Imagine sitting at your kitchen table, having your cup of coffee and you break open your laptop and you pop “upcoming auctions in my area” and there you see it an ad:

Undressed, and waiting for you to choose the colors in this new 3 BR, 2-bath American Traditional…..Did I grab your attention?

Great! That’s what a properly structured ad will do. When marketing a property for sale its not just about putting the property on social media, the MLS, and sending out flyers its also how you word the information your putting on those ads that counts. It’s about getting the readers attention, creating an interest, a desire to learn more, and most importantly taking action. 

There are two parts to an effective ad: Ad Heading and the Body.

Ad Heading:

This is what gets the readers attention. Generally you would use the property’s most important feature as the heading. You need to ask yourself what features are important for the type of buyer that will buy that particular home. For example if the property’s strongest feature is the location then you would use the location as your heading “Del Rio Estates”. If the property has say two strong features such as location and is priced well you can combine these in the heading, “ Del Rio Estates—$455,500.” 

Now if the property isn’t located in a desirable area or doesn’t have any truly strong features that would allow you to come up with a heading then use an attention getting headline, such as the example I gave above, to lead into the ad.

Body:

The body provides additional information but just enough to get the buyer to want to learn more about the property. Price or a price range is important to include here as most buyers will respond when they see that a property is priced in a range they can afford. For example: “First one to call will be the winner at $456,700.” 

You will also want to include a way for the buyer to learn more. This can be in the form of your contact info or a link to your website where they can see more and get your contact information. 

Overall its important to evaluate your ads. Some ads will be more effective than others and its important to track your response rate. Keep the wording that works and trash the ones that don’t.