Introduction

The property description is an important ingredient of a property listing. Here I discuss how we can craft attention-grabbing descriptions that will place our listing and our home in a stronger competitive position for the buyers’ attention and engagement!

The property description makes up our home’s very first impression on buyers

The property description is undeniably an important ingredient of a property listing (along with the price, photos, and video). The description makes up our home’s very first impression on buyers, and so our job is to make it the best impression! After all, our home is competing with other properties on the market, so it’s always a good idea to put our very best foot forward!

The property description can be found on both the property’s summary listing and main listing as the summary description and main description respectively. Let’s consider each type of description separately.

Summary listing / summary description

The buyer’s search for their next home on any property portal (particularly Rightmove or Zoopla) will naturally begin with their search criteria. And if our home matches their criteria, then it will first appear to them in their search results as a summary listing, where the summary description of our home will be shown.

The summary description is the small section of text located to the right of the summary photos, which will be one of the first things buyers see about our home in their search results. This presents our first opportunity to encourage the buyer to want to click through the summary listing and take a closer look at our home on the main listing (and ultimately to want to book a viewing).

Both Rightmove and Zoopla arrange their summary descriptions in a similar way.

Naturally, when our home appears in the buyer’s search results, it will appear along with other properties that equally match their search criteria, and so our home will be competing for the buyer’s attention. In fact, our home will be competing against many other properties on the same screen and across multiple pages!

Our summary description should aim to cut through and stand out from the crowd of competing properties in the search results. Essentially, we’d need to present an eye-catching and attention-grabbing description that is compelling for buyers to want to click through!

An attention-grabbing description is crucial, especially when competition is fierce and buyers’ time and/or attention are short. If our description fails to grab buyers’ attention at a glance, they can quickly turn their attention elsewhere!

But don’t buyers generally tend to view more than one property before deciding which one to buy?

In a previous section, I acknowledged that buyers generally tend to view more than one property before deciding which one to buy, but not all buyers get around to viewing all of the properties that they intend to view for one reason or another.

If our home is indeed on the buyer’s list of properties to view, along with other properties that they’re interested in, we shouldn’t take the chance of it being placed below those properties on that list, because the further down our home is on the list, the less likely the buyer will get around to viewing it.

Our job is to therefore give the buyer a reason to be excited about our home, in this case through written narrative, compelling them to want to place it at the top (or near the top) of their list, where they are bound to come to view it before viewing the other properties on the list!

General tips and recommendations for a summary description

Rightmove only allows for 300 characters in the summary description, so we need to make every word count!

Here are some general tips:

We should use those limited characters to introduce new information about our home (particularly its biggest key selling points) and not waste them repeating information that is already shown as standard, such as the number of bedrooms, the property type (e.g. detached, semi-detached etc), general location, or the name of the agent.
We should use words that are interesting, engaging, and/or informative to buyers, and avoid waffle - in other words, avoid using words that do not offer any useful information.
The capitalisation of keywords is optional. It’s fine to capitalise particular keywords in order to highlight the key selling points of our home and to help those keywords stand out and jump out to buyers. However, we should avoid capitalising every word in the description, as that can be off-putting to buyers!

Let’s explore these tips in more detail and look at how we can put together a summary description that’s eye-catching and attention-grabbing for buyers to want to click through!

Example of a common type of summary description

Here is an example of a summary description that we will commonly see in the search results.

Both summary descriptions are the same: the top is the original and the bottom is the same but with the selling points highlighted in bold.

None of these highlighted points tell buyers anything new about the property that doesn’t already appear elsewhere as standard information. The summary description includes the number of bedrooms, the property type, general location, and the name of the agent - all of which already appear as standard information elsewhere in the summary listing.

In fact, if we look at other examples of summary listings found in the search results, we can see this very set of information appearing as standard (highlighted in red) on Rightmove and Zoopla.

These points do not need to be repeated in the summary description, otherwise it’s a wasted opportunity that could have instead been used to add new information about the property that would be interesting and informative, as well as eye-catching and attention-grabbing for buyers!

Improving the summary description

Here is an example of how we can improve the summary description.

The top is the original version of the summary description and the bottom is the improved version.

We can see in the improved version that:

New information about the property is introduced that isn’t already shown elsewhere in the summary listing. In fact, the summary description is now led with the ‘south-facing garden’, which is the biggest key selling point and most important feature of that particular property, with the leading summary photo changed to showcase that very garden, in order to put its best foot forward to capture the buyers’ interest and attention!
Capitalisation is used sparingly for keywords in order to highlight the property’s key selling points and to help those keywords stand out and jump out to buyers.

Here are more examples of summary descriptions from Rightmove.

Keyword Sort

Some buyers may be looking for properties with particular features, such as a garden, garage, or pool etc. Keyword Sort (located above the search results on Rightmove) allows buyers to refine their search results by entering one or more keywords. Properties within the search results that include the chosen keywords will be brought to the top of the results. Effectively, those properties that include the chosen keywords will be prioritised over the properties that lack those keywords.

Including keywords in our summary description is pivotal to making our summary listing easier to find for buyers, especially for those that are looking for particular features and refining their search results accordingly.

Keyword Sort pulls the relevant keywords from the summary description, so it’s important that we make sure to include keywords pertaining to the best selling points of our home in our summary description; as the chances are, the buyer may be looking for a particular feature that our home can indeed offer!

Properties within the search results that do not include the buyer’s chosen keywords will still appear, but will be pushed down in the search results, in favour of all of the properties that do include the chosen keywords!

So if our home does indeed match the buyer’s chosen keywords, it will be brought to the top of their search results, appearing (along with any other properties that equally match the chosen keywords) above all of the non-matching properties. Effectively, our home will be prioritised in the search results over the non-matching properties, placing it in a stronger competitive position for the buyer’s attention!

Both Rightmove and Zoopla include the Keyword Sort feature.

Click to read more about Keyword Sort on Rightmove and Zoopla.

Doing something different to stand out from the crowd

A good summary description doesn’t always have to be a list of key selling points, features or specifications. In some cases and depending on the property itself, it may be a good idea to do something different to stand out from the crowd.

Here are a couple of examples.

The top example is a purposefully short summary description as a teaser for buyers to click through to find out more. The bottom example is a more detailed summary description of a quote from the homeowner describing why they fell in love with their home.

Both of these examples utilise visualisation, in particular, storytelling or painting a picture, to grab the buyers’ attention.

The foundation of the buyer’s decision in choosing their next home is undoubtedly their emotion, and so we can utilise visualisation to help bridge the gap between the offerings of our home with their emotion!

At every stage in the buyer’s search, the buyer looking at a property will try to visualise themself living there as the litmus test for deciding whether to move onto the next step (in this case, to click through the summary listing and take a closer look at the property on the main listing).

The summary description is our chance to paint a picture or tell a snapshot story about our home that would facilitate the buyer’s visualisation - to capture their imagination, helping them to envisage what it would be like to live there as their next abode!

So if we want our summary description to stand out from the crowd, it may be a good idea to paint a picture or tell a snapshot story on what we love about our home (and perhaps the area), including any wonderful experiences we’ve had living there, to capture the buyer’s imagination of our home!

According to Rightmove, summary descriptions that utilise visualisation get better results than the more conventional and basic summary descriptions.

Ultimately, storytelling is selling!

Main listing / main description

The main description is naturally found in the body of the main property listing, usually below the photo gallery and the key/property features section (particularly on Rightmove and Zoopla).

If the buyer does indeed click through to the main listing to take a closer look at our home, then we have successfully grabbed their attention over most competing properties in their search results. Our aim now is to encourage the buyer to want to take the next step, i.e. to make an enquiry and book a viewing.

The main description is one of the essential ingredients (along with the price, photos, and video) of a main listing that encourage buyers to want to take that next step.

Almost all of the tips and recommendations discussed also apply to the main description. In particular:

Avoid repeating information that is already shown on the main listing as standard.
Use words that are interesting, engaging, and/or informative to buyers, and avoid waffle.
Use capitalisation sparingly for keywords to highlight the key selling points of our home and to help those keywords stand out and jump out to buyers.
Ensure that we include keywords pertaining to the best selling points of our home (and the area) in our main description, as Keyword Sort also pulls the relevant keywords from the main description.
Utilise visualisation to capture the buyers’ imagination, helping them to envisage what it would be like to live in our home as their next abode. Remember - storytelling is selling!

The main description provides a bigger canvas to elaborate on the key selling points of our home

The main description is the same as the summary description, except we now have a bigger canvas to elaborate on the information and key selling points of our home introduced in the summary description, without the 300 character limit. If we decide upon the visualisation approach in the summary description, then the main description is our chance to elaborate on the visuals in more detail, in particular, to paint the full picture or tell the full story about our home!

The main description is also our chance to paint a full picture of the surrounding area, and to share any relevant stories. If our home especially has exceptional views and/or local features, such as parks, rivers, churches, amenities, transportation links, schools, or monuments etc - these are selling points that will likely be of great interest to buyers. After all, buyers value location and convenience, both of which are major considerations that influence their buying decision as much as the property itself!

‘Key features’ bullet point summary

As well as the main description, we should also make the most use of the ten ‘key features’ bullet point summary to get across the key selling points of our home (and the area) at a glance, saving buyers from needing to read the full main description. In many cases, buyers may be short on time and/or attention, and so our job is to make the key information of our home as easily and quickly digestible as possible.

Getting in touch with me

If you would like to discuss with me about the property description of your listing, click here to get in touch with me and let’s have a discussion!

Whilst photos and the description are very effective; in the next section, I cover yet another important ingredient of a property listing that I personally believe to be even more effective, yet is underutilised and underappreciated by most homeowners/sellers and agents - and that is property videography.

And so, I invite you to join me in the next section, where I go over property videography in more detail.

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Credit goes to Rightmove for the images used in this section

Property Description