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 an ad:

Undressed, and waiting for you to choose the colors in this new 3-bedroom, 2-bath American Traditional…..

Did I grab your attention? That’s an ad that sells.

Great! That’s what a properly structured ad will do. When marketing a property for sale it’s not just about putting the property on social media, the MLS and sending out flyers, it’s also how you word the information you’re putting in 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: the 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 who will buy that particular home. For example, if the property’s strongest feature is the location, you would use the location as your heading. “Del Rio Estates” is an example. If the property has, say, two strong features such as location and being well-priced 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 “undressed” example I gave above, to lead into the ad.

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 simple contact information or a link to your website where they can see more and get your contact information.

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

Nicole Surber is a Business Development Executive and Team Leader for RealEstateAuctions.com in the California counties of Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Tuolomne, Mono and Mariposa. Contact Nicole for information about Central California real estate auctions by calling 209-556-8018 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..