What do Home Buyers Want? New Research from NAR
Just in time for spring shopping, the National Association of Realtors® has issued its latest survey on home buyer preferences, providing new insights on buyers’ most-wanted home features. Drawn from over 2,000 consumers who purchased any type of residence between 2010 and 2012, the 2013 Profile of Buyers’ Home Feature Preferences illustrates buyers’ priorities and where they’re willing to compromise. Among all surveyed buyers, these features were considered most desirable, rising to the top of a list of 33 different home features: 1. Central air conditioning 2....
Read MoreReal Estate Marketing: 3 Easy Ways to Write About New Home Trends
I just wrapped up an article for REBAC on new home trends (one of my favorite topics), which got me thinking about how easily real estate agents could do the same thing on their own blogs and help market their services to home buyers and sellers. You don’t have to be an expert on home trends to write about them. Instead, rely on the expertise of others and add your own commentary. Here are three different approaches you could take: 1. Summarize formal research. The NAHB, National Kitchen and Bath Association and others periodically survey consumers, designers, builders, etc. about new...
Read MoreTap Your Inner Genius with Mind Mapping
I confess to being a sucker for new online tools. Most of them never become part of my daily routine. But when I stumble on one that seems genuinely helpful, I’m eager to tell others about it. Enter Exobrain: a free web-based mind mapping tool that makes it easy to visualize your thoughts and the relationships between them. When I start planning and organizing a new project, I’ve learned that things go better if I work on the big picture first—envision what the different pieces will be. Mapping it out often prompts more thoughts about other pieces to add—or...
Read MoreCat Got Your Tongue? Try this Online Tool for Writers
Writing comes easier to some people than others, although everyone struggles now and then. If you hit a stumbling block, try one of the many online writing tools. For example, if the problem is using the same word too often, a visual thesaurus can help. But if you’re looking to add a little spice to your writing life, check out iDiom Corner, where you can search for idioms, phrases, proverbs, quotes and more. The right idiomatic phrase can bring a dull topic to life. Why say “I’m scheduled for the first flight in the morning” when “I’m catching the...
Read MoreLost for Words? Try a Visual Thesaurus
We humans are creatures of habit. Whether it’s eating the same cereal for breakfast or taking the same route to work, it’s easy to fall into ruts. This includes the words we tend to use when we talk or write. I’m as guilty as anyone. When I reread my first draft of an article, I often find words making repeat performances. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest things for any writer to fix. Either restructure the sentence or find a word replacement. (Or maybe a little of both.) Synonyms are a mouse-click away in most word processing programs. You’ll find more and...
Read More3 Easy Steps that Improve Search Engine Results
If you’ve read other articles on search engine optimization (SEO), you know how quickly this topic can shift into techno-babble. Unless you’re familiar with html programming code, your eyes will easily roll backwards by the second paragraph. But even if programming isn’t your thing, there are still three very simple things you can do on all your web pages that will help improve search rankings: 1. Create Short and Accurate Page Titles Page titles tell users and search engines what kind of content appears on a page. Ideally, you want each page title to be unique and...
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