Hi folks,

It takes a certain expertise to write a good property advertisement, but as a home owner, you know your house better than anyone else. So give some thought to the benefits of living in your particular corner of the world. Some of the attributes that could help sell your home might actually surprise even you.

Your agents might be able to write a better ad than you, the home owner, but they can’t write an ad that speaks to the hearts of potential buyers without the benefit of your intimate connection with the property. What sort of things might the agent want to know?

Not that we have many of these in Upper Hutt but if you are in an apartment in Wellington you might mention the bus at the door that has lots of great cafe stops on its route, or that you feel safe to let your teenagers catch it at night because they don’t have to walk home in a dark street. You might even mention how much you enjoy the fact that there is a rubbish chute that saves you going to the ground floor with your rubbish.

If you are in Trentham it might be a back gate leading to a track to TMP where your kids can play without having to walk there by the road, or the number of bird attracting plants in your garden.

These are things your agent might not know, so make sure you jot down these benefits as they occur to you and let the agent use it as a basis for writing the best ad. Don’t expect the agent to use all the material you give them, let them be the judge of which benefits will best appeal to local buyers, and when too much information is counter-productive. The important thing is that the personality of your house shines through in the detail that is revealed, not that no detail is left out.