Content Ideas for Ads and Brochures When Selling Your Home

Even in this hot real estate market, selling your home requires a bit of marketing effort. Ads and brochures are important and powerful tools. So, what do you put in you're marketing materials?

Content

To the degree possible include key information in you're ad or brochure. A classified ad will contain less than a poster, which will contain less than a brochure, which may contain less than an Internet listing, etc. The key, however, is to make sure each medium contains maximum information and minimum fluff.

In general, people want to know what type home is being offered (single family house, townhouse, condo, etc.), how many bedrooms and baths it has, its general location, and the price. Obviously, you also need to include contact information so potential buyers know how to reach you.

If you have the space, a good tactic is to describe the characteristics of the house that lead you to originally purchase it.

1. Was it the location?

2. A beautiful view?

3. Neighborhood charm?

4. A school district you were seeking out?

5. Lots of storage?

6. Garage spaces for 3 cars?

7. High ceilings?

8. The style of architecture?

9. Large entertainment areas?

10. A beautiful garden?

Don't be shy. Mention the best features to set your home apart from others for sale.

A note of caution is called for here. When you mention your home's best features, don't overstate them. If your potential buyer's first emotion on actually seeing your property is disappointment, there really isn't much potential for a sale to that person. With that in mind, I wouldn't refer to a house with a garden that backed to a small farm pond as "waterfront property," nor would I call a small, city apartment with windows on an air shaft a "spacious city abode with sunny views."

Photos

Include color photos of your home whenever possible. When selling real estate, a picture really can be worth a thousand words.

When taking your photos, take lots of them. Take them from typical angles and from unusual ones, too. Cameras often like odd angles. Photos that show three walls very often seem to reduce the size of the room visually. It is often better to show only two walls with the corner slightly, or very, off center. You may want to show the same room from more than one angle. One photo may include a wall of windows and another show a fireplace in the same room. Regardless of your approach, keep in mind the photographs will give a potential buyer the first impression of your home.

Obviously, marketing is one of the key factors in selling a home. If you are creative with yours, buyers will come.

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More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.