First
of all, writing ads is time consuming. (As you know, real estate
agents never have time--not even for lunch!) Secondly, not
everybody is good with words . Third, I have found that in order to write
the most effective real estate ads you
need a basic knowledge of architectural styles . Unfortunately, many agents don't know
as much about architecture as they should. So I thought, why
not create a simple, easy-to-read manual that would give agents
this knowledge and help them write ads?
I toyed with the idea, but like all other sales agents, was
too busy to put anything in writing. Then one day, I got a referral
call to list a property in an older but highly desirable suburb.
Mrs. Seller greeted me with: "We've had our home on the
market for almost 2 years. We've had several brokers and they
just can't find a buyer." Sure, the
first thing you'll say is: " It's priced too high." Right?
WRONG!
This home was priced RIGHT! So what was the problem? Going through
the home I discovered that it was built in the late 1890s. I
checked previous broker ads, and to my surprise, every broker
had advertised this property as a RANCH !
Oh puh-leeze! A one-story home does not a ranch make! This was
an old farmhouse with many additions and changes. The floor plan
was not your "run of the mill" traffic pattern. It
reflected almost 100 years of lifestyles of many different owners!
The word "ranch" is not a 100-year-old architecturally
descriptive word, right?
So my first ad described the home as a PRAIRIE
FARMHOUSE CIRCA 1899 . Guess what? The house sold within 3 weeks at just under
full price! The right buyers were attracted by the ad. These
buyers had a household inventory of antiques, collectibles, and
even a little bit of country. The home suited them to a "T." These
buyers would never have called, and would certainly not have
been interested in seeing this property, if it was advertised
as a ranch.
So, what do we learn here?
Target your buyers with descriptive copy that "romances" the
architecture.
Encouraged by how powerful this technique is in selling real
estate, I decided to write my book "Word Marketing." It
took about 2 1/2 years to get it ready for publishing. It came
out so simple and easy to use, so quick to enable the user to
write an ad, that even I was impressed. Wow--I just wrote a great
book!
This was all back in 1991. Fast forward to 1996. My original
inventory was almost gone. It was time to revise and improve.
I found myself a great editor and we improved on the original
significantly. Reorganized and redesigned the book to make it
easier to find things. Added an index, a "Power Word Finder" thesaurus,
an "Ad Starters" section for each type of architectural
style, and an "Ad Empowering Checklist" to help agents--especially
new ones--gather the fuel to write powerful ads for each new
listing. Oh yes, this new edition is still very simple and easy
to use. But now, in addition to hundreds of descriptive phrases
and architectural drawings, you'll also find many good suggestions,
helpful hints, great ideas--all geared to make you a more successful,
productive, and happier person--honest! Listen to some of these
testimonials:
" A great resource . On days when your thought process just
won't start, after a quick read you could market anything from
the governor's mansion to an historic log cabin and every building
in between. Thanks!"
And, a rather exciting development: agents who use the Word
Marketing system for creating ad copy have discovered an added
benefit that I didn't even anticipate: their ad copy gets them
new listings!
Here's what one agent wrote to me, very happily:
"Word Marketing has made a huge difference in my real estate
career! On three separate occasions I beat out numerous other
brokers for listings because the sellers were so impressed with
the copy in my data sheets and my ads. These
listings were a direct result of the Word Marketing system . If you compare the
cost of the book to the $345,900 of business it brought me, it
definitely rates as the best business purchase I've ever made!"
Enough of this back patting! The main reason I'm writing this
is to let you know that there are books out there that could
make your life as a REALTOR more productive and less stressful--and
Word Marketing is one of them!
Now, aren't you glad you finished reading this? Want to learn
more?
If you would like to order we promise this book will help you
sell.
We are so confident that you will find Word
Marketing to be
a valuable addition to your working library of marketing resources
that we give you a prompt refund if you're not satisfied.
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