Things to Consider When Buying a Home
The Fall 2026 edition. A real buyer guide with your name on the cover โ the one you send before the first showing, or the day someone finally says "okay, tell me how this works."
This isn't a post. It's a deliverable.
Use it three ways. The first one fills your DMs, the second one wins the appointment, the third one restarts the conversations you thought were dead.
Comment-to-get lead magnet
Post it, ask people to comment a word, send the PDF. Highest-volume use โ and the caption below is already written for it.
Buyer consultation leave-behind
Send it the night before you meet someone. It does the expectation-setting so you don't have to do all of it out loud.
Re-engagement
Anyone who went quiet three months ago gets "thought of you โ here's the fall edition." A reason to reach out that isn't "just checking in."
Six things to fix first
Fill in the brokerage block. It's already there.
The cover has a PRESENTED BY line with your name, your brokerage and a logo slot. Most states require the brokerage name on advertising material, and a guide you hand a buyer is advertising material. Most templates make you add this one โ this one doesn't, so use it.
"Fall 2026" means it expires.
Dating the edition is what makes it feel current, and it's also a commitment. Every rate, payment or market figure inside has to be right for this season, sourced and dated. Come winter, this version either gets refreshed or stops going out โ put a reminder on your calendar for the first week of the next season.
Source every number.
If the guide quotes days on market, inventory, median price or closing cost ranges, put the source and the date beside it. "Per {MLS or board}, as of {month}" costs one line and is the difference between a credible guide and a printout.
Fair housing, if there's a neighborhood section.
Describe places, commutes and distances. Never schools, never "family-friendly," never "safe," never a neighborhood described by who lives there. A written guide is riskier than a post here, because it sits in someone's inbox as a document with your brokerage name on it.
Export as a PDF and name it like a professional.
Not images โ a PDF. Name it something that makes sense in a stranger's downloads folder: "{Your Name} โ Buying a Home in {City} โ Fall 2026.pdf". That filename is the last thing you control about this asset.
The cover photo.
The stock cover shows identifiable people, including a child. It's licensed as part of the template, so it's fine as-is. If you swap in your own photo of a real family, you need their written permission โ children especially.
If there's a payment example inside, read this
A stated dollar payment amount is a trigger term under Regulation Z's advertising rule. Agents are normally exempt as arrangers of credit, but advertising a trigger term ends that exemption โ and the same piece then has to disclose the down payment, the full repayment terms and the APR.
Safest version: no payment figures of your own. Name your lender and let them run real numbers. That's also a better guide.
Caption
CTA first, keywords at the end, no hashtags. Fill in every {} before you post.
Comment GUIDE and I'll send you the whole thing โ no form, no drip sequence, just the PDF.
I put together a buyer guide for anyone thinking about a move in {city}, {state} this fall.
It covers the parts people usually find out the hard way: what to sort out before you start looking, what the money actually looks like beyond the down payment, what happens between an accepted offer and the keys, and which decisions are worth slowing down for.
It's not a pitch. There's nothing in it that requires you to work with me, and a fair bit of it will save you money whether you do or not.
If you're six months out, this is the right time to read it. Six months out is when the useful decisions get made โ by the time you're touring houses, most of them are already behind you.
๐ {neighborhood}, {city} | {your name}, {brokerage}
buying a house in {city}, first time home buyer, home buying tips, {city} real estate, moving to {city}, {neighborhood} homes
Sending it isn't the conversion. It's the opening.
Three days after it lands, send one message: "Did you get a chance to look at it โ what part raised a question?"
That message is where this guide actually earns its keep. A PDF nobody follows up on is a very pretty dead end, and you'll have sent it to people who were six months out โ which means the follow-up matters more than the download.
Put Forza on it
If you're on the co-branding plan, add the Rate | Forza Lending Group lockup to the cover or the back page before you send it. A buyer guide is the single most lending-adjacent thing in the Vault, so this one matters more than usual โ and it means the money questions inside have a licensed name attached to them.
