How to Start a Real Estate Blog

By Maddie Heye, Senior Marketing Manager 

The hardest part is getting started. Yes, we’re talking about the real estate blog that should be live and active on your agent website. It’s a marketing tactic that many agents know they should embrace but are hesitant to. We know it can be intimidating. Especially for those of you who aren’t regular writers, starting with a blank piece of paper, producing posts, and then publishing them online for the world to see can be overwhelming, and therefore, it becomes an easy thing to put on the back burner indefinitely.

The fact of the matter, though, is that having an active real estate blog makes you more searchable, more approachable for prospects, and positions you as an expert in your neighborhood or your niche. Blogging is an effective way to instill trust in people, right from the start. It’s an opportunity to be a resource for your target audience, positioning yourself as the real estate expert that you are. Here are a few tips for finally starting your real estate blog.

First, let’s address the technical setup. Assuming you have an agent website already up and running, adding a blog should be simple (depending on your website provider). For MoxiWebsites users, it’s quick and painless. Here’s a tutorial to get you started.

Now, let’s dive into the content. To get your real estate blog started, first create a list of topics. That way, every time you go to work on your blog, you can look through your list of topics and pick one that inspires you or is relevant at that time so you can get started quickly and aren’t starting from scratch.

Not sure what to write about? Here are a few ideas for brainstorming blog topics:

• What are the frequent questions you’ve been hearing recently?
• What [relevant] topics are trending online? What’s your take on them?
• Do you have a recent client success story you’d like to share?
• What tips and tricks do you have for home buyers or sellers?
• What are your tips for things to do this season in your local area?
• Put together neighborhood guides for the different neighborhoods you work in.
• Feature small business owners in your local area

Need some more inspiration? Here’s our list of 52 blog-worthy topics your clients will love.

Set a dedicated time to maintain your blog. Maybe you get in the habit of setting aside two hours on Monday morning and use blogging as a way to restart each new week. It’ll become part of your routine which will make it less daunting each week.

Tip: Actually block this time off on your calendar, otherwise there’s a high likelihood of it not happening.

Then, make sure you optimize it. Making sure your blog is search engine optimized is key to enabling potential prospects to find you. Here are a few simple steps you can take to ensure your blog (and website as a whole, for that matter) is SEO friendly. Make sure your content is searchable in order to get the most out of your blogging efforts.

Finally, share your blog with the world. Leverage social media and email marketing to distribute your blog content to your sphere of influence. Your blog posts are perfect for when you’re feeling like you have nothing to say on social media. Share a blog filled with valuable content to drive people to engage with you. Additionally, pick and choose which blog posts are relevant to certain groups in your database, and add them to your email campaigns to add more richness to your email content and to drive people to your website.

Content is still king in the world of marketing and leveraging your real estate blog to serve up value is a simple way to engage with current and future clients. Serving as a resource for homeowners (or future homeowners) in your area is a great way to stay top-of-mind with them. All of this will show your expertise in the local market and your involvement in the community, further solidifying you as the go-to real estate expert.

So, there you have it. How to start a real estate blog in just a few intentional steps. And that’s the key – take it step by step. You don’t need to become a professional blogger in order for blogging to have an impact on your real estate business.