Selling Your House? Bookmark These 6 Real Estate Blogs

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The blank search box on Google can lead you down a black rabbit hole through the deep pages of the internet. Billions of webpages full of “hot sellers tips,” quick fixes, and fluff no one asked for. Not ideal when you’re looking for advice on selling your home.

2017 promises unrest and upheaval in the housing industry. If you’re planning to put your house on the market this year, you need reliable sources to keep on top of real estate trends, work through questions and concerns, and get insider advice on the hottest new real estate technology that gets your house sold fast.

We fell down the internet rabbit hole for you to get those resources. We grabbed six of the best, most informative and innovative blogs on real estate; the diamonds in the rough. Don’t waste your time Googling, just follow these sites the second you decide to list your house for sale.

Here’s what we went looking for:

Fresh takes on how to sell a house
Do the blogs consistently offer new information, angles, and out-of-the-box real estate thinking?
Is any data shared up to date and does it offer a new perspective on an existing issue?

Insider info from real estate experts
Does the author have access to market trends and experience that could lead to solutions that no other blog can get?

Active publishers
How often is the site posting? Is it enough to keep up with the way the market rapidly changes?
Consistent publications show engagement in the real estate world.

Writing that’s actually fun to read
Is the writing good, are the ideas exciting, well thought out, and helpful?

Credibility of the source
Who is the brain behind the blog? Is it a top real estate agent with years of experience and ideas that recognize that the way homes get sold now is changing? Has it been endorsed by other blogs across the internet?

We’ve talked to the real estate agents who run these blogs, read through their best articles, and assessed the quality of information and advice. These 6 websites came out on top.

Looking for a Little Sales Innovation?

Search Salt Lake by Real Estate Agent Dustin Brohm

Dustin Brohm is a top Salt Lake real estate agent with new ideas for real estate marketing. Dustin’s blog, Search Salt Lake, is full of out of the box real estate topics that help you think about selling in a different way. That new perspective is the boost you need to overcome hurdles both unique to you and general to the selling process.

Dustin has proved to be a powerhouse on social media with his clever strategies on Snapchat and Instagram: Brohm uses features on both of the apps to advertise open houses to his followers and reach potential buyers where they skim for quick, digestible news. His blog dives into these strategies so that you can grab the attention of eager buyers on the internet.

Why should you trust Dustin?

He’s a top real estate agent who dove into social media real estate marketing–and it worked.

Dustin let us pick his brain on his social media strategies. Brohm told us that, “You do have to be social media savvy to be successful on social.” Brohm’s blog is the first step to a social media savvy real estate marketing strategy. 21st century buyers are on social media and you need Brohm’s advice to reach them.

Our must read pick: How to Use Snapchat for Real Estate Marketing

blog real estate
Source: (Anete Lūsiņa / Unsplash)

Maximum Exposure Real Estate by Bill Gassett

Bill Gassett has 31 years of experience as a real estate agent and is the number 3 agent in all of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Bill mastered using Google and YouTube as real estate marketing techniques.

Is your home up for sale? Imagine this:

A family of four is looking for their dream place in that one perfect neighborhood with the big trees and craftsman style houses on a wide open street. They pass your house with that bright blue “For Sale” sign and love the blue-gray exterior with the potted roses out front.

When one kid gets carsick and the other can’t find her soccer cleats minutes before the big game, they forget all about the house (and to jot down the real estate agent’s name). By the time they get home from taking the kids to the soccer field, it’s too much work to try and find the home again.

Enter Bill.

Bill pioneered the “Google This Address” marketing idea. The “For Sale” sign has a smaller sign below it that says, “Google This Address.” Plug in the address and the listing pops up on Google as a walkthrough video on youtube and on Gassett’s site.

You need ideas like that or serious buyers with busy schedules will pass your house by.

Gassett has a huge social media following (over 21,000 followers on Pinterest). His advice is laid out in steps on his blog. Not only does he teach you his marketing techniques, you can Google one of his listings and see first hand that the homes do pop up online.

As Bill told us over the phone, “People like to work with people who are knowledgeable and trustworthy” and “I found getting business from social media is more about your knowledge than it is posting listings.”

Our must read picks: Real Estate Listing Descriptions are Vital to Marketing and
Google This Street Address

Need Digestible Real Estate Tips?

Clean Slate: Insights Into the Real Estate Industry by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate

Clean Slate has ideas and tips for real estate agents and sellers alike, which is one of the reason we are big fans. Yes, some of the articles are going to be focused on helping real estate agents do their jobs better, but those articles help you know what you should expect from an agent at the top of her class. You can take those ideas to your real estate agent and discuss which options are going to be best for your home and your area.

The site also curates “Real Estate Resource Roundup” posts that grab useful articles across the internet. They put the “trending news, updates, events, and insights” every week into one article with a quick description of each post so you can decide which will be the most beneficial to you.

Clean Slate does all the work for you so that you only have to follow one blog to get trending real estate news from all across the internet.

Our must read pick: 4 Staging Mistakes Real Estate Agents Often Make

real estate blogs
Source: (NeONBRAND / Unsplash)

Lighter Side of Real Estate by Top Real Estate Agent Contributors

Have you ever heard of a “fun real estate site?” That’s what Lighter Side of Real Estate is at first glance. Beyond its comics and funny real estate stories and images in the “humor” section, Lighter Side is actually run by top names in the business.

Remember our friend Bill Gassett? He’s one of the main contributors. Actually, almost all of the Lighter Side contributors have their own top real estate blogs. The site is an aggregate of their experiences, real struggles, and advice for you in the selling process.

This blog is the best way to get direct insights from multiple real estate agents across the nation. That means experience across many different markets, diversity of clients, house types, and unique problems. This blog covers all your bases.

Our must read pick: 3 Reasons Your Real Estate Agent WANTS You to Bother Them

The Real Daily: Daily Real Estate Industry News by American Genius

The Real Daily is split into real estate tech, real estate marketing, and real estate data. They also have sections on commercial real estate and opinion editorials.

The Real Estate Data section is what is most useful to you. The blog takes data from the National Association of Realtors and explains the findings in short articles. The posts are quick and easy to read and keep you informed on what is going on with sellers and buyers across the US.

That kind of knowledge clues you into the state of the housing market and why your sale might go off without a hitch or might take a few months more than expected. You need to stay on top of these trends so that when you ultimately decide to list your home you can pull out all the stops to make sure it sells fast and for the most cash possible in your neighborhood.

Our must read pick: 2016 Ended as the Best Year for Home Sales in a Decade

keep up with real estate news
Source: (AbsolutVisions / Unsplash)

Stay on Top of the US Housing Market:

Housing Wire

HousingWire taps into the federal state of the US housing market. Especially after last week’s inauguration, you need to know how the leadership change in the government affects your home.

They talk to the people who study the federal impact on the housing market (not as boring as it sounds!), trends in the stock market as they relate to housing, and collect answers from real estate agents. It’s the most informed read on the technical side of the market and how the upcoming regime change will impact housing and the economy as a whole.

Understand how the President is changing real estate and you’ll get the gist on the ups and downs of the year’s real estate market.

Our must-read pick: What Does Goldman Sachs Expect from Trump Administration?

Bookmark These Best Real Estate Blogs

Open up these six sites when you sit down with your coffee every morning. Every blog brings information from the different corners of the real estate world.

Read up on new marketing strategies to get ahold of millennial buyers who might otherwise never set eyes on your place. Get new ideas to share with your real estate agent that they may have never even heard of before. Keep updated on the fate of the US housing market so you know if you definitely need to sell now or if holding out could save you thousands.

There’s one great real estate blog we forgot to mention–ours! Check out the HomeLight Blog for helpful, researched articles with quotes from the top real estate agents across the nation. We walk you through every aspect of the home selling process so that you have questions and ideas to share with your real estate agent every step of the way. Want an all-in-one resource? Download our “sell your house” eBook.

Ultimately? These blogs are your first line of attack to get your house sold fast and for a great price.