
The key to good real estate writing is to actually care.
If you hire real estate writers, they need to care. If you write your own real estate copy, you need to care.
If you care about your writing it will always, always show. Hence why a five-year old’s scrawl can seem to have more soul than a university student’s dissertation.
Point is: Care about the real estate property and it will show in your real estate copywriting.
To make yourself care, just pretend it’s your house. Your home doesn’t have a “garden” so much as it has a charming backyard where your kids play football. Make it personal, like that, and your copywriting will have so much more appeal.
The next point speaks to this also.
5. Good real estate copywriting turns facts into emotions
If you were buying a home and someone described it as a building with eight rooms, a garden, and two toilets, you’d feel less than excited, right?
Cold hard facts might be important when determining a price, but they’ve got no place in real estate copywriting.
Effective copywriting for real estate is writing that takes those facts and makes them human. It’s not a two-bedroom property, it’s a cozy home in a quiet neighborhood perfect for families.
The easy way to write this is to do the following:
- Take the fact (e.g. “lounge with fireplace”)
- Imagine the best thing clients would do there and write it as one sentence (you will sit with your family in the warmth by the fire)
- Dress it up with some emotive words (“cozy-up with family by the open-lit fireplace”)
- Now doesn’t that sound a lot better than “lounge with fireplace?”
6. Sprinkle some power-words in your real estate copywriting
It’s been scientifically proven that some words (called power words) are able to elicit emotional responses in readers.
Sprinkle these words lovingly throughout your real estate copy like candies on a cake (enough to create flavor, not so much to spoil the dish).
The Best Power Words For Real Estate Copywriting
- Magical
- Instantly
- Missing Out
- Magnificent
- Profitable
- Proven
- Quick
- Remarkable
- Safe
- Save
- Sensational
- Superb
- Superior
- Skyrocket
- Always
- Certain
- Convenient
- Delighted
- Guaranteed
- Conscientious
- Relaxed
- genuine
- authentic
- reliable
- secure
- blissful
- joyous
- delighted
- satisfied
- cheerful
- sunny
- glorious
- spirited
- wonderful
- serene
- bright
- blessed
- Vibrant
- Upbeat
- Adequate
- Unique
- Quiet
- Home
- Family
- Children
When you hire real estate writers, make sure they use power words in their copy.
7. The best real estate copywriting is authentic
Listen: I can’t give you everything, but I think I can help you.
When you read that line, above, you probably thought “Oh, fair enough, let’s see what he has to say,” right? Because it was honest and authentic.
I’m about to give you everything you ever wanted ever.
When you read that line above you probably though oh shut up, right? Because it was dishonest. Because it was salesy. It was just… yuck!
When we read or hear overly-salesy language we turn off. When we hear positive but authentic talk, we turn-on.
That’s why your real estate copywriting should be:
- Authentic
- Honest
- Fair
- Down to Earth
- Positive but not full of bullshit
When you hire real estate writers like me, always make sure their writing is authentic.
This is also why you should take point 8, below, very seriously.
8. The best real estate copywriters will acknowledge customer’s objections, not ignore them
Here’s one difference between the best real estate copywriters and everyone else. The best real estate copywriters will acknowledge the customer’s objections in the writing.
You’re the expert realtor, so I’m sure you know that people will always have some objections no matter what you try to sell them, right?
When you were a novice realtor you might have tried to ignore those objections. How did that turn out? Bad, right? Because you triggered your client’s alarm bells and made them question their trust, and that was a one-way-street to “No”.
What happens when we try it the other way around?
When we forthrightly acknowledge a client’s objections in our real-estate, copy, we make them trust us and we also make the objection seem like less of an issue.
Don’t tell them it’s got an expansive garden if it’s 100 square feet. Tell them it’s “a small, easy-to manage garden with a large public park a hundred metres away”. You’ve now answered their objection before they’ve even thought of it, you’ve made them trust you, and you’ve turned the objection into a positive (the garden is small but manageable, and there’s a public park nearby).
9. When it comes to writing real estate postcards and other word-tight marketing materials…
Get to the point!
When it comes to writing real estate postcards and other marketing materials with limited words, make sure you get to the point immediately and efficiently.
- You might want to list every home you have for sale at the moment, but there’s not space.
- You might want to list your full address, but is that necessary?
- You might want to describe your realtor style, but really, on a postcard?
Words are time. And time is money. And no one ha enough of either. So, get to the point.
When you hire real estate writers, make sure they understand that words are money (literally, the more words they write the more you’ll pay in print).
When writing a real estate postcard or similar marketing material, imagine a word costs a thousand bucks, and start saving money.
Here’s effective copy for a real estate post-card:
Paul Harrison: Hamilton Real Estate Agent
Let’s sell your home together
[QR Code]
Web: PMHarrison.com
[Tel No.]
Done! No need to say anymore. They know all they need to know.
When you hire real estate writers, make sure they get to the point.
10. The best real estate copywriters hijack readers’ minds
The best real estate writers you hire will be aware of a little secret.
The secret is this:
Something very intriguing happens when we read: we hand part of our minds over to the writer.
I was walking by the beach on a sunny Sunday, the scent of margaritas in the air…
That was one line. 17 words. But through those 17 words I took your imagination to the seaside.
That’s the real power of words: they lead the reader’s imagination.
This is where your “marketing materials” turn to truly effective copy that transports people. Marketing copy can be facts on a page, or it can have a magical potency through which you transport people to… well… wherever you want them to go.
While this might be a big deal when writing a novel, it’s an equally big deal when selling a house. Because you can lead prospective buyers to imagine sitting in the very home you’re trying to sell them.
There are so many wonderful things you can do with words.
For instance, let me just cook something up here….
Let’s say you’re selling a home that has been occupied by a family whose kids have now moved out.
You can use this to create a relationship between the present owners and your prospective clients.
How?
Try this copy:
This unique home has been lovingly cared-for by its present owners, Stephen and Helen, and their kids, Ethan and Tomas. With Ethan and Tomas having moved away to university, Stephen and Helen are looking for new parents who will cherish this special home just as they have.
Do you see?
Can you imagine being the prospective buyer?
They’ve now (in their imaginations) formed a relationship with the current home owners, and they can imagine loving this home as the present owners did, and having their own kids grow up there.
And that is the power of effective copywriting for real estate. Agents can use copywriting to lead prospective clients on journeys of the imagination.
This is where a professional real estate copywriter like myself shines brightest: in the weaving of invisible magic through the words of copy. It is a thing I love dearly.
And that is how you write effective copy for real estate
Can I share a secret with you?
I dislike the idea of writing “sales copy”. In fact I hate it. It damns a thing I love: writing. It fails to grasp the true power of words.
Words are magical.
Words carry us away. And not just in novels. The most best real estate copywriting transforms readers because it gives them something they did not have before: it gives them emotions, stories, and imaginary journeys, even in as little as a few words.
Real estate copywriting is an art.
When you hire real estate writers who are truly talented, like myself, they will know how to turn that art into impressions in your potential clients’ minds.
Yes, that is truly powerful for lead generation—as a professional real estate copywriter in Hamilton ON I am continually generating leads through copywriting. But it is more special than that.
Copywriting has the power to influence minds.
If you truly want to write effective copy for real estate, the trick is this: forget you ever heard the idea of words, sentences, sales, or leads. Just imagine for one moment that you have the power to take a person’s mind by the reigns and lead them.
Where do you want them to go?
- Next: Read my guide to online marketing for realtors
