Why Do You Blog?

There is a growing collection of blogs that focus on real estate. Blogging is fun but it can be hard work and doing it well takes time, so we got to wondering — what compels real estate professionals to blog?

According to Blogging Systems, the three primary benefits of real estate blogging are:

• lead generation (i.e., meeting prospective buyers and sellers)
• brand awareness
• competitive advantage over competing agents

BiggerPockets has also posted advice on Using Blogs to Build Your Real Estate Related Business.

We decided to ask real estate bloggers why they do it. The question we put to some of the industry’s most-read bloggers was, "What is the most significant business benefit you have personally gained from being a blogger in the real estate industry?" Here’s what they had to say:

Jon Ernest, who blogs at Property Monger:

"More than anything, the most significant business benefit I have gained is that it really forces me to keep on top of both the changing RE environment nationally and market conditions locally, in my constant quest to find something to blog about."

Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy:

"Real estate blogging’s single biggest benefit that I have personally gained is increased knowledge. And knowledge is power. By reading and conducting research for my blog entries, I have greatly expanded what I know, who I know, and why I need to know. This knowledge has in turn been imparted on my clients and potential clients."

Douglas Doss from Real Estate Commissions and Fees:

"The most significant benefit is the personalizing of a marketing strategy and business model which includes full-service flat fee listing, and, a la Redfin, a cash-back bonus program to buyers. No hard sell ever, just providing information we hope is helpful to people interested in real estate in our local market.  No specific measure of benefit, but street reaction from the public has been substantially favorable, and from our competitors a growing concern about what to do about us."

Greg Swann of BloodHound Realty who writes the BloodHound Blog:

"Improving the quality of my own thinking. I like to understand everything down to the root. Weblogging puts me in contact with people who know things I don’t know or who see things differently than I do. At a minimum, confronting other well-thought-out points of view induces me to rethink my own positions. I find this hugely beneficial, even though it would be difficult to record on a ledger."

Robert Melton from Pittsburgh Homes Daily:

"The knowledge that I have acquired by participating in the blogging community. Because I am constantly reading what others are writing, as well as looking for topics to blog about, I have found that I am always learning something new … from marketing to website development to client contact to home staging. I have no doubt that this knowledge will pay off in the long run."

Ardell DellaLoggia who authors her own blog but is even better known for her contribution to the vibrant and popular RainCity Guide:

"My income is now almost entirely blog based. Almost all of my clients are from the blogs, or from referrals of blog clients. This is both great and scary at the same time. The time I used to spend on traditional business efforts, is now spent on blogging, with much greater results. But, given I never decided TO blog, my entire business plan being changed by happenstance makes me feel vulnerable. One of the biggest advantages to blogging, income considerations aside, is that you expand your brain out, instantaneously, to the “Real World”. When I blog, I mostly am talking from the perspective of the consumer. From a consumer vs. Realtor vantage point, my whole world has been turned upside down and inside out. What used to be so true, now makes no sense to me whatsoever. Kind of like a princess leaving her ivory tower to find that what is really important, isn’t what she thought it was at all. The disadvantage of that thinking, is that it is now very hard for me to relate to the industry at large. Seeing technology for what it REALLY IS, vs. what Realtors keep wanting to pretend it is, as in “not advertising”, “a closed info source/mls”, puts me at odds with almost all of the internal rules of the game and the people who make those rules and who cling to those rules."

Jim Cronin from the Real Estate Tomato:

"I am not a Realtor. I am an e-marketing consultant with a focus on the online real estate industry. My blogging has morphed from a news resource on the happenings in the online real estate world to real estate blog coach. In this transition, I have found quick success as a custom real estate blog developer and consultant.  The ironic twist is that I hadn’t approached blogging with the goal of retail success. I wanted simply to be heard (read) by as many Realtors as I could, and in turn that made others want to know how I accomplished that goal. Blogging it seems has simply become my greatest teaching tool and lead generator all in one."

Many thanks to these bloggers for their insights.

The most recurring theme here is the value of "learning" — both about industry news and the business’ best practices. It’s interesting that Jim and Ardell both note that their blogs are now their primary marketing tool even though that was not their intention when they started blogging.

Why do you blog?