Realtors Turn To Blogging To Boost Sales

Increasingly, sales professionals turn to blogging for increased productivity and to differentiate themselves from the competition.

From Pacific Business Journal

In the old school of real estate, farming for prospective clients meant traveling on foot, knocking on doors. The oldest methods in the book include sitting at a Sunday open house and making cold calls.

Now there’s blogging.
For Tony Kawaguchi, 32, a Realtor associate at Re/Max 808 Realty, it’s just another medium for reaching a prospective client. He says his 4-month-old blog, at www.honolulu-realestate.net, gives him the chance to stand out from the crowd.

“There are so many ways to advertise real estate now, and there’s so much competition in every arena,” he said. “This is like a back-door way of advertising. It makes me look like an expert in my area.”

In his Web log, Kawaguchi shares the dos and don’ts of buying or selling a home, along with tidbits of market news, what to expect when moving to Hawaii from the Mainland, and other industry trends.

He’s positioning himself as an East Honolulu expert by writing about the various neighborhoods in that area. It’s also a way to introduce himself, by sharing in his blog that he’s married, with a 2-year-old child and a divinity degree.

Brothers Billy and Pete Jalbert, who work as Realtors for Jim Sanders Realty Inc. on Maui, have been blogging for a little over a year. Their Web site, www.mauirealestate.com, attracts readers from the Mainland and other parts of the globe. On a daily basis, Pete Jalbert says he writes a log on a range of topics — from the latest hot listing to Maui politics, arts and cultural events, or sometimes what it was like to spend a day surfing.