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 or you can buy the whole e-book for only .95 at www.booklocker.com/books/1339.html.
ifena@go.com
