Week 1 Judging Results

To be able to write a good single listing post you must first identify the purpose for doing it. Is it for the Search engines to find the post? Is it to send a great presentation to your sellers? Is it to entice buyers into asking for more and ultimately contact you?

I looked at your articles as if the purpose was all 3. With that in mind, you must include as much information as possible in that post:

• your personal contact information

• tons of photographs (bigger photos are better and use good quality ones)

• virtual tours and/or other marketing material you may have on the listing (Real Estate Shows, listing videos – hint: you can embed Real Estate Shows into a blog and they look fabulous)

• Links (to relevant information including city, schools, blog posts on the area of the listing, etc) – make sure to double check that links work.

• Keywords – BOLD KEYWORDS

• Bullet points – they are easy to read and scan

• Your personal information (I can’t say this enough – but you want the reader to contact you for your post, not just any agent).

I know a lot of you are doing this for the first time and are learning a new system – but to get an idea of great single listing blogs, you need to look at a recent competition in Active Rain hosted by Gena Riede from Sacramento, California. Here are the top three, but make sure you look at the other entries as well for great ideas:

1. Abbey at Highland Woods – Bundled Golf in Bonita Springs, Florida
2. Contemporary Gem in Miami’s Upper East Side
3. Nature is Your Neighbor

 

Things to AVOID:

• wall of text (when you write whole paragraphs and include no spacing or bolding) – most readers will scan a page and skip walls of text)

• bad pictures! (make sure you ask your sellers to move their car from in front of their property before taking the picture – this will definitely show your attention to detail and please don’t include blurry photos)

• bland and boring descriptions

• photos that take too long to upload (ask what size and resolution photos are recommended for your system to avoid having readers pass your post because it took too long to upload).

 

Lastly – present listings as if you were talking directly to a buyer – that way when reading, a person will feel as if you were talking to them. Tell the prospect why the property would be perfect for “YOU”.

Before I tell you what the top five entries were – I’d like to point out different things that popped out at me that I thought were creative and caught my attention:

• Robert Bishopric – “bring your own bulldozer”
• Evelyn Segall – “Meet Cheesy, The Realtor”
• Christopher Zoller – “Swim naked in Pinecrest”
• Martin Smetanka – “Stop the Boat”

The top five listing posts for this week are (note that there were some close calls but there were minor issues with the post, like links not working or contact information not included) listed in order:

“There’s No Place Like Home” 501 NW 86 Av, Pembroke Pines by Joan Donnelly Ochoa – Joan’s candor on this post made me want to go see the property and feel right at home. She included neighborhood and school information – all she needs for perfection is bigger photos and to bold keywords.

150 South Hibiscus Drive, Miami Beach by Nelson Gonzalez – great photo, used bullets and included link to website. This post entices you to click over to Nelson’s website – I would probably separate the description a bit, bold keywords to make it more “scannable” (is that a word?)

Opulent Estate in 1201 NW 115 Ave, Plantation Acres by Maxine Hagey – Maxine makes this house sound amazing and she only has one photo, all the necessary information is there, including link to virtual tour – I would bold keywords (Are you guys starting to notice a theme here?) and definitely include more photos.

Would Jimmy Buffet Drink a Margarita From This Balcony at the Atlantic? By Gregory Lynn Horton, Jr. – the title of this one grabbed me from the start and the post made me think and took me there. – This one would have been perfect with contact information and links……and bold keywords!

1639 Passion Vine Circle, Weston Florida 33326-Not Your Typical Townhome by Bob and Susan Reiter – Great use of photos and link to website. All this post needs is easy to read bullet points and…say it with me…..bold keywords!

I want to thank Beth for letting me be a part of your big launch, it really is amazing the amount of positive energy that radiates out of the new EWM blog and I wish everyone the best of luck and hope to run into each other soon. Now go sell those listings and BLOG ON!