Real Estate Writers

Most real estate writers find their first jobs as editorial, production, or research assistants. Advancement may be more rapid in small media companies, where beginners learn by doing a little bit of everything and may be given writing tasks immediately. At large publishers or broadcast companies, duties are usually more compartmentalized. Assistants in entry-level positions are assigned such tasks as research and fact checking, but it generally takes much longer to advance to full-scale writing duties.

Promotion into higher-level positions may come with the assignment of more important articles and stories to write, or it may be the result of moving to another company. A staff writer at a real estate magazine that covers the Midwest may switch to a similar position at a more prestigious publication that covers the entire United States. Or a news writer may switch to a different media as a form of advancement. Newspaper writers may move to cover the industry for an online site, or broadcast real estate reports for a local television station or cable channel.

As staff writers become more experienced in a particular aspect of the real estate industry they may be permanently assigned that beat. Writers may also be given a regular by-line column. The New York Times, for example, has several columnists that cover the real estate industry in general, as well as special interest areas such as architecture and new housing developments. Special features usually appear in weekly sections of the paper that deal with home or housing concerns.

Freelance or self-employed writers earn advancement in the form of bigger projects and larger fees as they gain exposure and establish their reputations.