If you struggle to come up with blog ideas or have been afraid to start a real estate blog because you don’t know how you’d possibly be able to find topics week after week, you’re not alone. Even the most experienced bloggers and writers find that coming up with fresh content can be a challenge.
There is a trick, however, to break through the writer’s block and come up with ideas quickly and easily. By selecting from a series or category, you can create lots of articles within that series that will last for weeks or months.
Have a look at the time saving categories below; they’ll help you consistently create content your audience enjoys and finds valuable.
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Local Market Events
Host a monthly or bi-weekly blog post that features all of the events happening in your community. From festivals to fundraisers, there are likely lots of interesting things happening in your area or nearby. If you attend a certain event or festival, you can also blog about it. This shows that you’re active in your area and know what’s going on. Plus, it’s a great way to network with potential buyers and sellers.
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Frequently Asked Questions
A very easy blog post to create (or series of blog posts) is a frequently asked questions post. Answer the questions that you’re asked often. You can take this opportunity to focus on one question per post and really delve deep.
Provide in depth answers to questions both buyers and sellers ask and use this opportunity to focus on keywords and keyword phrases. Buyers and sellers will likely be turning to Google to answer their questions, so use this as an opportunity to rank as one of the top search results for common questions.
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Local Business Reviews or Features
You likely spend a lot of time in your area and, as such, eat at restaurants, visit shops, or even drop off your dry cleaning there. Take some time to jot down your thoughts and write reviews or showcase certain businesses. It’s best to leave negative reviews out, so you don’t anger businesses in your area, but highlight the positives. You don’t have to overly praise a place, but share an honest, positive opinion that will also help you build rapport and make connections.
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Housing Topics Explained
There are many terms and phrases used throughout the real estate process and many buyers and sellers don’t know what they mean. Even if a client has been through the process of buying or selling a home before, he or she may still need a refresher course.
Explain what the multiple listing service is or what the term conveyancing means. Write a blog post about home insurance and how to secure it. You can produce content and an in depth explanation on nearly every term used throughout the real estate journey.
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Local News Opinion Pieces
As long as you steer clear of taking any isolating stances, your opinion on how local events may impact your area or community can help create engagement within your community. Discuss how city council elections may impact your local market; or how a new company moving to your area could impact jobs and the real estate market. Think about what people in your community tend to discuss or are concerned about and write non-divisive pieces on recent events along those topics.
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Home Décor and Design Advice and Trends
You’ve likely worked with (or know) a home staging expert, designer, or architect. Pick their brain to learn about trends and best practices and share that advice on your blog. Share tips on refurbishing homes or how to transform spaces on a budget. You can likely think of at least 10 ways that a homeowner can update their home—each idea can be a blog post.
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Interviews with Well-Known People
Many people are incredibly receptive to giving interviews, because they love to share their thoughts, expertise, or opinions. You may or may not have to prove your blog gets a steady stream of visitors in order to draw their attention. Some people want to ensure that your platform gives them access to a larger audience and others are merely happy to share what they know. Find individuals with a wealth of knowledge on a particular subject or with a strong opinion, and put together an informative piece you feel resonates with your audience.
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Housing Regulation and Mortgage Regulation Updates
Stay up-to-date on the laws and rules for housing regulation and mortgage lending and relay that information on your blog. Demonstrate your knowledge—in easy-to-understand language—of how changes will impact your local market or buyers and sellers.
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Interpret Market Data for Buyers and Sellers
While sharing recent market data is great, it’s nowhere near as helpful as interpreting that data for buyers and sellers. Make a note of the day or month that market statistics come out about your area and be one of the first real estate professionals to interpret how it will affect buyers and sellers in the short term and long term.
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Favourite Recent Content
Pinpoint some of your favourite blogs and save posts around common themes to share. For example, if you’ve saved some of your favourite posts on the best places to visit in your area, compile those resources into a blog post and share them with your audience.
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Share Other Peoples’ Social Media Posts
You can host a twitter chat or question and answer session using a branded hashtag. Embed a stream on your blog that shows every time someone uses that branded hashtag to get up-to-date content. You can also embed tweets or status updates from other users. For example, if you want to highlight something an expert shared about the local economy, you can embed that into a blog post that you’ve created on that topic.
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Create Checklists and Guides
The number one goal of your real estate blog should be to educate and inform potential buyers or sellers about your market, the home buying or selling process, and how they can get started. Create easy-to-use and easy-to-reference guides and checklists—including infographics—to help relay your points and cement yourself as an extremely knowledgeable and helpful real estate professional.
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Turn Testimonials into Case Studies
You can use testimonials and satisfied customer reviews in longer form as a blog post on your website. Write a case study that includes how you met your client, what their journey looked like and dreams were, and how you helped them with their home purchase or sale. People love reading real-life stories and your clients are much more likely to share a story written about them with their friends and family members than a testimonial they wrote.
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List Articles on Any Topic
List articles, referred to as “listicles”, are exactly what this post is: a list of 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. points or ideas in reference to a topic. You could, for example, share the top 5 things to do in your area or the top 10 mistakes that first-time home buyers make. Listicles are a solid content marketing strategy and will often interest a wide array of people in your target audience.
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Video, Webinar, or Podcast Transcripts
If you also share videos, webinars, or podcasts, you can take the information you share on the camera and publish the transcripts on your blog. Not everyone will want to watch a video or be in a place where they can, but may want to read the content instead. This allows you to squeeze all of the juice out of a topic. Even if you don’t use certain keywords in your video, you can optimise your content for keywords, so your post has the potential to attract an even larger audience.
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Up-and-Coming Neighbourhoods
If you live in an urban area with a large neighbourhood or population, you’ll likely always have neighbourhoods that are labelled “up-and-coming.” Even if you’re not the agent in these areas, you can still write about them and take advantage of the buyers or renters you might attract in the process. Chances are, these people will have a list of neighbourhoods they’re interested in, including yours. Talk about schools, property values, changes in statistics, and other qualities that make these neighbourhoods unique. Don’t forget to discuss the history and what’s attributed to their rise in popularity.
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Share Personal Wisdom or Inspiration
Don’t be afraid to showcase a bit of your personal side. You may not be your audience’s go-to person for encouragement or inspiration, but it will make you seem more relatable. Share a story about how you bought your first home or how you manage your budget for mortgage payments. Give your audience a tour of a room in your home for design inspiration or if you’ve remodeled a space, share before and after photos. Tie the personal wisdom or inspiration you share into the needs of your audience.
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Community Photos
Take some photos of some significant or stunning places in your area. If you know a local photographer, ask if you can feature him or her and some of his or her work on your blog. Photographers often shoot pictures of photo worthy buildings or landscapes in their area and this is a powerful way to use visual marketing to attract people to buy or rent in your neighbourhood.
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Recommend People to Follow on Social Media
You probably have your favourite social media accounts that you follow, whether on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Social media users are always looking for the next person to follow, so create a regular blog post around the latest people or businesses you’ve discovered online. Is there a particular restaurant that shares mouth-watering images of great food or a designer who shares great décor inspiration? Include your favourites or recent follows in a post and share it.
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Posts on Trending Events or Pop Culture
Get creative by using movies, entertainment, or pop culture as inspiration for your blog posts. This will help you keep it fun and humorous. You don’t want your blog to appear too stale or formulaic. For example, you could write “How to Become a Home Buying Jedi” (Star wars), “Say Hello to a Home that Sells” (Adele), “10 Hogwart-esque Homes for Sale”.
It’s not unusual to get writer’s block or to struggle coming up with topic ideas for your blog posts; we hope this list has helped spur you on. If you haven’t started a blog and you want to know how to start a successful real estate blog check out this post: Do You Really Have to Blog?
If you need a website, so you can blog, contact us.
Do you have any additional blog post topic ideas? How do you come up with fresh content to write about?