How to Create a Property Listing That Generates More Viewings
Taking a new property onto the market should be one of the most exciting moments in estate agency. After all the prospecting, market appraisals, follow-up calls and conversations, you finally have something to sell.
But getting the instruction is only the beginning. What you do next can have a huge impact on the number of buyers who enquire, the number of viewings you generate and ultimately the result you achieve for the homeowner.
You can never guarantee exactly when a property will sell or exactly what somebody will eventually pay for it. What you can control is how well you present that property when it enters the market.
That means putting everything behind the launch from day one.
Before creating a property listing, it is worth understanding what its most important job actually is. You might assume the answer is simply to sell the house. That's obviously the eventual goal, but the immediate job of a property advert is to generate interest.
A great listing should make people want to know more.
It should generate enquiries, get phones ringing and encourage buyers to book viewings. Every new enquiry also creates another opportunity for your estate agency. The caller might become the eventual buyer, but they could also have a property to sell, require another service or become a future client.
This is why property listings should be treated as much more than an administrative task.
One of the easiest ways to think about property marketing is to compare a listing to an online dating profile.
Imagine somebody creating a dating profile containing 50 photographs and several thousand words explaining absolutely everything about their life. Their favourite restaurant, where they go every Tuesday evening, every holiday they've taken and what they normally eat for breakfast.
There would be nothing left to discover.
A far better approach would be to choose several excellent photographs, reveal enough interesting information to generate curiosity and give somebody a reason to start a conversation.
Property listings work in much the same way.
You need enough information for buyers to understand the home and decide whether it could work for them, but that doesn't mean every tiny detail needs to be included. The objective isn't to allow somebody to experience the entire property without leaving their sofa. The objective is to make them interested enough to arrange a viewing.
More information doesn't automatically make a better property advert.
Presentation, however, matters enormously.
Your strongest photographs shouldn't be held back until later. Your best marketing shouldn't be something you introduce after three weeks because the property isn't receiving enough attention.
The property should look its absolute best from the moment it launches.
This is one of the mistakes estate agents regularly make. A property goes live with average photographs, an unfinished description or missing marketing material because everyone is eager to get it online. When enquiries fail to arrive, the agent eventually improves the photography, changes the wording, adds a video or upgrades the marketing.
By that point, one of the biggest opportunities may already have passed.
A new property has something older listings don't have: novelty.
When buyers first see a new instruction appear in their search results, they haven't had the opportunity to dismiss it before. It's fresh. It's unfamiliar. It's something worth clicking on.
That initial period is therefore incredibly valuable.
Major property portals also allow buyers to create searches based around their requirements. Someone searching for a particular property type, location and price range can quickly discover when another suitable property appears.
Your launch could therefore put the home in front of a significant audience almost immediately.
Now think about what happens if the photographs are poor.
A potential buyer opens their property alert, sees an uninspiring main image and continues scrolling. You may never get another opportunity to capture that person's attention.
Worse still, buyers aren't the only people seeing your marketing.
Future sellers are looking too.
Every property you advertise is effectively a public demonstration of how your estate agency markets homes. Someone who is considering selling in six months may see one of your listings today and form an opinion of your business long before you ever meet them.
A badly presented property therefore doesn't only damage that instruction. It can potentially damage future ones as well.
The reverse is also true.
When a homeowner sees beautifully presented properties from the same estate agent appearing repeatedly in their local area, it builds confidence. They're seeing evidence of what you do rather than simply hearing you talk about it during a valuation.
This is why great property marketing can become its own lead-generation strategy.
One instruction can help you win the next.
The lesson is simple: don't launch a property before you're ready to make the best possible first impression.
Get the photography right. Get the description right. Make sure the property information is accurate. Prepare the floorplan and supporting marketing. Use your strongest images immediately and make the listing look like something you'd be proud for every homeowner in your area to see.
Don't treat your best marketing as a rescue plan.
Use it as your opening move.
Once a property has been sitting online for several weeks, adding better photographs and stronger marketing may help, but you'll never recreate the moment it first appeared in front of buyers.
When you launch a new property, don't fire a warning shot and see what happens.
Put everything behind it from day one.
Because a brilliant property listing shouldn't simply advertise a house.
It should generate buyers, create conversations, showcase your estate agency and help you win the next instruction before you've even sold the first one.
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