Maintaining a daily blog content schedule is challenging for full-time real estate agents who dedicate most of their energy to serving the needs of their clients, which is why it’s a good idea to tap the expertise of your local transactional partners for guest posts.
While there are literally thousands of topics real estate agents can blog about that may answer important home buying questions, it’s nearly impossible to publish a complete guide to home ownership without leaning on some of your business partners for a little help.
One of the main benefits of having a comprehensive real estate blog is being able to email quick answers to clients and prospects with a link to an article you’ve written on your own site.
However, as we know, one simple Q&A can easily lead to 10 additional questions as your clients start to realize that every scenario comes with its own unique set of circumstances.
A major frustration many agents have with their lending partners is their lack of communication or timeliness in responding to important questions that may mean the difference between investing a weekend showing homes or waiting a few extra business days for a full underwritten loan approval letter.
The last thing you want is for a client to start searching around the Internet for credit or down payment related answers and then have them end up in another agent’s marketing web.
Think of the time and energy you’d save if most of the basic mortgage related questions could be addressed on your own site, where you control the lead flow and calls to actions.
It’s amazing how many well-qualified and professional loan originators spend thousands of dollars on marketing materials just to get an agent’s attention for coffee, yet they never offer to simply write a few posts on the agent’s blog.
In my opinion, I couldn’t think of a better way of getting in front of an agent, their team and their buyers than having my articles published on their site.
But My Lender Doesn’t Blog:
We’ve had a few challenging years in the industry, and the true mortgage professionals left may have busy rolling with guideline changes and focusing their time on meeting escrow deadlines.
So, it’s highly likely that your favorite lender hasn’t evolved into a pro blogger you you have.
Sending a loan officer a link to your /wp-admin login might scare them. Or even worse, you could end up with a post that didn’t meet your copywriting standards.
However, I’m sure everyone left in our business has figured out how to use their email by now.
The Mortgage Content Strategy Is Simple:
A. Create a category or tag on your blog for “Mortgage Frequently Asked Questions”
B: Dig through some of your past emails for questions you’ve received from buyers that pertain to their loan approval.
C: On Thursday – Email a few of your trusted lenders one question, and ask them for a 3 – 5 sentence response by the following Monday.
D: Compile their answers in a single post that is titled properly, and list their name and number after their answer.
E: Personally send an email back to your clients with a link to your response article.
Within a few months, you should have the main questions nailed down and neatly organized on your site.
Take it a step further and add the new category or tag to your YARP plugin so that you can spread those posts back through previous content.
Why Is Mortgage Content Important On A Real Estate Blog?
In my experience, motivated buyers don’t shop for lenders online.
Instead, they search for answers to specific qualifying questions while they’re in the “buying phase” and hope they can find a mortgage professional that they trust.
Disregard the rate shoppers for a minute, I’ll discuss that niche in a different post.
What I’m talking about here is having your lending partners write highly targeted content for a certain niche audience that is looking for a (price range) home in (your neighborhood) with a (state grant program) that they can qualify to buy with (___ money down) and a (_____ credit history).
Add this missing piece of the puzzle to your authority real estate blog, and you’ll have a true one-stop-shop for your buyers.
Who said real estate blogging is dead? We’re just getting started.
Great article Mark. The agents I work with all agree blogging is the answer to SEO and retaining past clients, but few have the time or desire to commit to creating a complete blog. Even committing to building a website that has nothing but video will fall short of providing the kind of information most home buyers really need.
Solid content is the key to attracting and retaining clients in this tech savvy environment. If a lender is willing and able to help an agent or a real estate office develops their website, my question is why not asking them for it? Or even better, if you are a lender with solid blog content, why are you not offering this up as an additional service?
November 10th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Thanks for the comment, Mark. It makes perfect sense for an originator to partner with a local agent that already has an established blog and online presence.
November 11th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Homeownership is down. Considering what the housing market has been through since late 2006, it’s no wonder why homeownership has declined so much. Not to mention all the vacant home that are just sitting around due to being abandoned. I also blog about helping struggling homeowners with their mortgage loan modification, among other things at my site.
November 13th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Oswin – Question:
What do loan modifications and a down housing market have to do with agents getting mortgage content for their real estate blog?
November 15th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Been through this in the past with mortgage lenders and not surprisingly many were not keen on spending their afternoon writing content. I typically write content myself, then have them give it a quick edit to meet their standards.
November 16th, 2010 at 1:05 am
MC – Crazy, isn’t it? You’ll get a bunch of generic emails with mortgage info from your lender, but they won’t spend 30 min a week writing something on your site that you and your clients are sure to read.
November 16th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Mark,
I only wish that all agents would open their minds to blogging. We are in a relatively small community and a few agents are starting to blog. I’m actually in the process of setting up a tutorial for the agents that I work with that will show them how to do this and how to optimize it for search engine ranking. I love the idea of getting content from lenders to update the realtors’ site. That’s a great way of keeping fresh content or what I call “Google Juice”
J.R.
January 22nd, 2011 at 10:49 pm
JR – If the agents in your small community aren’t open to blogging or working the web for targeted purchase business, then you should take the opportunity to dominate the SERPs before they figure it out.
Once you own all of the money phrases for (town) real estate, short sale, first-time home buyer loans, homes for sale….. then, it’s as simple as referring the transactions back to your local agents at a 25% fee.
Very few agents will care to put in the work at figuring this stuff out anyway. And the busy agents are probably better off spending their time closing current transactions vs learning how to blog, especially if you can be their main lead source with your own sites.
Good luck on those tutorials. I have a few on myfhamortgageblog.com/tutorials that you’re more than welcome to use.
mm
January 25th, 2011 at 11:47 am
When we moved to Kansas City, we found tons of people in Real Estate who were willing to help us, even recommendations online. We, however, chose our agent by reading his blogs- buying into his philosophy and learning more about who he was as a person.
March 1st, 2011 at 1:38 pm
great job mark !
I do agree with this blog . many people get attracted by this as when they read these type of blogs . SEO is the great thing to do with the real estate.
March 8th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Blogs are such a great way to deliver fresh content to potential homebuyers. I like to blog about new listings, community events, and helpful information on home ownership. It is a great and easy way to SEO.
October 5th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Blogs is a good and convenient way to get information for the homebuyers. so we should take advantages of the blogs.
November 25th, 2011 at 8:25 am
This blog is good and a useful way to get information to those are interested, especially the home buyers. Charter Pacific help in making the client’s revenues to maximize and reduce cost associated in real estate assets.
December 19th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
From my point of view the information give here is very relevant for a real estate company. As we all know that blogs are very important for a business.
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March 31st, 2012 at 1:40 am
Nice site! Thanks for sharing this. Keep posting.
April 24th, 2012 at 7:42 pm