There’s a great quote from advertising legend William Bernbach: “The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” That’s because when we see or hear something we instinctively know is true, we take it more seriously. The same concept applies in property listings. Buyers can usually sense if a listing seems too good to be true; [...]
Imagine there was a law that said your listings were allowed to mention only one reason why people should buy your home. What reason would you choose? Obviously, it would differ from property to property, but if you were allowed to mention only one reason, it would force you to think about the home’s most enticing [...]
Want more people to read your listings? Then make them easier to read. Use plain English. Use short sentences. Use short paragraphs. A lot of agents make the mistake of using fancy words, long sentences and big blocks of text. The reason that sort of writing is a mistake is because it makes life hard for [...]
Stop using the word ‘unique’ in your listings. If something is unique, it means it’s the only one in the world, so it’s highly unlikely your suburban home has unique features. When you misuse the word ‘unique’, you undermine your credibility. Instead, put accurate labels on the different features within your properties. Your kitchen might be [...]
Your buyers want to live better lives. And the homes you sell are the key to your buyers living better lives – that’s why they’re in the market. So when you write your listings, you need to explain how your property will improve their lives. It’s not enough to describe all the wonderful features; you need [...]
Your property is the hero of your listings; not you. It’s such a turnoff when agents use words like ‘I’ or ‘we’ or ‘our’ in their listings, because buyers aren’t interested in you, they’re interested in your properties. The best way to highlight your value as an agent is to sell homes and to get top [...]
You know how when you’re thinking about buying a product, you’re sceptical if the business that’s selling the product makes big statements that don’t seem to have any basis in reality? Well, buyers react the same way to property listings. If you’re going to make a claim in one of your listings, you need to back [...]
I regularly see property listings with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. These mistakes immediately undermine the credibility of the agent and the property. Yet the strange thing is, they’re so easy to avoid. Before you publish your listings, run them through an app like Microsoft Word or Grammarly, which will pick up 99% of your mistakes. [...]
I know that when you write a listing you’re presenting just one property, but don’t think of your listings in isolation. Buyers might spend months looking for a property and read dozens of your listings during that time. That’s why it’s important to come up with a template for your listings. The more predictable you make [...]
What’s the number one reason someone should buy your home? Whatever it is, mention it at the top of your listing – in the headline, the opening sentence or both. Buyers have short attention spans and there are lots of properties competing for their attention, so you need to lead with your strongest argument. Next, you [...]
