I gave more thought about you cry for help re trifold real estate brochures; for expired listings, buyers and sellers - and want to share some additional thoughts and resources.
The downside to making your own brochure is that it's very time consuming, but once you have a workable template future projects become easier.
I went back to the drawing board, which is another way of saying I looked on my computer, and found a trifold real estate template brochure.
Here's how to do it. 1. Click on Microsoft Word to create a new document.
2. Click on the Microsoft Icon in the upper left hand corner of your screen and a new window will open up.
3. Select the icon labeled new and another window will open. It'll have a list of options. Click on the one that says brochure.
4. Scroll down near the bottom of the selections until you see "Real Estate Agent Brochure (trifold)".
If you want some "free real estate clip art" go to microsoft.com, look for images, pictures and clip art and download all you want.
If you need verbage for your marketing stuff I suggest purchasing the real estate website content found on this site. You'll be able to copy, cut and paste until your heart is content.
Unfortunately, making your own initial brocure is not fast or effortless. You'll have to endure the process (I think of it as investing in yourself to build your skills) to get to the desired result, but when you do you'll be in more control of future projects if and when you hire them out to others (you'll have a sense of the amount of time it takes to complete a task, what the cost should be, etc.)
If you intend is to be in the real estate business for a while I also suggest that you start a "swap file". Essentially, a swap file is nothing more than a collection of marketing materials that catches your eye as being good marketing. In turn, your collection can fuel your creativity you when you need to write or create something.
And it doesn't all have to be about real estate. For example, my swap file includes letters, postcards, flyers, magazine ads, articles and other sales and marketing items from industries as diverse as forestry, dentistry, medicine, teaching, supermarkets, etc. They are the stuff that inspire headlines, sub headlines, article titles and even articles themselves. I can't tell you how often one of my better articles was inspired by something totally non-related to real estate.
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Use The Talent Around You by: Lanard
Writing content and designing flyers, brochures and postcards is time consuming and dare I say it too? FRUSTRATING! However, it can be fun when you get in the groove of doing and end up with a good product, but the other 95% of the times can be pure misery.
That's why over the past 3-4 years I've turned to outsourcing these kinds of tasks and have used services like GURU.com and to find talented people at reasonable costs. I've not used in graphic designers yet, but I know that there are plenty to choose from.
Essentially, you go to the sites and create a FREE account and then place a job. Describe what you want done and how much you are willing to pay for it. You then decide which, if any, of the bids you award the job to.
Another approach is to think college graphic design students. Post flyers where they congregate and one of them is bound to call you. You can get a great product at a reasonable cost.
Also, you should reflect on administrative staff that you've worked with in the past, or currently for that matter, as they may be skilled in designing brochures.
As an example, I've worked with a couple of people who have blown me away with each and every birthday card, invitation, flyer and brochure they made. They were totally awesome!
Finally, you can always contact a Senior Citizens Volunteer type agency, where a lot of seniors with skills you're looking for are actually wanting to volunteer their services!
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brochure by: Robert falconer
Donna if you go to www.expiredplus.com here you can download a free brochure etc. I use this and I like it but in Real Estate one has to make time to do things or to employe someone to do it.
