Agents work hard for listings, but it is the broker who pays for the display ads that generate extra advertorials -- those feature stories that show up in the Sunday Homes section of the local paper. That makes the advertorials an extension of the ad that the broker has already paid for. When establishing an advertorial policy, keep in mind that the one with the gold makes the rules.

That means that as the broker, your advertorial is as important to your image as a company as any other ad or branding. You have the right to present a consistent, appealing image to the public.

The best way to do that is to put someone on your staff who is in charge of your advertising needs, or to outsource your advertising needs to an advertising firm. The advertorials can be outsourced to a local free-lance writer who is familiar with local real estate, architecture, real estate politics and fair housing laws.

This person or group should establish the advertising schedule, coordinated with the advertising representative of the newspaper, and then give space assignments to managers (if in a multi-office company.) The manager assigns stories accordingly: company news, community service events, agent profile, management profile, or property ad. You should establish policy on how headlines are written (all should include the name of your brokerage), how deadlines are to be met, and how to feature the company's Web site address in every story.

It's up to the broker/manager to decide which stories to run and how to weigh the importance of the stories. Some managers will only allow property ad advertorials on homes over a certain price range, on homes with virtual tours, or homes represented by agents who have done a certain amount of production. Others allow each agent a slot which is left to the agent's discretion to use as a personal ad or a property ad. Some brokers only allow advertorials on sellers' homes on which they are receiving full-service commissions to sell -- which could be a bargaining chip with ad-conscious sellers.

That said, property ads should never be assigned to "get a listing," nor should they be used to "save a listing." If a broker or agent stoops to that, she is placing value on the ad, not on the services rendered by the brokerage. If ads sell real estate, what do sellers need brokers for? Agents should be told to never mention advertorials in listing presentations. If a seller asks about them, they should say that they are assigned by the broker, and scheduled weeks in advance. The agent can't promise that any listing will get into the rotation. This should be easy to defend as at any given time, the brokerage should always have many more listings than available slots for property ads.

It is difficult to get managers in a multi-office environment on board with a corporate advertorial plan if they think they or their agents will be charged by the free-lancers for writing the advertorials. It's best to let the broker absorb this cost, or she will be met with delays, frustration, and poor quality stories. The advertorials should be a service to the managers to help them unshoulder a time-consuming burden so they can concentrate on recruiting, retention, and sales.

To get them on board, compose a notice similar to this:

To all managers: Big Broker Realty Advertorial Standards

To present a consistent and appealing company image to consumers, Big Broker Realty has developed standards for the writing and delivery of advertorials to local publications.

As you know, our advertising expenditures with local newspapers allow us to have extra space to promote properties, profile our personnel, and announce company news in the form of advertorials. While we view this extra space as ads, the newspapers view the extra space as editorial. For this reason, Big Broker Realty must conform to the journalistic standards of each publication.

This means we have the newspapers’ and our own standards to uphold. To make it easier on everyone involved with the creation of these advertorials, Big Broker Realty has adopted the following policies: