You don’t need to retake high-school English to improve your communication skills.

As a REALTOR®, you strive for professionalism in all aspects of doing business, from your actions to your appearance. And few things are less professional then misspellings and glaring grammatical errors in your business communications. (If you noticed the error in the previous sentence, you may skip ahead to the next article.) Even e-mail exchanges with customers should reinforce your professional image, and a mistake–like confusing then for than in the first sentence–does not portray you as someone who pays attention to details.

A few grammar errors in an e-mail may not be a big deal. But when you’re competing for a listing with another agent who doesn’t make any mistakes, who do you think sellers will choose? The bottom line is that clear, mistake-free writing leads to better communication and makes you look better. Here are a few simple tips to improve your writing and help you clearly get your message across:

• Read it. Before you hit the send button, take 10 seconds and read the e-mail you just furiously typed. You will catch more mistakes doing this than anything else. When you compose that prospect letter to be mailed to several hundred addresses, ask someone else to read it.
• Check your spelling. Almost every e-mail and word-processing program employs a spell-check tool; take a moment and use it. Spell check won’t catch every mistake (it can’t tell when than should replace then), but it’s a quick and easy way to find errors.
• Keep sentences simple. Rather than cramming several ideas into one sentence with a string of commas, write another sentence.
• Avoid flowery language. You’re trying to communicate with customers, not impress them with your knowledge of the dictionary.
• Mix it up. If you’ve referenced "the house for sale" five times in the same paragraph, try substituting "the listed property" for two of those to add some variety and keep the reader’s attention.
• If you do nothing else, make sure you read your writing before sending it to someone. The benefits of reading your own words cannot be overstated.

Photo © PhotoDisc.

Buyers & sellers, visit www.texasrealestate.com.
REALTORS®, visit www.texasrealtors.com.