What Is Email Etiquette and Why Is It Important in Real Estate?

Real estate professionals spend nearly a quarter of their work week sorting through the dozens of emails they send and receive daily. In today's real estate environment, email communications have almost entirely replaced paper communications.

All of the emails we read and write each day might make us more susceptible to embarrassing mistakes, which can have significant professional effects. However, with good email etiquette, you can avoid all these setbacks. With proper style and language, you can develop a professional image and convey your point clearly. Let's go over proper business email etiquette in real estate and how you can improve your email communication skills!

What Is Email Etiquette?

Email etiquette explains the best practices that should be adopted when writing or sending formal or business emails. You can tailor these norms and rules to suit the particular purpose and audience while projecting respect and professionalism.

Email etiquette entails including all essential components of a message, such as greetings, a clear subject line, well-organized body paragraphs, closing, and appropriate language.

Email Etiquette Guidelines: 13 Best Email Etiquette Practices

• Create a concise and straightforward subject line
• Formally address your recipient
• Use suitable fonts
• Start with a greeting and introduce yourself
• Ensure that your message is appropriately structured
• Use sentence case
• Double-check your recipients
• Close your email with a signature and a call-to-action
• Proofread your email thoroughly
• Make sure to note any attachments
• Use hyperlinks
• Make sure your message is polite and easily understood
• Proofread your email thoroughly

Create a Simple and Concise Subject Line

Subject lines are critical when writing emails. They appear at the top of recipients' inboxes, so the first impression they have of your email is from your subject line. Assume your subject line is the title of your message. What best describes what you're writing about? Your reader should be able to understand the purpose of your message from the subject line. Keep it concise, and only mention the most important points of your email to increase the likelihood of your message getting read by the recipient.

Formally Address Your Recipient

Unless you are familiar with the recipient, address them as "Mr.," "Ms.," or "Mrs." Nevertheless, if you have frequent and amiable contact with someone, you can address them by their first name. Start your email with a salutation, such as "Hello [name]," to ensure that it is received graciously and professionally.

Use Suitable Fonts

For a tidy, professional appearance, use the default font and text color for your email. The default font setting for most devices is dark gray or black text. They are simple and easy to read. Standard fonts and colors will ensure that your message is understood. The following are some examples of easy-to-read fonts:

• Arial
• Calibri
• Georgia
• Corbel
• Avenir
• Cambria
• Constantia
• Gill Sans
• Garamond
• Helvetica

Start With Greetings and Introduce Yourself

It is unwise to assume that the person you are sending an email to knows who you are. It's polite to begin your email with greetings and a brief introduction if this is your first time contacting them. If you know the recipient, but aren't sure if your name is familiar, mention the last time you spoke or how you met.

Keep your message short and straight to the point.

Ensure that Your Message Is Properly Structured

To improve readability, you can use various structural approaches to construct the message. Keep paragraphs short and straight to the point. In longer messages, use numbered or bulleted lists to highlight key points.

The themes of your message should be clear and well-articulated. Always use regular text formatting.

Spam filters sometimes catch large attachments like photos, and translating HTML to plain text or vice versa can be messy. Instead, use a plain serif or sans serif font on a white background. Using a sans serif or plain serif font along with black text on a white background gives the structure of your message an overall good look.

Use Sentence Case

Capitalize the first letters of the first word in a sentence and any proper nouns. Using traditional capitalization is an essential email etiquette that you should practice.

Double-check your recipients. Be careful when sending a "reply to all" to avoid sending emails to the wrong recipients.

Close Your Email with a Signature and a Call-to-Action

Add "thank you," "best regards," or "sincerely" to conclude your email. Use your titles and full name when closing your email to provide your recipient with all the information they need for their reply.

The last line of your email should include a solid call-to-action (CTA) that spells out what you want your recipient to do next. For example, you could request an RSVP, an in-person meeting, a file delivery, or just a general answer to your request. Set a deadline for this correspondence, such as the end of the day or week. If you make this call-to-action clear, your recipient will know what action to take and how long they have to respond.

Proofread Your Email Thoroughly

Before sending your message, make sure it is clear and concise. While spellcheck can identify many mistakes, it is still important to double-check for typos on your own. Your errors will not go undetected by the recipients of your email, some of whom might judge you for making them.

Why Is Email Etiquette Important in Real Estate?

When it comes to communication, the way you convey your message indicates the type of person you are, especially your attention to detail and work ethic. It is essential to implement best practices for email etiquette for various reasons, including the ones listed below.

• Efficient communication: Emails written with etiquette are direct, concise, and convey the message quickly.
• Professionalism: Using good email etiquette demonstrates your company's professionalism and attention to detail.

To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.