Sell My House Home Property
Writing Great Ads When For Sale by Owner
Looking over the sell my house home property section, of the local newspaper, Mary was sitting at the kitchen table taking notes on a piece of paper from her printer.
She thinks the best way to write a good ad for to sell her house, is to follow by example.
M: Joe, come take a look at these property ads. What do think?
J: (reading over quickly). They seem fine to me.
M: I think so too. I'll use those property ads as a basis, and then go from there.
FOR SALE: W/S 3
bd, 2 bath home,
backs onto park &
close to schools,
Phone (xxx) xxx-
xxxx
BEAUTIFUL CONDO
40+, 2 bdrm, S/S, pri-
vate sales, close to
many amenties 1181
sq ft. (xxx) xxx-xxxx
W/S = West Side S/S = South Side
What is Wrong with those 2 Property Ads?
When it comes to sell my house home property ads, here are the mistakes in the ads above.
- Doesn't give the property address.
- Doesn't give the price.
- Doesn't instill any kind of desire. (Yawn!)
Sell my house home property ad writing tip #1:
Following the examples of other people's ads, is not always a good idea.
This includes both for sale by owner property ads and real estate agent ads.
10 minutes later, the property ad is ready to take down to the newspaper ad office for print.
M: Joe, how many days do you think we should run this ad for in the Daily Ramble?
J: Whatever you think honey. You're in charge of advertising.
M: OK, I'll put the ad in for a week and see what kind of response we get.
This is the ad Mary composed:
BEAUTIFUL BUNGALOW
Fully finished with 3 bdrms
and 2 full baths. Large garage
4 appliances included. Oak
kitchen. Call for appointment
to view. (555) 555-1234
Sell my house home property ad writing tip #2
Where
is the sizzle? Where is the property address? Where is the price?
Always include the price when selling for sale by owner.
Always include the property address or at least a narrow geographical area in your ad copy.
For more on this subject and newspaper advertising in general, go to Newspaper Classifieds
The ssssizzle? Try to make your ads make people want to see your house. A good for sale by owner real estate ad has one purpose and one purpose only. Here it is:
To Make People Want to Call You and View Your Property
You can not sell your house with an ad. 99.99999% of buyers are going to want to view the home first before buying.
Even if a buyer was going to buy the home sight unseen, you would still want to create a want and a need in order to sell.
Sizzle! for Sell My House Home Property
After you make sure the property address and price are in your ad, try to insert a couple of sizzle features. Some of these "hot sell" buttons could be.
- Beat the heatwave in this air-conditioned modern home
- Relax in your spacious fully equipped home office
- You'll be the envy of your friends with your top of the line home theater
- A gourmet chef's dream kitchen awaits you
- The fully equipped heated double garage and workshop, will keep Dad busy and smiling
- The expansive red cedar deck will be your very own private retreat
- Sit and daydream in front of the majestic fireplace on those cold winter evenings
- You will want to spend many an hour, enjoying your very own heated in-ground pool
- Surrounded by mature trees, this home offers rarely achieved privacy in this fast paced world
- With manicured lawns and spotless interior throughout, just move in and relax.
Each of the above, creates a picture to a buyer. Once you have the "hot sell" button or "sizzle" when you sell my house home property, then you can include some basic information such as:
- # of bedrooms
- # of baths
- Square footage of house
- Garage type and/or size. example: Double Detached Garage
- Spacious family room
- Main floor laundry
- All on one level
You get the idea. Sell my house home property requires one "hot sell" button, some basic features, location, price and phone number.
Sell my house home property ad writing tip #3
If you have a special sell my house home property incentive that you can offer a buyer, include them in your ad. The following are a few examples:
- Certified Appraisal
- Assumable Mortgage
- 0 down payment
- Home inspection available
- Low 3.75% 5 year mortgage rate
- Seller financing available
A special incentive, sets you apart from most of the other houses waiting to sell on the market. For more details on buyer incentives, try You Might Need a Hook
When to Run Your Printed Ads
Mary has arrived at her local newspaper building and proceeds to one of the advertising clerks.
M: Hi, I'd like to run this property for sale ad for one week starting tomorrow under the Houses For Sale section.
Clerk: Great, and how will you be paying for that?
M: I'll be paying cash. How much is the damage?
Clerk: That will be.....$$$$$$$.
M: (gulping) Errr, on second thought, will you accept a check? I just remembered I need to use this money somewhere else.
Clerk: (Nodding knowingly) Sure, I'll just need 2 photo ID's.
M: Here you go. Now who do I make this out to?
Mary quickly discovered that printed newspaper ads can be expensive. How could she have prepared herself better? Let's take a look shall we?
Sell my house home property ad writing tip #4
Do Research Before Placing Classified Ads
Before you write any newspaper ads, it's a good idea to do some research first. Here are some ideas you might want to use.
- Call the paper first to check out or confirm their rates
- Ask if they have any specials running on sell your property advertising
- Ask if there is special rates on 3 day or other amounts of time.
- Try to advertise when you have the best "bang for the buck". An example might be Friday, Saturday and Sunday or Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
- You might want to stay away from Holiday week-ends where many people go away.
- Set a monthly budget you are comfortable with and work within that budget.
Classified Advertising when you sell my house home property, is Different
With most types of advertising when you sell for sale by owner, I usually preach, "GO ALL OUT". Why? Because, it's important to get exposure, exposure, exposure
Think about it.
- For the most part, signs are a one time expense. You buy or make your signs and you are done.
- Placing feature sheets on bulletin boards are a one time expense
- Advertising on a "for sale by owner" website is usually a one time expense until sold or perhaps a 6 month listing.
- MLS ® exposure while for sale by owner (where available) may cost nothing, unless sold by a Realtor ®
- MLS ® exposure where you pay a small flat fee and a selling commission to a Realtor ® if they find a buyer (where available) is a one time expense.
- MLS ® exposure where you are not offering a commission but only wanting the additional MLS ® coverage, (where available) is a flat fee.
- Placing flyers in mail boxes to select areas is at most, probably a once a month expense.
- Word of mouth is a free advertising method.
*Classified Printed Newspaper Ads can eat up cash quickly and what may be even more harmful, with very little return sometimes.
Should you advertise in a local newspaper? My opinion is yes, but with some reservations. Watch the budget, try for specials and use timing to your advantage.
Having said that, in my humble opinion, when it concerns "sell my house home property" in today's world, printed advertising is and will, become less and less effective.
Internet and signs, are probably your two best exposures.
Sell my house home property ad writing tip #5
It might be a good idea, to only run newspaper ads at those times that you are doing an open house.
You might also want to test the waters by running a weekend ad shortly after you offer your property for sale.
Mary has arrived back home and heads straight to the medicine cabinet for a couple of "pain relievers" for the headache she incurred after she wrote out the check to the newspaper.
M: While Joe, I guess we are in this for the long haul now! I hope this house sells quickly!
J: (Taking a quick glance at Mary's ashen white face), Yes Dear, I'm just going out to the garage for a second. I'll be in shortly.
Joe arrives back in the house 10 minutes later and sees Mary sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper.
J: Mary, Do you think we should look into putting a website up to sell our house?
M: I think that would be a great idea. I read somewhere that the majority of buyers now look for information on the World Wide Web. I'll leave this one up to you to handle. I did the newspaper thing, so it's your turn this time.
Mary raises up her right hand to give Joe a "high 5"
Joe responds playfully just relieved that Mary's "newspaper ad shock look" seems to have disappeared. Our house will sell in no time anyway Joe thinks to himself....
If you are following this story in sequence, please proceed to #5 below.For More Information about the Joe and Mary Story
#1 The Joe and Mary Story Main Page
#2 Joe and Mary Select a Sign
#3 Joe and Mary Prepare Their House to Sell
#5 Joe and Mary Go Online
#6 Our Hero's Answer Ad Calls
#7 Joe and Mary Find a Hot Buyer!
#8 Joe and Mary Decide to get an Appraisal
#9 Joe and Mary Prepare for Open House
#10 Our for Sale by Owner's do their First Open House
#11 Joe and Mary get a 2nd House Showing
#12 Joe and Mary get an Offer
#13 Joe and Mary Close the Deal!
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