|
Real Estate Writing
One alternative writing career path that's growing rapidly is the field of real estate writing. Realtors are smart enough to know that they're not the first stop for people looking for a house for sale anymore. Most people will consult the internet before calling a realtor, so if they wanted to get on searchers' radars early on they needed to have both a compelling website that's high on the list of search engine results and be mentioned in the web articles on real estate these people will seek out. And who do you think is responsible for the creation of these sites? Writers. While you most likely will not be working directly for a realtor if you do end up having a career in real estate writing, you will need to know what realtors want from you. They want short, attention-grabbing articles that are more like sales pitches than textbooks or stories. The idea is that any article on homes will make the reader not only want to buy a home but to buy one from the most trusted dealer in the area: the particular realtor you are working for. Obviously any flaws or drawbacks of owning or renting said condo must be mentioned, but spin should be placed on the benefits. Realtors will occasionally reach out and hire their own writers to do listings blurbs and advertising junkets. But the larger ones don't have time to do their own advertising and the smaller ones generally don't have enough in the budget to hire a full time writer. So what will happen most frequently is that they will contract the work out to a search engine optimization or web design company. Therefore, if you want a career pitching real estate to the masses, it is these types of companies you will be applying to. Another type of spin-off career in real estate writing you could consider is technical writing. Technical writers interpret the work of draftspeople and engineers into language the average person can understand. As a real estate technical writer, you might be called upon to interpret house plans into mental walkthroughs of suburban dream homes that will make potential customers want to order from your company. These jobs are typically in-house, so to apply you should submit your resume to the pre-fabricated home factories and the architectural design firms. You don't have to have an extensive knowledge of real estate or be a licensed realtor to work in real estate writing. Whether you'll be writing descriptions of for-sale properties for a real estate sales firm or authoring articles on the benefits of owning your own home for an optimization company, you'll be able to manage if you're a quick learner and an apt researcher. These are qualities every writer must possess to even make it through school, so don't be afraid to apply, even if you don't have any experience in the field. |
| |