Real Estate Copywriting: The Lighter Side.

by Kirsty Dunphey, on 3rd December, 2009 •

(WILL and GRACE are eating lunch, while reading the apartment ads.)
WILL: $2,900 for a loft in Noho. $2,300 for a loft in Soho.
GRACE: It’s too much to pay for any… ‘ho.
WILL: OK, here: “Charming one bedroom, Chelsea adjacent, well-maintained, $1,500.” Sounds great.
GRACE: OK, let me decode: “Charming”? Tiny. “Chelsea adjacent”? New Jersey. “Well-maintained”? Super washes blood off sidewalk daily.

I giggled to myself as I watched this scene from television’s Will and Grace last night.

What does the public really think we mean when we write our advertisements?

Check out this “decoding” from:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/340482_listing20.html

Very quiet interior: You can barely hear the freeway with the windows shut.
Convenient to shopping: Next to a strip mall.
Convenient to freeway: Next to the onramp.
2+ bedrooms: The room in the basement isn’t a legal bedroom but, well, you know.
Seller has left you to your own imagination: Hasn’t been updated since 1940.
Great bones: You’ll need to tear it down to the studs.
Build some sweat equity: See “great bones.”
Charming: Small.
Cozy: Tiny.
Cute: Small and fussy.
Dollhouse, adorable: Nauseatingly cute.
Turnkey: Just overhauled, complete with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances.
Unique: Remodeled by someone on acid.
Handyman special: Bring boots.
Walk to Fremont: Fremont’s 20 blocks away.
Motivated seller: They need to sell before they default on their mortgage.
Dirty, ugly, smelly: Dirty, ugly, smelly.

And Barbara Corcoran has her say here about the most misleading words in real estate (and what they really mean)

1. Cozy (too small)
2. Charming (too old)
3. Original condition(appliances are 50 years old)
4. Needs TLC (it’s a dump)
5. Conveniently located (noisy)
6. Desirable neighborhood (this little house has been way overpriced because the neighborhood has some snob appeal)
7. Efficient kitchen (too small to fit two adults)
8. One-car garage (you can drive your Chevy in, but can’t get out)
9. Peek at the park/river/mountains (if you angle your mirror just so)
10. Useable land (no trees)
11. Beachfront steal (no hurricane insurance available at any price)
12. Country living (too far from anywhere to drive to work)
13. Must see inside (outside is ugly)
14. Unique (hard to sell)
15. Just available (previous owner just died on the premises, hope you don’t mind)

(read the full article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20215090/ )

New real estate copywriting website www.reallysold.com has some interesting alternatives to over-used clichés with heading suggestions such as:

• A better position than you’ll find in the karma sutra
• Dress Circle Locale (but with a mini skirt price!)
• Penguins love the cold – but you don’t have to!
• Grand Old Dame (the house, not the real estate agent)
• Yesterday, let me introduce you to today
• Very Viewtiful!
• Nature is your Neighbour
• Calling Winona Ryder (‘cos this one’s a steal!)

(To try out www.reallysold.com for yourself – head to the website, take the 3 minute tour and sign up for a free trial.) The next time you go to put pen to paper, I invite you to take a moment to chuckle about what the public might think you really mean! Life’s too short to write bad advertisements!


Kirsty Dunphey is an author, speaker and entrepreneur who started her first business at 15, opened her own real estate agency at 21 and retired a self made multi-millionaire at 27. To sign up to Kirsty Dunphey’s weekly email, go to www.kirstydunphey.com

Do Real Estate Agents Really Know How To Market?

by Chris Shepherd, on 28th November, 2009 •

One of the continual topics in real estate is ‘marketing’, however do we really utilise all knowledge out there to achieve the best results? You may think of marketing only as selling and advertising, this however is just the tip of the iceberg. When marketing correctly you will be able to attract new customers by promising superior value, and keep current customers by delivering satisfaction.

What is marketing?

Philip Kotler, one of the leading marketing academics describes it as ‘a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and managing customer’s relationships in ways that benefit the organisation.’ It includes market research, product development, distribution, pricing, advertisement, personal selling and online-social interaction just to name a few elements. It should be the central core of your business and shape the way you service and communicate to your clients.

How does marketing help us?

As discussed in the following video, Barrack Obama conducted a very successful marketing campaign that ultimately won him the presidency.

If Barrack can become president through effective marketing, imagine the results we could affect locally.

Where to from here?

Over the coming months, I invite you to reinvent your personal marketing with me, to complement your businesses infra structure. Having just completed a course at university I am pretty excited to explore the possibilities available. I will be starting at the base, researching what my marketplace wants (through door-knocking etc a prospecting method in its self), to creating a new ‘product’ based on consumers demands and finishing with pricing, promotion & customer retention.

2009: Property Market “wrap up”..

by Alana Elderfield, on 8th December, 2009 •

Hi all..

Wanted to share with you my summary of 2009: the year that was, which I wrote and shared with my clients locally for early December. I’ve been writing monthly market updates, but never sharing them.. and thought this might be the ideal platform to do so.. and hopefully receive in return some feedback on whether you agree with my summary, what you are noticing in your own local market and how you communicate that to your market place.. and basically any general thoughts you’d like to share with the Gen-Y community.

I always enjoy hearing the Gen-Y market reflections.. given that we always seem to be so upbeat, positive and perhaps not as tainted by past experiences as our older generations.

2009:  The year that was..

THE FACTS:

• The Reserve Bank has lifted rates for the second straight month – the first back-to-back rate hike since March 2008. The cash rate was lifted by 25 basis points to 3.50 per cent. Rates had stood at a 49-year low of 3.00 per cent before the decision in October to lift the cash rate.

• Even with the latest rate rise, monthly mortgage payments are still, on average, about 25 to 30 percent lower than what they were in August last year when variable mortgage rates were averaging 9.6 percent.

• Residential property prices in Australia increased 3.7 per cent in September to a six year high, heightening the likelihood of a third consecutive rate hike this month (December).

The two interest rate rises seen over the last quarter in consecutive months, is consistent with the view that, while the economic recovery is still patchy, it is now solidly underway.

After a very bumpy start to the year in the wake of the global financial crisis, with a substantial reduction in property values greater than we’d seen before on the northern beaches, our market has continued to gain momentum on a steady basis until the last quarter of 2009, when conditions suddenly improved beyond any of our expectations, even beyond government budget forecasts.

Early November, the Federal Government upgraded growth expectations for the Australian economy, forecasting growth of 1.5 per cent in the 2009-10 year, up from a forecast of a 0.5 per cent contraction made in the May budget. The Government also slashed its projections for the unemployment rate, which is now expected to be 6.75 per cent by next June, down from the 8.25 per cent forecast in the budget. The jobless rate is currently at 5.7 per cent.

The economy’s unexpectedly strong performance during and following the global financial crisis appears to have been fuelled in part by record-low interest rates that the RBA is now nudging higher to prevent inflation picking up.

Even after the two recent RBA rises, our market continues to prosper, and we are currently positioned with pressure on the market to begin to increase in value due to the current lack of stock on the market, and increasing number of buyers entering the market. The only factor appearing to hold the market back from increasing at present is the potential and reality that interest rates may again increase throughout 2010.

If the RBA were to continue to ‘normalise’ rate settings over 2010, there is a good chance that our market will absorb the impact and be able to sustain our recovery and potential growth, so long as they continue to move in 25 basis point increments. At this point in the cycle, a move of 25 basis points strikes a nice balance – it edges the cash rate back to more normal levels without threatening the economic recovery. The RBA arguably went too far with rate hikes in 2007 and early 2008, and a repeat could have a seriously detrimental impact on our market.

Without a crystal ball, it is near impossible to predict precisely how the market will change over the first two quarters of 2010. It has been widely suggested that the cash rate will be at 4.0 percent by February of next year and by June the yield curve suggests a cash rate of about 4.50 to 4.75 percent. The Reserve Bank has previously indicated that the “normal” or neutral cash rate is around 5.00 per cent. A neutral cash rate means that monetary policy is neither expansionary nor contractionary, so even at a cash rate of 4.75 percent, we are outside of, and below what is to be considered as a neutral stance from the RBA.