Written for agents working the Dutch market, where listings run on Funda and on your own website. MakelAI is not affiliated with Funda.
The structure that works
No portal prescribes a format, but this order matches how people read: from feeling to fact to surroundings.
- 01
The opening: one strong feature
Start with the best thing this property has and make it concrete. Not "a charming home" but the stained glass, the four o'clock light, the garden facing south-west. One image someone can settle into.
- 02
The layout: ground floor upwards
Walk the house the way a viewing goes. Front door, living room, kitchen, then upstairs. Give floor areas where they impress and leave them out where they do not.
- 03
The outdoor space
Garden, balcony, shed, parking. Include the aspect, because it is the first thing anyone asks.
- 04
The surroundings
School, station, supermarket, motorway. Concrete, in minutes. This is the last paragraph, because it is what someone remembers after clicking away.
- 05
An invitation
Short. One sentence. Not "do not hesitate to contact us".
How long should it be
Between 180 and 260 words works best in practice. Shorter reads like a classified ad; longer rarely gets finished. For an unusual property you can push to 350, but then every sentence has to earn its place.
Write plainly. That sounds like a restriction and it is the opposite: short sentences and ordinary words are read faster and remembered better. This matters twice over in the Dutch market, where a good share of your readers are reading English as a second language.
Seven mistakes you see everywhere
- 01
Opening with the location
"Situated in the quiet residential area of X you will find this well-maintained home." Everyone starts this way, so nobody reads it.
- 02
Stacking adjectives
Stunning, delightful, spacious, immaculate. They say nothing because everyone uses them. Replace them with what you saw.
- 03
Writing at the reader
"You will find", "you will benefit from". It keeps the reader at arm's length. Just describe the property.
- 04
Listing every room
A list of rooms with dimensions is a floor plan, not a description. That information already sits in the features.
- 05
Writing away drawbacks
Calling a north-facing garden "delightful" backfires. Name it and give it context: cool in summer, ideal if you prefer shade.
- 06
Closing on a cliche
"In short, a unique opportunity not to be missed." A waste of the last sentence, which is the one best read.
- 07
Reusing the same text
Two identical terraced houses on the same street deserve two descriptions. Buyers compare listings side by side and they notice.
Visibility: what actually matters
On a portal your description does little for your ranking there, because portal results run mostly on filters: price, floor area, town, number of rooms. Where your text does count is Google, and above all on your own website.
So work in the terms people search on, in a way that still reads naturally. "1930s house Haarlem with south-west garden" is a search that exists. "Conveniently situated property" is not.
Checklist before you publish
- Does it contain at least one thing you only know because you were there?
- Is every number right? Floor area, year built, energy label, distances.
- Is there anything in it you could not substantiate?
- Have you removed delightful, stunning and situated?
- Would you recognise this description among your competitors'?
- Read the first sentence aloud. Do you want to read on?
The number that is wrong most often
The floor area. It gets carried over from an old listing, from the land registry, or from a measurement taken to a different standard, and then it differs from what the official measuring instruction produces.
Check that number separately before the description goes out. Of all the errors in a listing, it is the one that causes trouble for longest.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a property description be?
Between 180 and 260 words works best in practice. Shorter reads like a classified ad; longer rarely gets finished. For an unusual property you can go to 350 words, provided every sentence adds something.
Can I use the same description for two properties?
You can, but it works against you. Buyers compare listings side by side and spot copied text immediately. With identical terraced houses something always differs anyway: the garden aspect, the state of the kitchen, the floor.
Does a good description help my Google visibility?
On your own website, yes. That is where you compete with the portals, and a description containing the right search terms makes a difference. On the portal itself, results run mostly on filters such as price and floor area.
Should I mention defects in the description?
In the Dutch market an agent has a duty of disclosure for what they know and what matters to a buyer. Beyond that, naming a drawback with context works better than leaving it out and being caught by it at the viewing.
The structure above, done for you
MakelAI writes in this order, with your own observations in it.