Chances are excellent there is a buyer out there for your home—maybe even more than one. Your challenge is finding them and enticing them to your doorstep. That means you need to get the word out to everyone you know that your home is available. The most successful sellers—those who sell their homes fastest for a good price—are the ones who use several different marketing tools to attract potential buyers.

Putting up a lawn sign and calling it a day won’t cut it. Not unless you’re in a highly desirable neighborhood with few other homes currently for sale. Because most of us aren’t in that situation, you may want to explore all the ways to advertise your home is for sale.

According to the 2003 National Association of REALTORS (NAR) “Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers,” the most common marketing methods FSBOs use include:

Yard signs, which we’ll cover in a minute, are great for folks who happen to visit your neighborhood. But for people who don’t live near you but would like to, other marketing tools are more effective.

Most, if not all, daily U.S. newspapers have a special real estate section each week profiling area homes for sale. As NAR’s list suggests, that’s a powerful outlet for promoting your home. Or, if there are smaller community newspapers, you may opt to buy an ad there for less. But don’t ignore newspaper advertising.

Buying a classified ad in the newspapers published in your immediate area is an excellent way to alert buyers to your home. Classified ads are relatively inexpensive and powerful, getting your home’s information in front of people looking to buy one. To make the most of your advertising space, you’ll want to follow some general rules of advertising and copywriting.

The best newspaper classified ads cite home features buyers are looking for. Some universal elements most people would like to have in a home include:

When drafting your newspaper classified, you’ll want to include the following information, at a minimum:

Start the process of writing your ad by listing every possible feature and benefit of your home. Anything that comes to mind, write it down.

After you have a list of words to describe your home, pick out the most compelling features and biggest benefits. Because you’re charged for your classified based on the amount of space it takes up in the paper, you’ll want to provide enough information to entice buyers to call without breaking the bank. Keep your description short, sweet, and specific.

Now make sure your descriptors all pack a powerful punch. Trade less powerful words for stronger, positive ones, such as:

Words that have a negative connotation should be avoided. Phrases that suggest a buyer will quickly outgrow the home, will spend lots of time cleaning or repairing it, or won’t like some aspect should be replaced with words that emphasize the home’s advantages.

Terms that suggest more than you may intend, and should be avoided, are:

*These terms provided compliments of C.B. Whyte, vice president of Stribling & Associates in New York, which specializes in the sale of Manhattan apartments over $3 million.

While newspaper ads are one way to alert potential buyers to your home’s availability, it’s not the only way. There are several other ways to get the word out, too.

The most popular marketing method on the list of tools used, signs are probably the easiest way to market your home. Whether you stake them in your front yard—or back—or place a colorful sign in your front window, signs are an excellent way to communicate that your home is on the market. Anyone who travels through your neighborhood or is scoping out potential homes will immediately see that your home is available.

The most important information to have on your sign, in large enough letters to be seen from the road, is “FOR SALE BY OWNER.” The second-most important information is your phone number, in large point type.

If you decide to set up a website with information about your home, it would be smart to list the website address as well so prospective buyers can go home and check it out before calling to schedule a walk-through. You can also list your home on one of the For Sale By Owner websites, such as ForSaleByOwner.com and Owners.com, thereby eliminating the need for you to do everything yourself.

Some advertising packages sold by FSBO websites offer you the option to purchase a professionally created yard sign. You can also call a local sign company and investigate the cost to prepare one. The more durable and professional your sign, the better the image buyers will have of you and your home.

Choose a background color for your sign that is not white and will stand out against the colors in your yard. White signs get lost in yards with snow, for instance, and signs with green or black backgrounds can be overlooked when placed in a grassy or shaded area.

In addition to placing a sign by your home, also place one at the entrance to your development, if you’re in one, or at your closest major intersection, to drive traffic by your place. Ask businesses in your area if you can place directional “Home For Sale” signs pointing toward your home on the front of their property. Anyone driving or walking in the area may want to swing by and check out your home’s exterior.

A new twist on the traditional yard sign is the new talking sign, which provides prerecorded messages about a home that can be heard by cars driving by. Using a low power AM radio transmitter, the Talking House system broadcasts recorded information about a home’s size, interior, and features to a specific radio frequency. Homebuyers are instructed to tune into a specific station listed on the Talking House yard sign. Once there, they will hear up to five minutes of information about the home.

Because buyers may be frustrated by not being able to immediately schedule an appointment to tour your home, the Talking House system moves the buying process along by giving home shoppers more information about your home.

The transmitter is easy to set up in your home, or in a garage or attic, and has a 300-foot reach. Recording a message about your home is also simple, much like recording a voicemail or answering machine message. At a minimum, you’ll want to be sure to include the following in your recording:

The only downside of the system is the price. It costs around $650 to buy a transmitter, which you probably don’t want to do because you’ll only be using it for a few weeks. They were designed for use by real estate agents, who can turn around and use them in different houses they have listed. You, however, want to rent one.

Many agents currently using the Talking House technology rent their transmitter units to FSBOs at a price of about $1 to $2 a day, reports Scott Hagerman of Talking House (www.talkinghouse.com).

To find an agent in your area currently using Talking House, Hagerman suggests using a Google search with “Talking House” as the keyword. After you find an agent in your locale that has the system, make contact and ask about renting it. Some agents will even include help writing a script and recording it as part of the fee. At a cost of $30 to $60 per month, Talking House is a fairly economical advertising vehicle.

In addition to attention-getting yard signs of the traditional and high-tech variety, you’ll also want to create an advertising flyer that visually showcases your home’s best features (see the following figure). The purpose of a flyer, like the talking ad, is to give prospective buyers more information about your home to help them decide if they should make an appointment to tour it.

On a flyer, which is typically an 8.5‘×11‘ sheet of heavy white paper, you should have a photo—color, preferably—of the front of your home.

At the top of the flyer, put your home’s street address, in bold type. Below the photo, have a bulleted list of your home’s key features and benefits. The difference between this list and the one you prepared for the newspaper classified is space. You have plenty of space to include more features and to be more descriptive. Elaborate a little.

Instead of stating that you have a master suite, you can call it “deluxe” or “spacious.” Describe the back yard, the garage, the basement, as well as the living space. Highlight the biggest selling points with the goal of encouraging the buyer to come take a look inside.

Think about all the different places you can display your flyer. Some common ones include:

You should also consider mailing some out to area real estate agents, who may be trying to find a home in your neighborhood for a client, as well as corporate real estate and relocation offices, which are responsible for helping executives find housing. Note on the flyer: “Brokers welcome” to alert them that you are prepared to pay them 3% for bringing a buyer.

Some buyers think that because you haven’t hired a real estate professional to handle the sale of your home, you’re going to be willing to accept less to sell it. And unless you make every effort to be as professional as the agents, that may be the case. You need to prove otherwise.

Your marketing and advertising, the appearance of your home, and your demeanor when dealing with prospective buyers sends a signal about your expectations. The more professional you are, the more you demonstrate that this is a business transaction and you expect to be paid fairly.

While your flyer is a promotional tool designed to give buyers a hint of the treasure they’ll find once they’re in your home, the information sheet is an all-encompassing list of your home’s features.

Although you certainly want to describe your home in the best possible light, you need to be factual when creating an information sheet. In addition to the year the home was built and the town and school district it is in, you’ll also want to list:

Have a stack of information sheets available for anyone who tours your home, requests more information, or for attendees at any open houses you schedule.

Marketing and advertising force you to focus on all the positives your home has to offer, but you need to be aware that when push comes to shove, you can’t lie about any home defects or problems. In nearly every state, homesellers are now

required to disclose any and all defects to prospective buyers. And if you fail to disclose something that the buyer believes is important, they can sue you later and force you to take back the home. It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened.

To protect yourself from a disclosure disagreement, be up front about any problems you’re aware of. Whether it’s a minor leak in the second floor bathroom or a chimney that smokes, you must tell the buyer.

And because you can also be held liable for defects you didn’t even know about, you’ll want to take steps to uncover any problems. The easiest way to do this is to pay for your own home inspection. Yes, buyers generally ask for one themselves, but you can have one done yourself to make sure everything is in order. You can also simply wait, let the buyers pay for the inspection, and see what the inspector spots. If a defect is discovered, you can either opt to repair it immediately or offer to reduce your purchase price to cover part of the repair cost. But making repairs isn’t always necessary. In some hot markets, buyers are agreeing to take the home as-is.

All the marketing materials in the world won’t work unless you use them to communicate with potential buyers and people who know them. After you’ve designed and installed a yard sign and created flyers and an information sheet, make sure they are seen! Marketing only works when you communicate with potential buyers.

Because more than 6.6 million existing homes sold in the United States in 2004, it’s likely you’ll come in contact with someone in the market for a home this year—that’s approximately one for every 36 people in the country who are in the market for a new place to live. So why limit yourself to your own circle of contacts? The more people you tell about your home, the more likely you’ll find potential buyers. And although it takes just one buyer to make a sale, the more interested parties there are, the higher your selling price can go.

To involve family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers in your quest to sell your home quickly for the best possible price, make sure you tell them you’re selling your house. But don’t just tell them that your home is for sale, tell them where it is and describe it a little. And ask for their help in locating a buyer.

Make sure you always have flyers with you ready to hand out to someone who may know someone who is looking. Put them on the cafeteria bulletin board and note that you’d appreciate help in finding a buyer. People like to help others, so specifically asking for help in selling your home will encourage others to think of anyone they know who is in the market for a new home.

Mention your situation to folks you see at church or synagogue, at PTA meetings, at the grocery store, at Little League games, or dance practice. The more people you tell about your home, the better your odds of finding a buyer sooner rather than later. You may even want to offer a finder’s fee or reward to the person who sends you a buyer, just as you would pay a broker their commission. Any type of incentive is likely to get people thinking of likely prospects.

Along the way, in your journey to sell your home yourself, you’ll inevitably come in contact with real estate agents and brokers. They’ll probably introduce themselves to you and offer to assist you, should you decide you’re not cut out to sell your home yourself. That’s good information to have, certainly, but you should also ask for their help in selling your home to their clients.

Just because an agent hasn’t listed your property doesn’t mean they can’t help sell it. Granted, they would only earn a possible 3 percent, versus 6 percent if they had both listed and sold it, but 3 percent is 3 percent. And if they’ve been retained as a buyer’s broker, the buyer is responsible for paying that fee anyway, not you.

Take the time to send out information sheets to agents in your area, to let them know it’s available, and to ask their help in finding a buyer. We’ve seen bulletin boards in real estate agencies with FSBO information sheets on them, so agents certainly do pay attention. Agents can be your allies, even if you’re not their client. And, who knows, down the line you may decide you want to use an agent, either to buy a home or to sell one.

For more information about topics covered in this chapter, check out the following websites:

The Least You Need to Know