What four pages of a real estate newsletter would actually contain.

Read this as a proposal, and note who it is addressed to

Nothing below has been printed for anyone. No brokerage is named, no result is claimed, and every headline here was written for this page as an example. What it does is answer the question that stops most agents from starting: what could possibly go on four pages a month that is not another market update.

The answer begins with the list. This issue is not a farm piece dropped on a zip code. It goes to the people who already closed with you and the sphere around them — the list that produces repeat business and referrals, and the list almost every agent stops mailing about fourteen months after the closing. That single decision changes what belongs on every page.

Page one: the local number, and the part the number hides

One lead of about 550 words under the masthead, with a small chart rather than a stock photograph of a house. A headline of the shape What sold within a mile of you last quarter, and what the average price does not tell you — then the actual figures, pulled from your MLS the week we build the issue, or from the statistics your board publishes.

We do not write a market number you have not supplied, and we do not borrow a national headline and pretend it describes your county. The value is in the second half of the piece anyway: why a median moves when the mix of what sold changes, what days-on-market looks like once you strip out the two that were mispriced, and what a seller should actually take from it. Written to a homeowner who is not selling, because most of them are not.

Pages two and three: the anniversary column, then something a homeowner can use

Page two carries the engine of the whole mailing: a column of the shape One year ago this month, listing the closings from that month last year and, further down, five years ago. Names only where the client gave permission, which most do when asked at closing. It reads as a congratulations column, it is the page past clients look for, and it is the reason the issue gets kept rather than recycled.

Page three is genuinely useful and has nothing to do with buying or selling. In a Florida March that is the homestead exemption filing deadline of March 1 and what portability means when somebody moved last year. In September it is insurance renewals, the age of a roof and the questions a carrier asks about it. About 450 words with a short checklist set in a box, and a line telling the reader to confirm with their county or their agent.

Page four: the vendor list, and one honest sentence

Beyond the mailing panel, page four is the page people photograph and text to a friend: the vendors you actually call. A roofer, a plumber, an electrician, a handyman who answers, a lender, a title company, an inspector, a landscaper, a pressure-washing crew. Name, trade, phone number, and a five-word note on why they are on the list.

Under it, the contact panel with your brokerage identification set the way your state and your broker require, and the disclaimer line about not intending to solicit properties already listed where your brokerage wants it carried. Then one sentence, not a paragraph: most of your business comes from people who already worked with you, and if somebody they know is moving, the number is right there.

What changes monthly and what a reader stops noticing

The cover story and its chart change. The anniversary column changes by definition. The page-three item follows the calendar. Everything else holds: masthead, the vendor page, the contact panel, the type, the order. A mailing that looks different every month reads as an advertisement, and an advertisement from an agent goes in the bin with the rest of the mail.

For a brokerage with several agents, the front three pages are shared and page four is swapped per agent — their photograph, their vendors, their contact panel, their closings in the anniversary column. One issue, one production cost, and each agent’s list still gets a piece that is unmistakably from them.

Twelve months, drafted before the first issue runs

A first draft to argue with. A luxury coastal practice and a first-time-buyer practice keep maybe half of it, which is the point of writing it down early.

• January — what the year ahead looks like locally, and the closing documents to keep for taxes
• February — homestead exemption before the March 1 deadline, and shopping insurance early
• March — spring listing season: what a buyer sees in the first eight seconds of a showing
• April — the appraisal and the inspection, explained for somebody who has only done it once
• May — hurricane season starts June 1: shutters, wind mitigation inspections, and the documents insurers ask for
• June — moving season, and the vendor page runs long because everybody needs somebody
• July — the mid-year market pull, with the same honesty as January about what it means
• August — moving with a school year in mind, kept to logistics and dates rather than opinions about areas
• September — insurance renewals, roof age and the four-point inspection question
• October — the year in review for your own closings, and the anniversary column runs double
• November — the vendors get thanked by name, which is why they keep sending people to you
• December — what to keep for the accountant, and the calendar of what happens in January

The rules that shape what we will not write

A neighbourhood never gets described by the people who live in it. Not by who is moving in, not by the character of the residents, not by which streets are family areas, and not by using school rankings as a stand-in for the same thing. Fair housing law governs real estate advertising and a mailed newsletter is advertising. We write about the property, the process, the paperwork and the numbers, and we leave who lives where out of it entirely.

We are a marketing shop, not compliance counsel. Your broker reviews the issue before it runs, the brokerage identification goes on it the way your state requires, and if your compliance officer wants a line out it comes out. The schedule leaves room for that review rather than treating it as a surprise.

Your twenty minutes a month

A short call: what closed, what is going on locally, which vendor saved somebody last month. Two things come from your systems rather than your memory — the MLS pull for the cover, and the closing anniversaries out of your CRM, which we set up once so it exports itself after that. Then we write, design, print, mail, build the flipbook and send the email edition, and you approve a proof.

Print and postage are billed at cost with no markup, so a list of four hundred past clients and a list of four thousand are very different numbers and we size it with you first. Digital-only is a real option at a lower price. Either way it is a small team you deal with directly, Brandon included.