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Below you’ll find an example of a feature sheet I recently printed for a Victoria BC real estate agent. I also offer a few best practices for creating feature sheets and end with some inspiring samples from some very good designers.

Brad Maclaren, a Victoria real estate agent from REMAX Camosun, recently hired us to print some feature sheets. He needed them quickly for an open house and we were able to print them the same day.

As you likely know, feature sheets are a common promotional tool used by real estate agents. They typically summarize the key selling features of a home and are distributed to prospects and brokers at open houses. The goal is to give the prospective home buyer something memorable to take home after viewing the house.

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Feature Sheet Real Estate

How to Create a Feature Sheet for Open Houses

The goal of the feature sheet should be to help prospective buyers remember the home’s best features, the neighbourhood, and any special features that make the property distinct.

Visuals are key, of course. Brad hired a professional photographer as you can see in the sample above. This is especially important in print. Online materials can have lower resolution images, but printing requires much higher quality images.

After you’ve printed your feature sheet, you can use it as a leave-behind at your open houses, use direct mail and send it directly to prospects and targeted Victoria neighborhoods like Oak Bay or James Bay, as well as email it to your broker list.

The most important principle is to use very specific details, not sales superlatives. Assume that the buyer is going to compare your property to other open houses they likely attended that day. That’s why you’ll want to focus your design and photographs on the unique selling features of the property. You’ll see some excellent examples of this technique in the last section of this article.

For example, in Brad’s feature sheet above, he calls attention to the kitchen. The kitchen is obviously a central selling feature of the home. As he explains in the copy, the kitchen has a large eating bar with views of the golf course. People are much more likely to remember specific details and a few specific aspects of a home (such as “the one with high ceilings”) than general superlatives used by real-estate agents (“custom pool!” or “highest quality cabinets”).

A Few Real Estate Feature Sheet Samples to Inspire You

We didn’t print the samples below, but they are inspiring. Keep in mind the type of high level design below is more expensive than most real estate agents likely want to spend. That said, for larger properties investing in exceptional design can pay off. We handle the printing services but if you are searching for a talented designer in Victoria BC, email me and I might be able to help you out.

While these designs are above the reach of most local agents, you can borrow a few techniques. For one, experiment with different sizes. People like novelty and an oversized feature sheet or brochure will stand out. This is especially important in direct mail: make it taller, skinnier, smaller, bigger . . . anything that stands out from the regular mail.

Also, you’ll notice that in higher quality brochures and feature sheets the designer uses a limited number of colours. This gives the entire brochure a consistent design aesthetic.

Feature Sheet Sample

Real estate brochure

In the above feature sheet sample, the designer has shown the main selling point of the house–the beautiful high ceilings–in a few different angles. A nice touch is how they show a close-up of the ceiling detail (top left) and position the photo overtop of the living room shot (bottom left).

This is actually closer to how you’d experience the living room as a wide-angle photograph that tried to capture everything in a single shot wouldn’t capture the ceiling detail that you’d see in real life. They reinforce this key selling feature of the home with shots taken from the stairs, looking down on the living room.

real estate printing

The above sample does a fantastic job of tying the design together with the feature of stairs. It’s a great use of professional photography and the designer paid attention to how the final printed piece would be read by the prospect.

real estate brochure Victoria BC

Finally, the colours you choose should reflect the overall mood and style of the home. In the example above, black is used to highlight the classic contemporary design of the home. But you’ll notice that the previous designs used lighter colours and sharp lines to reflect the modern architecture of the homes. You’ll notice that Brad’s feature sheet at the start of this post also used black as the house was newly built, but traditional in features and aesthetic.

If you are a local Victoria BC real-estate agent and have a feature sheet sample you think the world should see, let me know. I’ll create a new section with your samples.

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