Whether you call it a bio or a profile, your real estate bio can help you attract prospects in two ways.
- The first is professionally.
- The second is personally.
Professionally, your real estate bio should reveal your niche and show prospects what kind of service they can expect from you.
Prospective clients want to know if you offer what they want most from an agent, and what they want differs from 
client to client.
All know they want their agent to do a good job for them, but different clients have different ideas about what that means. This is especially true if they’ve had a poor experience with an agent in the past. They’re looking for someone who will provide what that agent did not.
The client benefits you stress in your agent bio will help them decide if you’re the one they want.
Your agent bio should reflect what you think is most important about your service.
- Is it your patience and understanding when dealing with relocating seniors or divorcing couples?
- Is it your ability to explain the entire purchase or sales process so your clients feel secure and confident from start to finish?
- Is it your willingness to preview listings and act as “advance eyes” for clients who are relocating from a distant city?
- Perhaps it is your consistent follow-up and ability to solve problems that could derail a closing.
- It could be the fact that when they have a question, you’ll be the one to respond. Or, on the flip side, it could be the fact that you have an assistant who will be there for them when you aren’t immediately available.
Your real estate bio should reflect your area or areas of expertise.
You might specialize in high end homes, condos, historic homes, or farm and ranch properties. Your agent bio should let those who are looking for a specialist know that they have found you.
If you specialize in helping first time buyers, your bio might share your knowledge of the best loan programs and/or down payment assistance available to them.
Whatever it is, your agent bio should make it clear.
By the way, if you haven’t yet chosen an area of expertise – otherwise known as a niche. Consider doing so. Here’s why.
What about personally?
Real estate is a relationship business, so begin building relationships with people before you ever meet or communicate directly.
You can do so by using your agent bio to reveal things such as:
- Where you grew up
- Where you went to school
- Your education
- Why you chose the city where you now live and work
- Your previous occupations – and what you gained from them that helps in your present career
- Why you chose to become a real estate agent
- Your hobbies and other non-work pastimes, such as volunteer work
- Your pets
- What you love about your real estate career
You don’t need to go into detail about any of your personal information. Just share enough so that someone reading it can connect with you by seeing your similarity to them. You never know what it might be. It could be the city where you grew up. It could be your love of dogs or cats. It could be your hobby or your volunteer work.
Avoid these real estate bio mistakes…
Trying to be all things to all people.
It doesn’t work. No one is an expert in all things, and your potential clients know it.
A case in point is an agent in my general vicinity. She claims to be an “expert” on all types of properties in the 3 northern counties of Idaho. She says she “knows them inside out.” This is an area of more than 4,000 square miles, with a couple of sizeable cities and numerous small towns. It’s also home to two major lakes and many small ones. Each community and each lake is unique. Residents, homes, taxes, zoning regulations, home prices, etc. vary wildly. So – no she doesn’t know them inside out. She looks foolish for saying so.
Using a bland, generic bio.
If your bio isn’t personally yours, it is no better than no bio. In fact, in some cases, it can be worse.
A while back I was browsing a brokerage site looking at bios in order to see how much space might be allowed for the bio I was writing. This was a large brokerage, so had dozens of agents. As I scrolled down the page I came across two bios that were identical. Aside from the agent’s names, they matched word for word.
Apparently, these agents had failed to provide bios, so a secretary had simply plugged in a generic bio from a file. It just happened that the two agents were side by side alphabetically.
Believe me, no potential client will be impressed by that. Especially not when it says something like “When you’re buying a home you need a local expert to guide you….”
Mentioning your honesty and ethics.
You might think your prospects will feel reassured if your bio states that you’re honest and ethical. In fact, many will run the other way, believing that if you have to say it, it likely isn’t true.
Failing to proofread.
Your bio is important, so do not fail to proofread before posting it on your website. If you don’t feel confident with grammar, spelling, and word usage, ask for help from someone who is. This will be the first impression for many, so take that extra step to make it a good one.
Is your real estate bio really important?
Yes, it is. Studies show that the “about” page is the 3rd most read page on any service provider’s site. People want to know about those they’re thinking of dealing with.
Just this week a past client / friend of mine called to tell me that the bio I wrote for him years ago had gotten him his largest sale to date. An agent from out of state wanted to make a referral for his brother, who was relocating. He researched firms, then read the bios of the many agents working at the firm he chose. He chose my friend based on his bio.
If your agent bio isn’t attracting clients – re-write it!
Get rid of the bland, say-nothing words and add some interesting details.
And… if you have a good bio that hasn’t been updated recently, check it. If you’ve gained a new designation, won an award, etc., update that bio. And if you’ve switched brokerages, check to make sure your real estate bio doesn’t mention your previous brokerage.
Finally, if your bio was written in 2015 and says you’ve been an agent for 10 years, it’s time to change that number! Hint: Instead of saying “for X years,” change to “since (year).” Then you won’t need to worry about updating that aspect of your bio.
And… if you need help writing or re-writing that bio, get in touch.
Writing agent bios is one of my specialties.
Graphics courtesy of Stuart Miles @freedigitalphotos.net
