Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Every element of a home’s profile needs to be enticing to prospective buyers — especially the photos and written description. Our world has become very visually oriented. Photos are what grab the attention of buyers skimming through real estate listings. Only if a few high-quality photos catch their attention will they slow down their skimming to take time to read the description. The combination of high-quality photos intertwined with a description that tells a story is how you pull them all the way into the listing, get them to take a second look, make a call for more information, ask for a showing, and soon make an offer.
Buyers in the market for a new home are looking to fulfill a life dream. It could be a first house to show they have grown into mature adults, it could be a bigger home for a growing family, it could be a step up to show they are succeeding, or it could be a move to a new region of the country that represents an entirely new lifestyle. There are many dreams, and the home is at the center of them. You want your home photos and descriptions to tell the story about why this is the dream home a buyer has been searching for.
The kitchen and bathrooms are almost always the most important features of a home. The best outside photo followed by the kitchen and bath can be the best sequence of photos. The first sentence of the description needs to engage the viewer. It’s the hook to draw the reader into a story that hopefully sounds much like their own. The headline should emphasize what makes the property unique and the dream it will fulfill. The first few words and sentences should be a snapshot telling the reader what the property is about.
As the reader continues, you want to highlight the best features of the home while also conveying valuable information that might not be obvious from the photos. You want to weave in attributes that expand on the photos and/or convey information that photos can’t convey. It could be a vast view of a water scene or a park that photos only partially capture. It could be a desirable location that photos don’t capture at all. It could be a major renovation with most of the electronics and cables embedded behind the walls. You don’t want to just say that there are modern features behind the walls, you want to describe how those features will make life better for the new owner.
Use active words like “enjoy,” “dine,” and “create” that are paired with features of the house. For instance, “create sumptuous meals in the renovated gourmet kitchen that you’ll enjoy on your private terrace with a sweeping view of the distant mountains.” Rather than just listing features like the gourmet kitchen, terrace, and view, bring it to life as how their life will feel in this house daily.
Brevity is best because people have a limited attention span. But brevity isn’t always the right answer. What works best is placing the most important or unique aspects first and filling in more granular detail further into the description. If the highlight is a master bedroom facing the morning sun, that should be the headline. You can follow this with a written walk-through of the remainder of the house. Even if the house doesn’t have a freshly remodeled kitchen and bathroom, these are still important elements to be described as having top-quality appliances in the kitchen and a walk-in bathroom shower with multiple shower heads.
Know who your target audience is and write about the lifestyle they are most likely looking for. Baby boomers are most likely looking for comfort features and ease of mobility getting from room to room. On the other hand, millennials are more health-conscious, tech-savvy, and environmentally sensitive. Emphasizing a smart home or green home is going to be more appealing to the younger generation. Lifestyles change and so should home descriptions.
No home is perfect and not every home is freshly remodeled. Even if the home needs a remodel, you can still find strengths that appeal to buyers looking for this type of home. You may even have to accentuate its potential with a phrase such as “the bones are great, and the lot size is especially big for the neighborhood.” The written description becomes all the more important when the photos don’t do justice to the potential.
In these cases, you probably want to anticipate questions that prospective buyers are thinking about. In some cases, they may be wondering if the house is habitable while renovations are being done. “If you are looking for a fixer, this spacious four-bedroom and three-bath home has plenty of living space while you renovate one room at a time.”
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