In part one of my discourse on advertising real estate in the local newspaper, we read one of the most tedious tutorials in existence for one of the most archaic methods of composing a real estate ad ever conceived. This second article describes how that same, hypothetical real estate firm creates a half-page ad. It is less time-consuming than the prior ad, but equally archaic.

The half-page ad is reserved for open houses and brand new listings only. The ad affords space for approximately 21 open houses, if using a 3-across format, or as much as 36 if using 4-across. Monday at 10 AM is the initial deadline for open house lists to be sent to you. However, further open house or new listing requests are acceptable if space permits. It's up to you. Add late open house requests to the faxed open house lists you received Monday morning. The paper goes to press on Thursday morning. So, it is advisable not to accept anything after you receive the final proof Wednesday afternoon.

monday

open houses

• Collect the Open House lists sent via fax from the other Administrative Assistants. Ideally, you will receive these by 10 AM. It is often necessary to remind certain administrative assistants that you are waiting for their office's list.
• When you feel that you have all of the open house listings, conduct a search using MLS numbers to find each property's Agent Brief Details on Tempo. This may require some investigating, as all open houses on the list do not necessarily have their MLS numbers available. Try conducting a Quick Search with the address. Or, you could send an email to the agent and ask whether you may expect an MLS number by Wednesday morning.

• Click the image relative to each open house listing. Then save it somewhere easily accessible on you hard drive. It is best to click the picture then click it again when the new page featuring all the property's images appears. Clicking this second time opens a larger version of the image.

• Print the Agent Brief Details for every open house listing.
• Open the "Half Page" Excel file and, based on the Agent Brief Details page's content, enter the open house information on the "Open Houses" worksheet, indicated by the tab at the bottom of the screen. You will observe that the copy for each listing is very formulaic. Given the nature of MS Excel, names or MLS numbers entered previously will fill in automatically. This is mostly helpful, but pay attention to the names.

• Choose the location based on the zip code or street address.

• Create a header based on the first few words of the Agent's remarks. Do not exceed the length of this particular cell.

• Enter the remaining information in accordance with the format of prior listings.

• Unless otherwise indicated by the agent on the open house sheet, the open house is Sunday 2-4pm.

• After entering all the open house listings for which you have MLS information, you must prepare to email the listings in a text format to the newspaper reps:

• Copy the section of the worksheet you just created. Include one empty column of cells in the selection you copy.
• Paste the copied cells into a blank Word document.

• Select the entire table you just pasted in Word.

• Click the Table menu and select "Convert." o Choose "Table to Text" and "Paragraph Marks."

• Justify the text Left.

• Copy the text and paste it in an email to the newspaper reps. Then send the email.

• Email all open house photos to those same reps. You will probably need to send the pictures in two or three different emails depending on the file sizes.

new listings

• Search for the new company listings on Tempo. This is done using a custom search you must first create in Tempo. Create the custom search with these criteria: Days on Market [1 to 7], Listing Status [Active], List Office Code, and List Price [leave blank].

• Print the Agent Brief Reports for all the new listings resulting from your search. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the page, click Check all Listings, and select Agent Brief Details from the functions menu. When the new window opens, select print from your browser menu.

• Open the "New Listings" worksheet in the Half Page Excel file.

• Enter listing information following the same format apparent in previous new listings. The formula for new listings varies slightly from that of the Open Houses.

• Omit new open house listings.
• After entering all the new listings, you must prepare to email the listings in a text format to the newspaper reps:

• Copy the section of the worksheet you just created. Include one empty column of cells in the selection you copy.
• Paste the copied cells into a blank Word document.

• Select the entire table you just pasted in Word.

• Click the Table menu and select "Convert."

• Choose "Table to Text" and "Paragraph Marks."

• Justify the text Left.

• Copy the text and paste it in an email to the newspaper reps. Then send the email.

tuesday

proofing the ad

• You will receive a PDF proof via email from the newspaper ad designer. Print the proof on ll.5" x 17" paper.

• Review each listing on the proof:

• Be sure each open house request is on there. Check against the lists.

• Be sure each listing's address, MLS number, and open times are correct. Check against the Agent Brief Details pages.

• Be sure the correct agent is attributed to each listing.
• Check for incorrect spellings.

• Call or email the newspaper reps and relay the necessary changes.

Add accumulated late submissions to the appropriate worksheet in your "Half Page" Excel file. Follow the same steps you took on Monday to send listings to Leila (don't forget the pictures for open houses):

• After entering all the new listings, you must prepare to email the listings in a text format to the newspaper reps:

• Copy the section of the worksheet you just created. Include one empty column of cells in the selection you copy.

• Paste the copied cells into a blank Word document.

• Select the entire table you just pasted in Word.

• Click the Table menu and select "Convert."

• Choose "Table to Text" and "Paragraph Marks."

• Justify the text Left.

• Copy the text and paste it in an email to the newspaper reps. Then send the email.

wednesday

proofing the ad again

• You will receive a new PDF proof via email from the newspaper ad designer. Print the proof on ll.5" x 17" paper.

• Mark new open house listings with an "N" on your proof. Open House listings qualify as new if they fall within the range of MLS listings portrayed in the New Listings section of the ad.

• Review each listing on the proof:

• Be sure each open house request is on there. Check against the lists.

• Be sure each listing's address, MLS number, and open times are correct. Check against the Agent Brief Details pages.

• Be sure the correct agent is attributed to each listing. o Check for incorrect spellings.

• Call or email the newspaper reps, and relay the necessary changes.

Now pack the real estate ad info into a manila folder for safe keeping. You are finished with this one.