Let’s say you visit a bakery and have the best chocolate chip cookie you’ve ever tasted. You’ve had a hundred different chocolate chip cookies before, but that one had a specific formula that made it stand apart from the rest.
The same goes for writing property descriptions; home buyers will read hundreds of property descriptions in their home search, but the ones that stand out ultimately get the most sales. In that case, what is the secret formula for writing a property description that sells?
A winning property description is made up of the following ingredients:
- A fierce headline
- An attention-grabbing opener
- Accurate and eye-catching details
- Selling points in a logical order
- NO red flag words or phrases
We will unpack each of those so that you can be fully equipped to write a killer property description, whether you’re selling Chicago real estate or homes in Billings, Montana. Follow along and writing a property description that sells will soon be second nature to you.
A Fierce Headline
At the forefront of any property description that sells is a standout headline. While certain real estate listing sites don’t post headlines*, it’s worthwhile to create a captivating one for the sites that do. When you’re searching for homes, are you more likely to click on one that says “Cozy and Quaint Cabin in the Scenic Blue Ridge Mountains” or one that says “127 Blue Ridge Ln.”?
The average human has an attention span of about 8 seconds, which means your real estate headline should quickly capture the eye of home searchers and tempt them to click before that time is up and they scroll past it. The headline should be concise, punchy, and no more than 10 words. Determine an enticing characteristic or two to hone in on for your headline, and craft an AirBNB-style headline that encompasses the best features of that home.
I.e. – You are selling a home in Atlanta’s Midtown neighborhood with exposed brick that overlooks Piedmont Park. You may create a headline that says “Historic Midtown Home with Exposed Brick and Piedmont Park Views.”
*If you are posting on a website that doesn’t provide space for a headline, treat your first sentence like a headline! Then, make your second sentence your hook, line, and sinker.
An Attention-Grabbing Opener
Huzzah! Your captivating headline has drawn the buyer to your home’s official listing page, and now the real work begins. The opening line of your property description should be just as eye-catching, and the best way to do this is to tell a story. No need to explain your Grandma Betty’s entire life from start to finish, but a sentence that allows the reader to envision themselves living in the home is the ideal opener.
Once again, take a featured highlight of the home and imagine the kind of person that would thrive in it. Rather than listing off every fact and feature from the start, focus on that first sentence and give the home buyer something to sink their teeth into.
I.e. – You’re writing a property description for a Gilded Age waterfront home in Newport, Rhode Island situated on 1.25 acres of land along Cliff Walk. Your opening sentence could look like “Imagine starting every morning by looking out the open window of your gold-trimmed kitchen, and taking your first sip of coffee while soaking in the sounds of Atlantic Ocean waves.”
Accurate And Eye-Catching Details
Your opening lines have hooked your potential buyer and now they are locked into the property description, but that doesn’t mean you can get all stoic for the rest of it. When writing a property description that sells, the content should be full of accurate information about the property, paired with descriptive adjectives that give your listing additional flair.
Be Accurate
The most important rule of writing a property description that sells is to be truthful. As a real estate agent, you aren’t in the business of manipulation. This can pose a bit of a challenge when writing descriptions for some properties, but a bigger challenge comes when you give a property tour that looks nothing like how you described it. Accurate property descriptions give a real estate agent credibility, which will lead to more referrals and better testimonials.
You can heavily highlight the good, without lying about the bad. Simply focus on the home’s best qualities, and think about how you can turn the “negatives” into a positive. After all, one person’s trash is another’s fixer-upper.
Use Fresh Adjectives
The adjectives you use when writing a property description should evoke emotion in your reader, creating vivid imagery to pair with your listing photos. When describing certain features of the home, think of the most accurate and detailed adjective as you can. Any home can be a “beautiful, two-story home”, but few can be an “elegant, two-story Victorian home”.
Here are some examples of unique, descriptive words or phrases that can add a little spice to your property description:
- Upgraded
- Move-In Ready
- Custom-built
- Bright
- Spacious
- Pristine
- Fenced-In
- Tree-Lined
- Upscale
- Modern
- Ranch
- Rustic
Selling Points In Logical Order
The same way you have to put the ingredients together in a specific order for chocolate chip cookies, your property descriptions need to have a certain structure. We recommend aligning your listing photo order with the order of details in your property description. Here are a few ways to organize your property descriptions:
- Write the highlights of the home in descending order of importance.
- Walk the buyer through the home starting at the front door and ending in the backyard.
- Most specific details at the top, more broad details at the bottom.
When writing a property description that sells, you’ll want to include information about the interior and exterior of the home as well as details about the neighborhood the home is in. Don’t mix all of these together in your description, but separate them in an organized manner so that your reader can easily envision each aspect of the home.
NO Red Flag Words or Phrases
While there’s not a certified list of buzzwords to avoid when writing a property description, there are phrases and topics that have been shown to hurt real estate listings. Most of these “do not include” phrases violate the fair housing act.
Fair Housing Violations
The Fair Housing Act was established in 1968 and prohibits discrimination in the renting or sale of housing across the nation. This ensures that the wording, phrasing, and targeting on your real estate listing does not include language that could be interpreted as discriminatory against the seven protected classes: race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, or familial status.
Beware of phrases that can raise red flags such as:
- Family-oriented
- Exclusive
- Traditional Neighborhood
- Bachelor Pad
Does this mean you aren’t allowed to highlight that a neighborhood is popular with families or that a condo is situated in an area with a young demographic? Of course not! You just have to be careful in the way you word it. Here’s an example:
Instead of saying: This is a spacious home in a family-oriented neighborhood that is perfect for couples with small children.
Say this: This spacious home is situated in a sidewalk-lined neighborhood and boasts a short, 10-minute walk to nearby Abbey Elementary School.
Bon Appetit! You Have a Winning Property Description That Sells!
Take each of these ingredients, mix them together, bake them at 350°, and you’ll have a property description that sells! If your property description is top-notch, but your home still isn’t making its way off the market, check out our 7 reasons why a house isn’t selling to give you an additional boost.
