Selling promos

A - Home Brochure: Can it help sell your home?

A Home brochure can give you an edge:

• It's the one tangible item that helps sell your home after buyers leave. 

• It allows prospects to mull over the features that appeal to them–which isn’t always practical during a showing or at an open house.

• A brochure allows for the “hard sell” of your saleable features.

• It can highlight features, amenities and advantages of your home and the convenience of its location that the buyer may have missed. 

Create a home brochure: 

• COVER PAGE  The front page should have a compelling headline, picture, and a summary of highlights. A professional appearance gives an impression of a special home.

• TEXT PAGES  The home brochure second page will have statistical data including the price, followed by pages devoted to explanations of features, amenities and photos of various rooms and outside shots.

Consider including any of the following:

Major improvements

List major improvements you’ve done over the past few years. Skip older items (which suggest replacement is due) and minor improvements (new showerhead).

Don’t state your dollar investment. Buyers may depreciate items based on their age.

Special features

Include in your list of amenities things that not every home has, like a remote keypad for the garage door, a security system, convenient attic storage, tilt-in windows, a back-up system to your sump pump, an induction cook-top range, a garage’s side exit door, etc. You get the idea. Walk through your home again and make a list of things you take for granted.

Make a separate list of energy saving devices like new windows with “e” glass, higher seer (high efficiency) air conditioner, high efficiency furnace, etc. Here you can mention extra insulation, set-back thermostats and such since even small items are a positive in our energy-conscious society.

Utility costs

List the past 12 months or the average monthly cost for the past year or two of expenditures for mandatory utility services and keep it updated. Exclude phone, cable and other non-necessities. 

Floor plan

If your home is newer, include a copy of the builder’s floor plan. Don’t include it if your floor plan was flipped (reversed) from the builder’s plan, as this confuses buyers. 

Landscaping

Provide photos of landscaping in full bloom when selling out of season.

Interest rates

You could include a copy of the bank rates in your area. Go to bankrate.com.

Caption the page with a heading like, “Low rates make this a great time to buy–before they start heading back up!” or “Buy now–before rising interest rates limit your buying power!”

A map

Make a copy of a map; marked with your home’s location, highlight local shopping areas, major roads and other key landmarks like a hospital, the rec center, etc. Position your home in the center of the map to give the appearance of being centrally and conveniently located. Print your property location from a site like mapquest.com or the google.com map.

School information

Highlight local schools on the map. Check the local district to confirm which schools currently service your location as boundaries can change. Don't include more than a page here. Direct prospects to the districts web site after you check it out.

Community and neighborhood info

Annual neighborhood and community events will be of interest, as will information about swimming pools, local adult education, restaurants and shopping. 

Seller disclosures

A brochure is a good place to attach copies of property disclosures. This way, the buyer can make an offer without any hesitations.

Home brochure tips:

If your pictures display the date when the photos were taken, be sure they're current. Prospects will assume the dates are when your home went on the market.

You can obtain all kinds of community information about your area at moving.com.  Select the Real Estate button or City Profiles to obtain a page of local demographics or School Reports for local education statistics.

City-data.com provides a wealth of free information on thousands of towns in the US. Reports on comparable neighborhood sales, schools, crime, the environment and demographics based on your address can be found at SmartHomeBuy.com. For $4.95 it can provide detailed information, including physical characteristics and county assessed values about your home.

Include local lender contacts and home inspectors in your brochure. These can be obtained from agents who gave you a CMA. The web site entitledirect.com offers multiple title insurance quotes at reduced rates from multiple companies. Title insurance usually costs a purchaser between ½ % to 1 ½% of the mortgage amount.
 
A list of lenders and title insurance site shows your helpfulness. A list of inspectors portrays you as possessing a high level of confidence in your home.