I recently resigned from my part-time job as a Real Estate Writer with our local community newspaper. Each week I would visit three properties and write an article on each one. I also edited about a dozen small articles written by the real estate sales reps.
Real estate writing has a bad reputation however it isn’t that difficult to write up an honest description of a property with a focus on its positive attributes. Below I will include a copy of a PDF document of words I put together for reference when I was stuck.
Here are few random thoughts from my nearly three years doing the job
- There is no need to say HUGE 2ha block of land. It is either 2ha or it isn’t!
- Houses don’t BOAST! They may have a delightful kitchen but they don’t BOAST about it!
- It is important to vary the first word in each sentence. It is so easy (when under deadline) to find that just about every sentence starts with ‘The’ or ‘It’.
- Use Word’s thesaurus. It can really ruin an article if every item is described as ‘stylish’ when there are so many other options available.
- It was useful to read other publications to expand my vocabulary. New words for me included “chic, bespoke, sleek, splashback, pendant lights, skillion roof …”
- After a some time in the job it took a lot to wow me. A three or four bedroom home could range from around $300,000 to $2million plus. They were still functionally much the same!
- Some sales representatives attempted humour in their writing – I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are a professional comedian – even then it is questionable!
- I did a quick (extra) edit to ensure that every sentence ended in a full stop. I used to cut and paste so much it was easy to misplace a full stop.
Here is my handy Real Estate Words List