Listing description writer

Listing Description Writer

A listing description has one job: make the right buyer book a showing. Most listing copy fails by burying the one thing that makes the house different under a pile of interchangeable adjectives - "stunning", "charming", "must-see" - that buyers have learned to skim past. The costly mistake this skill prevents is worse than boring copy: a fair-housing violation or an inaccurate claim that survives into a lawsuit. Describe the property and the amenities, never the people who might live there.

Worked example throughout: Priya, a residential agent in a suburban market, 14 transactions last year at a $485,000 average sale price, building toward 24. Her current listing is 742 Alder Court - a 4-bed, 2.5-bath, 2,340 sq ft colonial built in 1998 on a fenced 0.28-acre lot, with a 2022 kitchen renovation (quartz waterfall island), a new roof, and a location 0.4 miles from the commuter rail station. It lists at $499,000 - the price story behind that number lives in cma-narrative-builder, which shares this same worked listing.

Operating procedure

1. Collect the facts and verify them (inputs below). Every claim in the copy must trace to a verifiable fact - a permit, a receipt, the listing agreement, or the agent's own inspection. Unverified claims come out or get softened before drafting starts, because retrofitting accuracy into finished copy always misses something.
2. Pick the single differentiator. One thing this property has that the competing inventory at the same price band does not. Ask: "What did the seller pay for, or what does the location give, that the buyer cannot get next door?" For 742 Alder Court it is the renovated kitchen plus rail proximity, not the bed count - every competitor at $499k has four bedrooms.
3. Lead with the differentiator. The first sentence carries the differentiator with a specific detail. Never open with beds/baths/sq ft - the portal already displays those above the copy.
4. Translate the top five features into benefits. Feature → what it lets the buyer do. "New roof" → "no five-figure surprise in year one." Run the translation table below.
5. Apply the specifics-over-adjectives pass. Replace every subjective adjective with a nameable noun. "Gorgeous kitchen" becomes "quartz waterfall island and a 36-inch gas range." If a sentence would survive being pasted into any other listing, it is too generic - rewrite it.
6. Run the banned-claims check (list below). This is a hard gate, not a suggestion.
7. Cut to platform length using the limits below, trimming from the bottom - the copy is written in descending order of persuasive value so truncation is safe.
8. Read it aloud once. Anything that sounds like a brochure, cut.

Inputs to collect

• Verified feature list: renovations with year, systems ages (roof, HVAC, water heater), lot size, parking. If the seller "thinks" the roof is new, label it a guess and either verify or omit the claim.
• The competing inventory: 2-3 active listings the buyer will compare against (share these with cma-narrative-builder).
• Distances to transit, trails, and commercial amenities - measured, not guessed.
• Target platforms and their limits.
• Anything the seller insists on including - flag it for the banned-claims check rather than accepting it automatically.

Platform length limits

• MLS public remarks: ~250 words (many MLSs cap at 1,000-1,500 characters). This is the master copy.
• Zillow/portal syndication: inherits MLS remarks; the first ~2 lines show before "read more", so the differentiator must land in sentence one.
• Social caption: 100-125 characters before truncation - differentiator plus a call to action only.
• Print flyer: ~100 words plus the fact block.

Feature → benefit translation, worked

Feature (verified)	Benefit (what the buyer gets)
2022 kitchen reno, quartz waterfall island	The most expensive room is already done - no renovation budget needed
New roof	No five-figure surprise in the first years of ownership
0.4 mi to commuter rail	Walk to the train; skip the second car or the parking pass
Fenced 0.28-acre lot	Pets and play space usable from day one, no fencing project
2.5 baths, 4 beds up	Morning routine without a queue; all bedrooms on one level

Banned-claims list (hard gate)

Fair housing - never describe the people, only the property:

• No demographic targeting or steering language: "great for families", "perfect starter home for a young couple", "empty-nester's dream", "safe neighborhood", "exclusive community", "walking distance to [named house of worship]" framed as a selling point.
• No characterizations of neighbors or neighborhood composition of any kind.
• Describe amenities objectively instead: "fenced quarter-acre lot", "0.3 miles to the elementary school" (a distance is a fact; "great schools" is a claim and a steering risk - link to district data, do not editorialize).

Accuracy - never claim what cannot be verified:

• No unverifiable superlatives: "best block in town", "lowest price per square foot", "won't last".
• No condition guarantees: "meticulously maintained", "no issues" - the seller's disclosure and the buyer's inspection speak to condition, not the marketing copy.
• No square footage or lot figures beyond the assessor/appraisal source, and cite the source convention your MLS requires.

Good/bad pair - same property, 742 Alder Court

Bad (what most agents write):

Stunning, meticulously maintained 4-bedroom colonial in a highly sought-after, family-friendly neighborhood! Gorgeous updated kitchen, beautiful yard, and so much more. Close to everything. This one won't last - schedule your showing today!

Why it fails: "family-friendly" is a fair-housing risk; "meticulously maintained" is an unverifiable condition claim; "stunning/gorgeous/beautiful" are adjectives with no nouns; "close to everything" is filler; nothing distinguishes it from every other 4-bed colonial at $499k.

Good (the rewrite):

The 2022 kitchen renovation is the headline here: a quartz waterfall island, 36-inch gas range, and a walk-in pantry anchor the main floor of this 2,340 sq ft colonial. Four bedrooms up, two and a half baths, and a fenced 0.28-acre backyard off the deck. The roof is new, so the big-ticket items are handled. Commuter rail is a 0.4-mile walk, and the paved greenway trail starts at the end of the street. Offered at $499,000. [FILL: showing instructions per MLS convention.]

Same house, 96 words, every sentence survives a fact-check, and the differentiator leads.

Deliverable

The master MLS remarks (~250 words or your MLS's cap), plus the social caption and flyer cut, each traceable claim-by-claim to a verified fact, with the banned-claims check confirmed in writing to the seller's file.

Do NOT

• Do not open with beds/baths/sq ft - the portal already shows them; the first line is your only guaranteed impression.
• Do not use adjectives where a noun exists. "Quartz waterfall island" beats "gorgeous kitchen" because the buyer can picture and price a noun.
• Do not describe the people ("great for families") - that is steering and a fair-housing violation, not a style problem.
• Do not let the seller's pride dictate claims ("best house on the street") - you sign the copy, you carry the liability.
• Do not write one blob and paste it everywhere - cut to each platform's limit from the bottom.

Quality bar

• Sentence one names the differentiator with a specific noun.
• Zero banned-claims-list hits.
• Every factual claim has a source in the file.
• No sentence would survive being pasted into a different listing unchanged.
• Under the platform cap without mid-sentence truncation on the portal preview.

Escalation and compliance

Real estate is a licensed profession. Listing claims must be accurate; fair-housing rules prohibit steering and demographic targeting language - describe the property and amenities, never the people. All copy is subject to brokerage and legal compliance review before publication, and MLS rules govern required disclosures and data-source citations. This skill is not legal advice. For the pricing conversation behind the list price, use cma-narrative-builder (it shares this worked listing); for converting the open-house traffic the copy generates, use open-house-follow-up.