How To Master DIY Marketing Design For Real Estate With Canva

Beth McCandry

The central theses

  • Don’t be intimidated by the thought of designing your own marketing materials.
  • There are many resources online that provide templates and even allow you to create your own custom design.
  • Whether you’re designing a flyer, postcard, or even a Facebook picture, all you need is your logo, an eye-catching photo, and a call-to-action message to get you started.

Real estate marketing is about much more than finding buyers for your clients’ homes. One of the hardest parts of selling real estate is showing prospects that you are the best choice to successfully sell their home.

The real estate industry is highly competitive with hundreds of real estate agents vying for each other’s business in every major city. By creating your own custom brochure, flyer, or postcard, you can stand out in the eyes of potential customers.

Many top agents hire a graphic designer to design their printed marketing articles. If you don’t have the budget or time to invest in an outside professional, you can create your own designs using tools like create canvas, a DIY design website.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to use Canva to create your own real estate flyer, including choosing the right background color, adding pictures of your property, creating compelling copy and leaving your contact details.

Setting up your canvas

The first step on Canva to your Flyer chooses size dimensions. Think about the finished printed product before you start designing so there is no need to resize or redesign it at the last minute.

Think about where to get the design printed and check the product size specifications before you begin.

When you start designing in Canva, you’ll see a custom dimensioning feature that is useful for designing a variety of corporate documents, as well as other standard sizes.

In this case we use the usual 8.5 x 11 inch flyer provided by both programs.

After you’ve chosen your dimensions, paper type, and options like rounded corners on Canva, your blank canvas can be filled with impactful elements like text, images, and QR codes to create the perfect real estate flyer.

Design of your real estate flyer

DIY real estate design

If creating your own design from a blank canvas sounds daunting – Canva also offers real estate design templates.

With stylish flyers for loft apartments and classic flyers for historic homes, choosing a template can often save time when you need flyers in a hurry.

In the following example we are adapting one of Canva’s templates. We chose the Colonial Home template – a great choice for free-standing and spacious properties in suburbs.

Canva’s submission is a good place to start, but it doesn’t include any information about the property we’re selling. Let’s replace the photos with some of our listing details. Click on the images included and click on the trash can icon to delete them and free up space on our flyer.

To upload your own photos, click Upload and select the file on your computer. Make sure you have a high resolution photo available because there is nothing worse than a blurry image on your flyer.

In our example we have replaced both images. You will also need to add text to describe your property. Select “Add Text” to add your title and then “Add Subtitle Text” to add a descriptive subheading to increase interest in your property.

Now click on “Add a little body text” and place your copy on your flyer. Our home is a lovely four bedroom home just minutes from the city center – major selling points that we talked about in our copy.

Add a dividing line below the copy and list the characteristics of your property. Educate potential buyers about the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, garage and parking space, and key selling points – features such as school zones or convenient location.

Finally, you need to add a call-to-action. In most cases, a phone number is essential. If you have a website with your home on it, including a web address or QR code is another way for potential customers to learn more. They are easye, effective and impossible not to notice.

Export of your real estate flyer

Have you added your call-to-action? Once you’ve finished your real estate flyer, it’s time to export a high-resolution PDF file and upload it to your printer. Click the “Download” button and select “PDF: for printing” as the download option.

You can also export your design as an image to link on your Facebook page, add to your website, or send it to your colleagues for feedback on the design and content.

Isn’t it too hard? After you’ve created your first real estate flyer, designing and printing additional flyers becomes even easier.

Eric Cosway is the EVP and CMO of QuantumDigital. Follow him on Twitter.

Email to Eric Cosway