15 Real Estate Listing Tips to Help Get You Noticed (and Your Listings Get Sold)
If you’ve been in the real estate game long enough, you can create listings in your sleep.
Or just about.
Creating real estate listings is standard procedure for a real estate agent. Write it up, list the features, add photos, publish, done.
Turning a for-sale house into a must-click listing?
That’s something else entirely.
If you feel like your approach to creating real estate listings is getting stale, this post is for you. The following 15 real estate listings tips will help you get noticed — and help your listings get sold.
1. Level Up Your Photography
Unless it’s really bad, the photography used in most listings feels pretty average.
To stand out and make an impression, take a cue from architecture and design photography and mix up your shots in order to really tell a story about your listing and create a feeling of truly being in the space.
Have your photographer capture the standards, as well as some unique details. Incorporate some close-ups of interesting details or elements that help set the scene (e.g. if a home backs onto a golf course, take a shot of a golf bag leaning up against the back gate.
2. Change Your Writing Style
When you write a listing, you’re essentially writing an advertisement. And hey, most real estate agents don’t have a side hustle as a copywriter. But that doesn’t mean your listing descriptions can’t shine.
Try switching up your writing approach. Take cues from screenwriting or storytelling — “show, don’t tell!” — switch up your voice and tone, or try using some new real estate descriptions instead of your tried-and-trues (e.g. “sweeping yard” instead of “large backyard”).
3. Don’t Forget SEO
When adding a real estate listing to your personal real estate website, don’t be afraid to adapt your description a little bit.
If you edit your descriptions to be more SEO-friendly, you can boost your odds of appearing in a prospective buyer’s Google search.
Think like a buyer. They’re much more likely to search “detached three-bedroom home in Leslieville” than “3 bdrm Toronto east end.”
4. Highlight the Right Details
Like we just said: think like a buyer. Imagine what details are most likely to get buyers excited. What details they’d want to know first. Lead with those details. Highlight those details.
If a condo has an amazing city skyline view, open with that. If a home has an incredible backyard pool, make sure that photo is one of the first you feature.
5. Adapt Your Strategies for Different Audiences
When it comes to marketing your listings, don’t assume the same tactics will work for one type of buyer (e.g. young family) as they will for another (e.g. empty nester). Promote a listing differently, according to what each type of buyer is most interested in.
For example, to reach a younger potential buyer, you might want to focus on spotlighting the listing on your Instagram account and calling out details like how a second bedroom will be perfect for a new addition.
For an older audience, Facebook might be a better place to focus promotions; that second bedroom can be framed as a perfect spot to host the grandkids.
6. Find New Ways of Sharing on Social Media
Posting a listing photo on your Instagram with the listing description as your caption isn’t the only way to share a real estate listing on social media.
To refresh your strategy and capture attention, have some fun with your formats.
Create a real estate listing Instagram Reel, or turn a listing into a TikTok. Highlight all its features in a beautiful, branded real estate Instagram Story, or delve into the listing details using a Twitter thread.
7. Share With Your Personal Network
No one wants their friends and family to feel like they’re being sold to. But. You never know where your buyer could be hiding. Your second-cousin or old university roommate could very well be looking for a home that you just so happen to have a listing for.
Don’t be afraid to share great listings with your personal network. Send a link via a personalized (nothing generic, please!) text message or email, or share it through an Instagram direct message or Facebook message if that better suits your relationship.
8. Reach Out to Past Clients
The same goes for past clients. You never know who from your old Rolodex may be on the hunt for a new place to call home — or knows someone who is.
9. Turn Listings Into Blog Posts
Blog posts on your real estate website are another way to turn your listing into a traffic-generating machine.
For high-end or notably unique (e.g. an old campground with cabins and a mess hall waiting for a visionary owner) listings, give them some extra love in their own dedicated blog post.
Use all the best listing photos (plus some extras if you have them) and go into all the depth that you don’t have the room for in the MLS description. Tell a story about the property. Go deep into detail. Sell the sizzle.
10. Use Your Newsletter
If you have an email subscriber list, put it to good use! A newsletter is the perfect place to shine a virtual spotlight on your listing of the week.
Use tools like Stripo, Crello, or PicMonkey to turn your listing photos and details into gorgeous newsletter design, then plunk that into your newsletter platform of choice.
11. Pitch It to Media
Real estate listings aren’t typically fodder for media attention but many local lifestyle sites and blogs have “listings of the week” features where they share a gorgeous or unique home for sale in the area.
Sound familiar? Next time you have a worthy listing, send an email to the editor with the listing information, high-res photos and a short, punchy write-up. If your listing is chosen, your audience of potential buyers grows hundredfold.
12. Try a Different Kind of Open House
Open houses look a little lot different in a pandemic. But, as they say, constraint breeds creativity. And creativity attracts attention.
Live-streaming your open house is one such idea. You don’t even have to have potential buyers in the space; they can simply submit questions or ask you to walk over to certain home features during the broadcast.
13. Experiment With Social Media Ads
Facebook real estate ads and Instagram real estate ads are gaining in popularity with real estate agents, thanks to their ability to target specific audiences and their ease of use.
Use a design app to create a few different versions of social media ads promoting your real estate listing. Change up the photos and copy in each ad, then run tests to see which version performs the best so you can put your ad spend behind the winner.
14. Get Experimental With Print Ads
Print isn’t dead! If you have a listing that calls for a sizable marketing budget, consider taking out a print ad in a local newspaper or magazine.
The trick is to choose your publication based on which demographic you’re trying to reach and to design an ad that stands out, with a stunning high-res photo and an attention-grabbing headline.
15. Try a New Spin on Postcard Campaigns
If you’ve got a luxury listing or a one-of-a-kind property, creating a dedicated postcard campaign is often worth the investment.
Instead of recycling your old designs, refresh your look with something new, modern and minimalist. Refer to tip #2 and try out a new writing style. Or incorporate some sort of incentive or freebie; maybe you attach the postcards to mini bottles of hand sanitizer and deliver them personally to neighbourhood mailboxes.
How do you keep your real estate listings fresh?
