The Open House flyer is one of the most useful and inexpensive advertising tools a realtor or a For-Sale-By-Owner can utilize before, during and after an Open House is held.

A good quality, well-written, colorful and informative flyer has good staying power and may end up on a potential Buyers kitchen counter or refrigerator door rather than in the trash. Here are some tips to creating a good Open House flyer.

One week before the Open House is scheduled, place at least 20 copies in a flyer tube next to the Open House This Saturday and Sunday sign in front of the property. Passer-bys interested in your listing will almost always stop to pick up a flyer, which may end up on the refrigerator door helping to reserve the date for an interested Buyer. Having the flyers available before the event is an opportunity for the Buyer to keep the date handy and can be a visual reminder of the upcoming Open House. As the Seller/Realtor, keeping the advertising tube full is imperative and check back often to see if refills are needed. You may lose a sale by not having a flyer available for the drive-bys and an empty tube can leave the impression that the home has been neglected by the realtor or homeowner. Keep the outside tube filled with Open House flyers even on Open House Day.

During the Open House, keep a fresh supply of flyers in two or three places around the home but be sure to keep a small stack somewhere near the entry so that each Buyer will prompted to take one as they enter the property. If you have a Take One sign (a folded index card is fine), place this next to the flyers so the Buyers will follow this instructionthey almost always do. (We are creatures of habit.) Next to the Guest Book (where you will ask for names and phone numbers), and a stack of your business cards, keep a small supply of pencils or pens handy so the Buyer can jot down notes as they go through the home. This is optional but will give the Buyer a chance to refer to the flyer as they go through the property and make any notes that may be helpful later on. If the Buyer has any questions, notes taken during the Open House can be addressed directly from the flyer. Good questions addressed to the realtor or homeowner is yet another marketing opportunity to open up a dialog about the property while developing a business relationship between Seller/Realtor and Buyer. Most people will leave with the flyers in hand, so make sure everyone who comes through the door has at least one flyer as they exit the property.

After the Open House, the flyer may end up in the trash (if the Buyer is not interested in the home) or it may end up back on the fridge door. The Sellers name and phone number are on the flyer, which gives continued exposure if the Buyer has any questions. Of course, after the Seller/Realtor does the follow-up calls from the Guest Book to see if the Buyer is interested in this listing, so having a good flyer in front of them will only help both parties share common information during the pre-sales process.

To maximize the effectiveness of an Open House flyer, here are a few tips to make that flyer stand apart from all others.

Print the flyer on light colored paper. If the Buyer is touring several Open House events in one day and has a stack of flyers on white paper, your flyer will be color-coded and can be easily identified. Dark papers conflict with colored photos so better to use light colored good stock paper to make a lasting impression.

Print good quality colored photos on your flyer3 or 4 at most. These photos should show the best views of the property; front, foyer, living room with fireplace and so forth. If you do not have good quality photos then you will need to get them taken. Poor photos are not a good sign of a quality sales presentation.

Make sure the photos are current and do not show any holiday decorations left over from last season. Holiday decorations date the home so if you are having an Open House in July but the photos show Christmas decorations from December, this is a clear indication to the Buyer that this home has been for sale for some time and there might be a problem.

List the basic information first on the flyer; number of bedrooms, bathrooms and then go right into good descriptions of the best qualities of the home. Begin each short sentence with solid, descriptive and visual words such as, Park-like views, Tree-lined street, Winding oak staircase, for example. Bullet these descriptions on the front of the flyer using the bullet tool in your word processing or flyer program. The features need to be quickly read in eye-easy font, bold and should be to the point. Too much information with a difficult font and little open background or white space in the margins is a turn-off. Give the Buyer the facts and make it easy to remember.

The top of the flyer should have only a simple heading such as, Open House Saturday August 5, 2006- 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Below that, include the address of the property in good detail. Use a larger font for this heading but make sure the font used for the entire flyer is the same throughout. Avoid script, fancy or italic fonts. They can be difficult to read, especially for senior Buyers.

Always run a spell check before printing the flyer. Have someone else proofread it for accuracy.

At the bottom of the flyer include the realtor listing information with at least two phone numbers and an email address. Sometimes people would rather communicate by email rather than pick up the phone so leave email as an open option for communication. Do not try to advertise too heavily on these flyers. The realtors agency name, homeowner name (if applicable), realtor name, phone numbers (2), email address is fine. If you must use the back of the flyer for additional information, keep it simple and uncluttered. You want to advertise the home and keep the Buyer focused on the important aspects of the listing, which are printed on the front of the flyer.