The New Way To Do Home Booklets
Have you ever walked through a home that was for sale? You pick up a nicely laminated booklet with all the basic info about the property. Two hours later it is in the crack between the seat of your car and the door, or it sits on a pile of junk mail at your house until it gets thrown away.
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When I drive buyers around looking at properties, at the end of our showings I collect the paper booklets they leave in my back seat. Here is the crazy thing; sellers and agents really care about how these look and what they say. A lot of time and energy goes into making them, when they are done well, but rarely are they even looked through.
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So, I wanted to do it differently. If I'm going to create something beautiful to market your home, it should work. It should be helpful to buyers. It should help sell your home.
My Custom E-Booklet
Let's start with the basics. When I create an E-Booklet for you I've already seen your home. We have a price. I've helped you declutter, if needed, and profession photos are completed. My design team has edited your pictures and the photos look pressed. I've asked you everything about why you love your home, the property features, what you have upgraded, and the things you like the best. I take all the redesigned images and info you've given me and create the E-Booklet. Below, click on the image for an example.
E-Booklet Example
Click The Image Below
How Custom Is Custom?
I love making these. The fun part is when a seller asks me a question about the design of my E-Booklet the answer is always "yes."
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- Can I pick the colors? - Yes!
- Can we add an extra page? - Yes!
- Can we change what pictures we use? - Yes!
- Can I add more features to the features list? - Yes!
- Can I send this to my son, my dad, my great aunt Susan? - Yes! Yes! Yes!
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I make these E-Booklets myself so they can be as specific to your home and your needs as you like. You're busy, that's fine. I can also just create two or three options for you and you can select what you like the best. You can be as involved as you like or you can leave it in my hands. Truly, I enjoy creating these either way and find when clients want specific things it makes the process more fun.
Why an E-Booklet Is Better
Your E-Booklet has a features list, a heartfelt write up, and edited photography. We are able to pull together all the best info about your house into one attractive package. Also, agents showing your home can easily scroll over to your E-Booklet while showing your house. It will be located on the listing, which most agents have up on their devices when showing a property. This lets me give the agent bullet points to help sell the house, while they are in the home, still talking to the potential buyer. The E-Booklet is sent out to agents and buyers by email and text, but it is also sharable, so they can send it to friends and family as well. It is searchable online and can be viewed by buyers before they even decide to walk through the home. None of this is possible with a paper property booklet, which is the norm. This is how I try to take a real estate standard, like the property booklet, and make it work in a more useful, modern way. This also includes a features list, see an example below.
Features List Exmple
Your Features List Helps Your Home Sell
Your features list is the most important part of your E-Booklet. It helps showing agents explain the features of your home while in the house but, the way I use it, it also attracts buyers online to the house and can create new showings. After I create a features list, I convert it into a picture file and add it into your photography. This allows your features list to display on sites like Zillow. It's unusual, so buyers expecting only home photography are more likely to stop and take notice of your listing. Another way I do this is the write up, also called the property description, see an example below.
Property Description Example
Last But Not Least - The Write up
I don't know how many listing descriptions you've read but I, being an agent, have read a ton and they are usually excruciatingly boring. "This lovely single-family features 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths and has a 2 car garage," this is the common beginning to most listing descriptions. It is the real estate equivalent of a white noise machine. Read three or more of them and your eyelids will start to feel heavy, they are a great home remedy for insomnia.
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The problem is many agents don't create features lists so they are trying to pack a list of features into the description but this info goes out to a lot of places and gets a lot of views. Also, why say a property has 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths? That info is always displayed right next to this description, why say it again? The answer, I believe, is lack of creativity. It takes time to write these and agents are busy. You can see in the example above I try to tailor my descriptions to the home and often to the people who lived in and loved that home. The seller of a property is often similar to the new buyer. We have access to a space, in these descriptions, where we can talk directly to the new buyer. I believe it is worth my time to use that opportunity to try to catch a potential buyer's attention and make them feel something for your home.
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In short, I create a features list for... you guessed it, the features of the home. It just makes sense to use the description on websites, in the E-Booklet, and in the listing, to pull some heart strings. It helps both the seller sell and the buyer understand the property if the write up describes how the home feels.
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If I'm putting something out into the world about your home, it needs to be good, useful, and worth the reader's time. You are trusting me to present your home in the best way. I take that seriously.
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