The Sun enhances its real estate products

  Change is coming to the way The Sun provides real estate news, from listings of properties for sale to features on local Realtors and items of interest to newcomers.

  "It's our way of updating the way we serve the real estate market and our readers," said Joni Weerheim, The Sun publisher.

  The new coverage will include three products: RE, a weekly updated and enhanced version of the longtime Home Show, a new monthly magazine and an enhanced Web site.

  Published every week and distributed in The Sun, RE will contain real estate news, residential property transfers and building permits, real estate classified advertising, featured homes and open house schedules as well as guest columns on a variety of topics of interest to home owners, buyers and sellers.

  The inaugural issue of RE will arrive on subscribers' doorsteps with Saturday's newspaper. It will have 36 pages and include an article about the Yuma Association of Realtors and the code of ethics that sets its members apart. The issue also will feature ERA Matt Fischer Realtor and a column about home insurance in the face of natural disasters as well as all the listings readers formerly found in the Home Show.

  "We decided it was time to change our real estate product to include content beyond the listings," Weerheim said. "It will appeal to everyone and not just sellers and buyers."

  The new publication will be a handy size for readers to take with them as they tour the market, Weerheim added.

  "And it gives people another reason to pick up the Saturday paper," she said. "They'll know that they can count on all the real estate news in one publication."

  In addition to the revised weekly publication, The Sun will be launching a monthly glossy, full-color magazine to be called Retreat, distributed only in racks and at real estate offices. The first issue is targeted for late October or early November distribution, said Lisa Miller Reilly, advertising director for The Sun.

  It, too, will include listings of properties available in the Yuma area, along with area subdivision maps, moving tips, information about local schools and a resource directory about such things as getting utility hookups.

  The third component is the launch of the revised and enhanced Web site, MyYumaHome.com, with listings of properties for sale or rent, Miller Reilly said.

  The listings will include the Yuma area as well as other communities around the country where Freedom Communications, the parent company for The Sun, has newspapers, she said.

  "We recognize that the Internet is where people go to do their research," she said.

 The Web site now has a greater variety of tools for agents to enhance their listings, Miller Reilly said, and. These tools include videos of homes for sale, features on real estate agents and agencies and featured subdivisions and parks. It also will provide demographic information about the Yuma area for newcomers

  Perhaps best of all, the Web site was revised to make it more user friendly and to include the information potential buyers will find helpful to find their dream home, such as financing information, property tax information and a mortgage calculator.

  "I'm really excited about the new, revised and enhanced products," Miller Reilly said. "I feel it's a great product mix that will better serve the needs of the real estate market and the buyers and sellers."

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.