Property listing guide: write a listing that books viewings

A house hunter gives your listing a few seconds before deciding to open it or scroll on. In those seconds they see one photo, one headline and one price. Only an already interested reader reads the rest.

So put the work in the right place. Most people spend most time on the description and least on the first photo. It should be the reverse.

The photo that decides the click

The first photo is the listing, in practice. Pick the room most typical of the home, usually the living room or kitchen, and shoot from the longest side of the room so the depth shows.

Shoot in daylight, midday, with curtains fully open. Avoid standing with the window in front of you, or the room turns dark and the window white. Switch ceiling lights off. Mixed light gives yellow and blue patches in one photo.

Remove what is yours rather than the home: fridge magnets, charging cables, soap bottles, slippers in the hall. A house hunter needs to picture themselves in the room, and that works worse when a stranger daily life is on display.

Include the floor plan among the first photos. Many reject homes on the floor plan alone, and without one the answer is often no instead of maybe. If you don’t have a drawing and you’re selling a co-op apartment, ask the association. If you’re selling a house, the drawings are often in the municipality’s building permit archive, and the property designation you need to order them is in the land registry.

The headline should state what stands out

”Charming two room flat with balcony” describes thousands of homes. The headline has one job: to say what sets yours apart from the neighbour.

Think what you would mention first if a friend asked why you thrived there. Evening sun until nine. Ten minutes to the commuter train. A bathroom redone last year. A corner position with no overlooking windows. The concrete beats the salesy every time.

”Prime location” sparks nothing. ”Last house before the woods” sparks an image.

The facts readers look for

What a listing lacks is almost always read against you. With no fee stated the reader assumes it is high. With no floor stated they guess the ground floor.

Which facts you need depends on what you’re selling.

Selling a tenant-owner apartment: the monthly fee and what it covers, living area, floor, lift and build year. The association’s finances will come up anyway, so get ahead of it: state debt per square metre and whether a fee rise has been decided. How to read it is in the guide to the association annual report.

Selling a house: living and secondary area, plot size, build year, heating and yearly running costs for electricity, heating, water and waste collection. Give the energy class too. If there’s a valid energy declaration, the energy performance must be stated in the listing.

If the home has a known downside, write it. Traffic noise toward the street, short queue for preschool, a coming pipe replacement. Told in the listing, the reader still books a viewing. Told at the viewing, they feel fooled, and told after the contract they call a lawyer.

The price decides who contacts you

You, the seller, decide the asking price. If you sell through an agent, they value the home. The price works as a filter. Too high, and few house hunters come and no bidding starts. Clearly below market value, and it draws people without a mortgage pre-approval for the final price. An agent isn’t even allowed to advertise such a bait price (lockpris), according to the Swedish Estate Agents Inspectorate.

Start from what similar homes actually sold for in recent months, not from what the neighbour asked. The gap between the two numbers is often wide, and it is explained in valuation versus final sale price. To grasp how a value is calculated, see how a home is valued.

Before you publish

Read the listing on a phone. Most people see it there, and there it shows at once if the headline gets cut or the first photo is too dark.

Ask someone who has not seen the home to read it and tell you what they think it lacks. What you forgot is rarely visible to you but often obvious to an outsider.

Then swap the first photo after a week if it stays quiet. It is the single cheapest change you can make, and the one you notice fastest.