Sellsius real estate marketing blog

As a real estate broker or agent you have to write. Whether it’s an email to a client or prospect, a letter to your boss, an article for publication or a post for your blog, you want to communicate your thoughts and ideas clearly. It’s not easy. I know I have trouble, but I blame it on my legal education and too many years writing for judges. Nonetheless, I have found some expert tips to make your writing crisper.

1. Write short sentences and short paragraphs. Read a newspaper article and notice the pithy statements. This makes for faster and easier reading. Long winded sentences tire the reader and can be confusing. Worse yet, they may bore. Sometimes longer sentences are necessary, but keep them to a minimum. This is especially true when giving directions or instructions.

2. Use the active voice. You will write active sentences if you follow this simple rule of construction: Subject (I) verb (sold) object (the house). The passive order is object, verb, subject. “I sold the house” is simpler and crisper than the passive “The house was sold by me”. There are times, however, when you should use the passive.

When to use the passive:

To soften statements: “Our offer was not accepted by the seller” is softer than “The seller did not accept our offer”.

To deflect blame: “An error was made” is better than “You made an error”

3. Use “we” and “you” as if speaking to someone face to face. “Our firm will call the client to make an appointment to show the client’s house” is better written as: “We willl call you to make an appointment to show your house.”

4. Choose short & simple over long and long winded. Get to the point and say exactly what you mean using the fewest & simplest words. Be clear and concise. Omit needless words. Don’t use what my mom used to call “five dollar” words, when a “five cent” word will do (see list of words to avoid). Let the reader guide your choice of language. If writing to your website builder it’s OK to use technical jargon. If you must write to a lawyer, lay on the legalese, even if it hurts.

5. Use verbs, not abstract nouns (called nominalisations —talk about a five dollar word). “Show” is a verb. “Showing” is a nominalisation.

Other examples:

negotiate-negotiation. Let’s negotiate a price is better than let’s enter into a price negotiation.
inspect-inspection. Let’s inspect the roof for leaks beats let’s do an inspection of the roof for leakage.
discuss-discussion. Let’s discuss the terms of sale works better than let’s have a discussion concerning the terms of sale.

6. Use bullets, rather than numbers, when you have a list of points.  Exception: use a numbered list when you need to identify the points later, such as in a “punch list”. Bullets make the points stand out. Even if your reader scans, their eyes will catch the bullet points.

7. Be polite, professional and unemotional, even when stating a problem or complaint. An emotional response makes the reader defensive. The reader is likely to get emotional too. Once logic leaves the room, the room gets noisy.

8. Create an outline before you start writing. This will organize your thoughts and you will be less likely to forget a point.

9. Hear what you’ve written to see if it flows. If your spouse can stand it, read it to him or her. My wife has a good BS detector.

10. Proofread for punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors. You may one day save your company $2.13 million dollars (read this post). Use a spell checker. Bookmark and use Webster.com.

Sources: Plain English Campaign (UK); Writing for the Web; The Elements of Style, Strunk & White (1918)
Artwork: The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel, 1563 (oil on oak panel)