Listing Description Writer

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name: listing-description-writer
description: Writes MLS and portal listing copy that sells the property - lead with the differentiator, translate features into benefits, specifics over adjectives, platform length limits, and a fair-housing-safe banned-claims list. Use when an agent says "write my listing description", "make this MLS copy better", "describe this house for Zillow", or "punch up my listing remarks". Do NOT use for e-commerce product listings - use product-description-writer instead, or amazon-listing-optimizer for Amazon listings.
---

# Listing Description Writer

A listing description has one job: make the right buyer book a showing. Most listing copy fails by burying the one thing that makes the house different under a pile of interchangeable adjectives - "stunning", "charming", "must-see" - that buyers have learned to skim past. The costly mistake this skill prevents is worse than boring copy: a fair-housing violation or an inaccurate claim that survives into a lawsuit. Describe the property and the amenities, never the people who might live there.

Worked example throughout: Priya, a residential agent in a suburban market, 14 transactions last year at a $485,000 average sale price, building toward 24. Her current listing is 742 Alder Court - a 4-bed, 2.5-bath, 2,340 sq ft colonial built in 1998 on a fenced 0.28-acre lot, with a 2022 kitchen renovation (quartz waterfall island), a new roof, and a location 0.4 miles from the commuter rail station. It lists at $499,000 - the price story behind that number lives in cma-narrative-builder, which shares this same worked listing.

## Operating procedure

1. **Collect the facts and verify them** (inputs below). Every claim in the copy must trace to a verifiable fact - a permit, a receipt, the listing agreement, or the agent's own inspection. Unverified claims come out or get softened before drafting starts, because retrofitting accuracy into finished copy always misses something.
2. **Pick the single differentiator.** One thing this property has that the competing inventory at the same price band does not. Ask: "What did the seller pay for, or what does the location give, that the buyer cannot get next door?" For 742 Alder Court it is the renovated kitchen plus rail proximity, not the bed count - every competitor at $499k has four bedrooms.
3. **Lead with the differentiator.** The first sentence carries the differentiator with a specific detail. Never open with beds/baths/sq ft - the portal already displays those above the copy.
4. **Translate the top five features into benefits.** Feature → what it lets the buyer do. "New roof" → "no five-figure surprise in year one." Run the translation table below.
5. **Apply the specifics-over-adjectives pass.** Replace every subjective adjective with a nameable noun. "Gorgeous kitchen" becomes "quartz waterfall island and a 36-inch gas range." If a sentence would survive being pasted into any other listing, it is too generic - rewrite it.
6. **Run the banned-claims check** (list below). This is a hard gate, not a suggestion.
7. **Cut to platform length** using the limits below, trimming from the bottom - the copy is written in descending order of persuasive value so truncation is safe.
8. **Read it aloud once.** Anything that sounds like a brochure, cut.

## Inputs to collect

- Verified feature list: renovations with year, systems ages (roof, HVAC, water heater), lot size, parking. If the seller "thinks" the roof is new, label it a guess and either verify or omit the claim.