2020 - Professional Property Copy

open home in winter with fireplace and copywriting tips text

Selling a House in Winter – Copywriting Tips That Spark Interest in Your Winter Listings

Winter is a traditionally quiet time on the property market. However, there are many good reasons for selling a house in winter.

If you live in Melbourne or Sydney, research shows that July averages the highest sales prices, so don’t be put off by winter selling.

There’s less competition with fewer homes on offer, so you’re more likely to get your asking price. And if buyers are braving bad weather to come to your open home, you know they’re motivated to make a purchase.

Selling a property isn’t about finding the perfect time but working out how to best present a property in each season. And this is where effective real estate copywriting comes into play. People shop online first, and your copy needs to show your listing in its best possible light no matter what the season.

Below you will find six copywriting tips to help your winter real estate listings sell. Pro tip: don’t stuff your copy with everything listed below, but find the most relevant ones for the home you are writing about.

1. Features and Benefits - Highlight the Underrated Pleasures of Winter

Think about all the things to love about winter.

Lying in on a Sunday all cosy under the doona, taking a long soak in a hot bath, snuggling under a throw rug on the sofa with a loved one while watching a movie, sitting in the garden soaking up the winter sun. Consider sprinkling a cosy winter scene or two into your copy.

You want to show how comfortable the home is during the winter season, which will be at the forefront of buyers’ minds.

2. Don’t Forget to Mention the Heating

Does the house have a fireplace?

Then you definitely want to draw attention to it in your winter copy. Set the scene by describing sipping a quality shiraz from the Barossa Valley in front of the fire or curling up with a hot chocolate and a good book to evoke the feeling of ‘this is where I want to spend my winter nights.’

If there’s no fireplace, then you can highlight in your copy how the ducted heating (if relevant) will keep the whole home cosy throughout the winter months.

Again, evoking warmth and comfort is a primary objective in winter real estate copy.

3. Draw Attention to the Winter Aspect

What aspect does the home have? Which rooms get the most sunlight?

If the living rooms are bathed in winter sun, or the yard enjoys a northerly aspect (southern hemisphere), you will want to talk about that in your copy. A west-facing living room might be hot in summer, but it gets all the sun in winter, so this is the time to highlight it.

If you have done your pre-writing prep, the current owners will be able to tell you exactly which parts of the home are most comfortable in winter.

When writing real estate copy, the aspect might not always be something you want to draw attention to (if it’s not good), but it is something to keep in mind.

4. Highlight the Great Indoor Lifestyle the Home Offers

We all tend to stay indoors more during winter, especially if it’s raining, so the functionality of the indoor living space is at the forefront of buyers’ minds.

In your copy, highlight how the indoor space is perfectly designed for winter living. You can talk about watching movies in the media room, playing board games with the family in the fabulous games room, or hosting a dinner party in the formal dining room.

Christmas in July has gained momentum in recent years, and perhaps the property you have just listed would be the perfect venue for this!

Inject some of these scenarios into your copy – it helps the buyer visualise living there and creates positive vibes associated with this home.

5. Is Your Property an Outdoor Winter Wonderland?

Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean we have to ignore the great outdoors!

Winter can be the perfect time to highlight sweeping views if they are less obstructed by deciduous trees. If the property has a sunny yard, you can mention sitting on the patio and enjoying the warm winter sunshine. Or maybe you can talk about toasting marshmallows over the firepit on clear, crisp evenings. Does the alfresco area have cafe blinds? You can mention how prospective buyers can enjoy it all year round with a patio heater.

You don’t have to ignore standout features – like a pool – that are more applicable to summer. Instead, talk about ‘getting ready for the summer months’ and emphasise the home’s cosy aspects.

6. Now is the Time to Home-In on Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is not the kind of information buyers can glean from the photos, which is why your real estate copy is so important.

We all know that heating can be expensive, so it is essential to draw attention to any energy-efficient features. Does the home have instant gas hot water? You can talk about how everyone can have a shower without the hot water running out. Maybe there are solar panels, zoned heating, solar or heat pump hot water. Then talk about how much this can save the new owners in winter bills.

Anything already installed that will save the buyer money is worth highlighting. It not only makes the property more attractive to buyers but also adds value.

Finally, Don’t Forget to Refresh Your Copy for Spring

Hopefully, with great copy, winter staging, beautiful photography, and an open home that offers a warm welcome (literally and figuratively), your property will be sold quickly.

But if it’s still on the market in spring, don’t forget to give your copy – and your marketing – a spring update.

There’s no need to shy away from the winter real estate market, especially if you live in Sydney or Melbourne. But to maximise your selling opportunity, seasonally appropriate copy can enhance the home’s desirability.

With all the tasks you need to juggle with a new listing, it can be hard to remember all the high-conversion elements to add to your copy. With over 15 years of experience writing real estate descriptions, we can take the pressure off and help you sell your property, no matter what the season.

Find out more about how we can help craft winning real estate descriptions for you.

Generating Content for Real Estate Blogs – Part 2

Blog / By newppcadmin

Last week we shared some tips for you about writing engaging real estate blogs. This week we have a few more for you to consider.

1. Focus on your areas of expertise.

While choosing broad topics is a great way to flesh out your blog and attract a wide range of readers, chances are the most valuable help you can provide centres on a more niche area. Write about what you know. The more you can translate your knowledge into real estate blog material, the more attractive you will be to readers who need specific, accurate information on the subject you are covering.

2. Blog regularly.

There is an ongoing argument about which is better – blogging frequently, like daily or almost daily, or blogging less frequently but focusing on more in-depth material. Bloggers have been successful with both strategies, so it is really up to you and how you want to do things.

But whether you blog once a week or every day, you do need to maintain some consistency to keep readers around. The more erratic your schedule, the bigger risk readers will forget about your blog or become frustrated and go somewhere else. Keep them in the know by having a solid real estate social media strategy. While creating fantastic content is crucial, so is promoting it.

3. Go for evergreen content.

The higher quality blogs you can create, the more likely that readers will appreciate what you are doing and come to rely on you for good content. Content that will be useful both now and a year from now is referred to as “evergreen”.

Such content can take more work to create, but it is worth doing if you plan on blogging over an extended period of time. It only takes one really great evergreen blog and some luck to have it shared for years to come, which means ongoing traffic to your blog.

4. Write topical content too.

While evergreen content is the backbone of most good blogs, you also need to blog about current issues that may not be relevant a month or a year from now. The market is always changing, and your readers will probably expect you to discuss what is going on now. Who knows what the market is doing in an area better than an Agent who works in that area?

Showing off your local expertise is always a smart move. Community pages are one of the better ways of letting people know you are the local real estate expert.

5. Encourage conversation.

When you are looking for clients, you want to have some interaction with the visitors to your blog. By allowing comments and encouraging your readers to discuss topics or give you feedback, you can develop relationships that may lead to work in the real world. There is a risk of undesirable comments, but you can always delete anything you feel is inappropriate or detrimental to your message.

Here at Professional Property Copy, we can write your blogs for you. Click here to find out more.

Generating Content for Real Estate Blogs – Part 1

Blog / By newppcadmin

If you do not have an online presence in today’s real estate market, you are not going to be as successful as you could be. As a real estate agent, having a blog is a big part of creating an online presence. But not all blogs are created equal. Some are much more successful than others. So, what’s the secret? How do you create a real estate blog people actually want to read?

People talk all the time about having quality content but what does that actually mean? It means providing information of value that people actually want to read, that can also drive business.

Below you’ll find some guidelines that will be helpful in starting your journey to creating a successful real estate article.

1. Provide SOLUTIONS to problems your readers have.

When someone searches for something on the web, usually that person is looking for answers to questions or solutions to problems – particularly when it comes to real estate. How do I handle multiple offers on my home? Should I sell my own home? What renovations will get me the most money? What neighbourhoods have the best schools? These are real life questions that people will put into their favourite search engine for answers.

The biggest goal of your blog will be to answer the questions and solve the problems of potential readers. The more useful your content, the more likely you are to have visitors and to get referrals from your site.

2. Write for the web.

A blog is substantially different from more formal types of copy, such as your old university assignments. Text is broken up into easily scanned blocks, with titles and formatting that guides the reader. Writing is more informal. You have less time to grab the reader, so titles are very important, as is formatting. Don’t save the best for last – or at least make sure you have interesting material up top to keep people reading.

People like to call an unattractive blog post a “wall of words”. This is because there is no semblance of any structure to the writing. A good real estate blog article should be broken down into ideas with a specific heading. Under each heading you should share your wisdom clearly and concisely.

3. Add some pictures.

Having awesome graphics is one of the most important aspects of having a successful real estate blog. Your graphics can quickly propel you into being remembered by a significant amount of people. In fact, it is usually the graphics that will cause someone to want to share your article on their social media channels.

While you can find stock photos that you can use for free – which will work in a bind – ideally you should take some pictures on your own, or at least use unique pictures that really add to your content. A nice diagram, infographic or photo of a concept is great for your readers, summarising information in a way words can’t. There are some great sites that you can purchase photos online.

Here at Professional Property Copy, we can write your blogs for you. Click here to find out more.