PROPERTY BROCHURE: HOW TO MAKE IT RELEVANT IN DIGITAL AGE

Today, many real estate agents don’t see a property brochure as a relevant promo and marketing tool. Partly because, according to surveys, 50% of prospects found their new homes on the internet. That means a print brochure runs the risk of becoming an addition to online listings with no value on its own. 

To modernize a brochure, realtors need to update its design and make it highly informative. That means they have to put a lot of effort and money into getting diverse real estate materials. First, come property plans, then photos of house interiors and exteriors, and detailed views.

Getting all the property images using physical staging is very budget-consuming, though. Realtors have to hire a staging agency to furnish a house first, then invite a photographer. All that plus the cost of graphic design and printing after images are ready — and a brochure will cost a pretty penny.

In turn, with virtual staging services at hand, realtors don’t need any actual furniture and decor, and they can get all real estate images at a lower price. Also, CGI allows replacing some old-fashioned visuals with advanced CG solutions to win customer’s attention at once. Intrigued? Keep reading to learn 5 creative ways to update your properties brochure.

#1. Place Virtually Staged Pictures of a House on a Brochure

Often, when ordering a property brochure, realtors prefer to use pictures of a house in its current state even if it is completely empty. The reason is, photos of a vacant house are not attractive enough for modern prospects. They want to see a dream home instead of bare walls. That’s where staging comes in handy. According to NAR statistics, 82% of realtors said staging a property helped their clients to visualize it as their future home.

To virtually stage a house, CG artists don’t need actual furnishings and decor as they use realistic 3D models and furniture sets from their library. For example, we have more than 50 000 models and 6500 ready-to-use sets for every room. Using these ensembles, our CG experts can fully furnish a property in just 48 hours.

CG staging provides highly realistic images that are indistinguishable from photos. Of course, when using edited pics in a property brochure, one has to mark that they are retouched. By doing so, a real estate agent showcases the potential of the house and prevents buyers’ unrealistic expectations.

#2. Replace Boring 2D Drawings with Top-Notch 3D Floor Plans

To be honest, using 2D drawings in a property brochure is not exactly an up-to-date marketing solution. Firstly, not all buyers can read blueprints, which makes 2D drafts practically useless. Secondly, a 2D floor plan is just lines and gaps so it doesn’t even look like a house. Therefore, if 2D drawing still needs explanation and doesn’t attract prospects, what’s the point of using one for brochures?

To upgrade the presentation of the house, we recommend using 3D floor plans. The slider illustration above shows what a 3D plan is — a house in a miniature. It has walls, doors, windows, furniture, decor, and even lighting installed. Needless to say, such a plan is self-explanatory and looks more convincing in a property brochure. Moreover, a 3D floor plan takes only one or two days to create, so there is literally no reason to reject such a solution.

#3. Connect Print Property Brochure to Your Website 

One of the best ways to combine online and offline house promo is to print a QR code in the property brochure that leads to the landing page of the website or listings section. So even if prospects don’t fancy a particular house from a brochure, they can get to more property listings directly from their phone or tablet. As a result, website traffic increases as well as the chances of selling a real estate object.

However, the best recommendation for brochures is to use a QR code for the “Take a Virtual Tour Around the House” feature. By pointing their devices on the QR code, buyers get directed to a 360° virtual tour on the website, where they can inspect the house before booking actual viewings. A virtual tour provides prospects with an immersive experience of being inside of a property and exploring it at their own pace.

#4. Place the Main Information About a Property on a Front Page

A property brochure should contain all the key details about the house right on the front page so that buyers can see all the important data in a single glance. If they don’t have enough time to examine a brochure in detail, they at least know the property’s main features.

To make a perfect front page for a brochure, one can use staged images of the property as a foundation. Then, they can combine them with a list of home key features such as house area, the number of rooms, special amenities, price, etc. All info must be written in attractive fonts and a beautiful color scheme. This way the design will enhance real estate pictures and make a brochure aesthetically pleasing and easy to read.

#5. Use Print Brochures to Sell not Homes but Lifestyle

Simply printing pictures of the house in a property brochure isn’t really effective these days. Modern buyers want listings to sell the lifestyle that comes with a house, no less. To do so, realtors can ask CG artists to create a certain mood for 3D images. For instance, light a fireplace in a cozy evening living room and take several close-up views with wine glasses in front of the fire to convey a relaxed ambiance.

This tip is a must-do with high-end properties. If a realtor is going to market a house as luxury real estate, naturally, it should be staged with high-end furniture, design accessories, and art pieces from top artists. Needless to say, doing physical staging of such a scale is very expensive. In turn, virtual furniture arrangement doesn’t require actual props and opulent pieces. Therefore, realtors can save money on creating luxury property brochures and invest more in quality printing and distribution.

In order to make property brochures relevant for the modern real estate market, realtors have to adopt an advanced approach to design and imagery. For that, they should opt for 3D floor plans instead of 2D drafts and use photos of virtually staged houses with homey furniture and decor. In a nutshell, they have to use all possible tools to present a property as a dream house that offers a new lifestyle. The last tip is to connect a print brochure with a virtual 360° tour on a realtor’s website via a QR code. This trick will draw prospects to the site and make them stay longer thereby increasing its conversion.

Need top-notch visuals for your property brochure? Contact us for virtual staging services right now! We’ll recommend the most effective CG solutions for your business and make visuals that strike a chord with prospects.