If you’re doing business in real estate, one of the greatest skills you can acquire is the ability to create compelling property listings that sell properties quickly.
The idea of “selling” is something that scares a lot of people out of real estate.
I used to HATE the idea of being a “real estate salesman” because of all the negative connotations that came with the territory (in my mind, anyway).
When I finally came to the realization that selling is a must for any successful real estate investor – I decided to face the issue head-on, rather than running from it.
What I eventually found was that selling real estate was actually a lot of fun! After selling several properties in my first year as an investor, I realized I had grossly misunderstood what it meant to promote listings and get properties sold. What I assumed would be an awkward and annoying process, turned out to be a GREAT way to tap into my inner skills as a writer.
In my experience, most properties are quite capable of selling themselves, but ONLY IF you’ve priced it right, promoted it adequately and created a listing that clearly communicates why your property is the deal of a lifetime (i.e. – why your buyers would be absolutely crazy not to take advantage of the opportunity).
Stop Trying To Look Like Everyone Else
Most of us have a lot of pre-conceived notions about what a property listing is supposed to look like. We’ve all browsed through plenty of other listings before and we’ve subconsciously told ourselves, “Well… I guess that’s what my listing is supposed to look like too.”
If you want to learn how to write real estate ads well, the fact of the matter is you don’t need to look like everyone else. In fact… looking like everyone else is one of the worst things you can do. If you create listings that blend in with the crowd, people will ignore you. Looking “average” is one of the best ways to be forgettable and NOT get noticed by the masses.
When you’re posting your property for sale on a website with thousands of other listings, it is imperative that your ad has an eye-catching headline that looks different. Your headline is an extremely important part of your listing because in most cases, this will be your only shot at getting a buyer to notice you, so you’d better find a way to stand out from the crowd. Remember, you only have a split second to catch someone’s attention and engage them in clicking on your listing – so this kind of first impression is EVERYTHING… I’m not kidding!
What are the positives and negatives of the property you’re trying to sell? Can you make it funny? Can you say something that will make people do a double-take? Can you make your headline stick out like a sore thumb among all the other boring listings in your market? Take a look at this listing I recently posted on Craigslist: