3 Steps to Creating the Optimal Home Listing
You’ve heard it before; presentation is everything. There’s a reason people say that, especially when it comes to creating the perfect home listing. You want people to be wowed when they come across your property listing.
There are a few components that are involved in creating the optimal home listing: the listing description, photos, and a video tour. We’ll walk you through each part of the process to make the most eye-catching home listing possible.
1. Write an Incredible Property Listing Description
While your property description is often written by your listing agent, you can have a hand in the process to make it even better. Your property listing description carries a lot of weight and should be approached with great care. You don’t want to simply list attributes of your home, you want to set the scene, use your words to paint a picture of your home.
Avoid Repetition. Often your listing will include bulleted information on number of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. Anything listed in this manner does not need to be repeated in your description, and repeating these things might give the impression that there is not much left to say about the home.
Highlight Best Features. Mention things like the history of the house or neighborhood, any recent additions or renovations, proximity of schools and parks, nearby attractions like shopping centers or restaurants. Mentioning practical amenities and upgrades is also a good idea; things such as whether or not the home has a laundry room can make or break someone's interest in your home.
Use Specific Wording and Attractive Headlines. It is incredibly important to use the right words, and you’ll want to be cautious to use any real estate euphemisms, like “fixer-upper” for example. You’ll also want to make sure to use attention-grabbing headlines. When people see your listing, they pay attention to photos, headlines, and text, and usually in that order.
If you want a little inspiration to help in writing your property descriptions with your agent, REALTOR® Mag has a few examples of powerful property descriptions.
2. Take Breathtaking Photos
A person’s eyes are first drawn to photographs when viewing a property listing. Having a good property description is important, but photos can be game-changers, especially high-quality photos.
Create and Show Space. You’ll want to take photos that highlight the spaciousness of your home. You can do this by removing large pieces of furniture from the room. Unless your big furniture pieces are being sold, you don’t want it to be the focus of your photos.
Consider a Getting a Paint Job. This can make a huge difference. Using neutral colors is highly advised, like beiges and browns. Bright paint colors can be jarring and even off-putting to potential buyers.
Pay Attention to Details. Shooting from the corner of a room using a wide-angle lens is the standard and recommended way to show an entire room. The entire room doesn’t always have to be the focal point, though. Keep an eye out for intricate design work, marvelous fireplaces, striking staircases, high ceilings, and the like. Things like this are often overlooked.
Don’t Forget the Front Door. First impressions are everything. Consider pressure cleaning the sidewalk leading to the door, planting flowers, and trimming the landscape. This will be beneficial for pictures as well as when people come to see your home.
It’s important to not get carried away or overdo it on the amount of photos. You don’t need photos of everything, just enough to attract people to want to see more.
3. Create a Video Tour
Video tours have evolved greatly and gained in popularity due to advances in high-definition cameras. This allows you to show off your home with intricate detail, and offers a number of benefits.
Show Off Best Features. Capture your home’s best and unique features in a matter of minutes. You can use this to highlight things mentioned in your description that you may not have decided to include photos of.
Give Buyers an Inside Look. A video tour allows you to share a quick glimpse of your home’s layout and give buyers the closest thing to an actual home walkthrough and tour without them actually being at the house.
Don’t worry that people may not come to actually see the house if they can just see it online. Your video will work to encourage and entice people to come see more of your home in real life.
Let us know how these tips work for you, if there's anything you think we forgot, or if you want more advise on creating your listing!
