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By Isabel Fena
Ask yourself these questions: Are you an experienced writer? Do you want to
stay at home to write? Do you want to work for yourself? Do you learn new
things quickly? Are you interested in a broad number of subjects? Do you feel
like you’re being pigeonholed with your current writing and you want to
branch out? Do you have a flair for marketing?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions – or even better – several,
you may have found a new career!
It’s more important than ever for real estate professionals to market
themselves legally considering the laws regarding email and telephone sales
seem to change daily - depending on which court is hearing the case. Many
experts speculate though that eventually some sort of anti-telemarketing law
will be enforced and while it’s much more difficult to regulate email, it’s
still being made more and more difficult to use this form of marketing and
sales. So basically it comes down to the fact that real estate professionals
need an effective way to market themselves without breaking the law.
If you’ve ever done business with a Realtor or Mortgage Broker they probably
still send you newsletters, recipe cards, sport’s schedules, notepads, etc.
If they don’t they aren’t marketing themselves very effectively and you may
have found your first client!
The majority of a real estate professional’s business comes from word of mouth
- whether it’s repeat business from people who are refinancing their
mortgage, applying for a home equity loan, selling their house, renting their
house, or from clients who recommend “their guy” to friends and relatives.
Whatever it is, it’s in the professional’s best interest to keep their name
on your mind.
The frequency with which real estate professionals send out these marketing
materials varies. My own Realtor usually sends me a quarterly newsletter
along with goodies like flower seeds and notepads throughout the year. Some
of the more industrious professionals actually send out newsletters on a
weekly basis!
The key is for the professional to get his/her name and phone number in front
of as many sets of eyes as possible. When the professional sends you a
newsletter, that includes several interesting articles, such as how to
increase the value of your home or budget decorating tips or how to clean up
your credit before you apply for a mortgage, etc. you find these articles so
fascinating you hang on to the newsletter. Or you know that your next-door
neighbor is particularly interested in decorating on a budget so you pass it
along to her and so on.
Next thing you know, many set of eyes have seen the real estate professional’s
name and they decide to call him/her when they need the services of a real
estate professional.
When your cousin Vinney calls you up out of the blue to tell you he’s moving
to Arlington and “do you have a Realtor you can recommend” you do of course
because the sport’s schedule/newsletter/recipe card your Realtor recently
sent you is hanging on your refrigerator.
So what does all of this mean for you the freelance writer? It means more
assignments and more money! After all, the real estate professional is either
too busy or simply doesn’t have the desire or skills to write their own
newsletters and other materials. What they need is a freelance writer to
handle this crucial aspect of their business.
To be certain, like any business you’ll need to get out there and hustle and
market yourself before you can expect to market for your clients. You’ll need
to prepare professional looking samples to start out with and hawk these to
as many real estate professionals as you can think of. You can find these
professionals by looking in the phone book for addresses, pulling fliers from
yard signs and introducing yourself to Realtors conducting open houses to
begin with.
Writing for real estate professionals can be a fun, lucrative and interesting
business. Now get out there and get to work!
Isabel Fena is the author of the e-book “The Untapped Market: How to Make
Money Writing for Real Estate Professionals.” You can get a free sample
chapter of her e-book at her website www.isabelfena.com (http://www.
isabelfena.com) or you can buy the whole e-book for only $11.95 at www.
booklocker.com/books/1339.html (http://www.booklocker.com/books/1339.html).
ifena@go.com (mailto:ifena@go.com)
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