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Would your listing description pass these 12 checks?

A free checklist for agents. Tick each one your draft passes: hook, facts, Fair Housing and craft. It takes about two minutes.

Paste your draft next to this page and go down the list. Each item is a pass or fail. Twelve passes means it's ready to publish.

• Hook: The first sentence shows a moment the buyer can picture, not a list of rooms.
• Hook: The opening line makes sense even if it's the only line a buyer sees in the search results.
• Facts: Beds, baths and square footage match the MLS sheet exactly.
• Facts: Every update has a year or a specific material (“2021 quartz counters,” not “updated kitchen”).
• Facts: Every claim can be traced to the MLS sheet, a photo or a document. Anything you can't source is gone.
• Facts: Distances are specific (“0.4 mi to the park”) instead of “close to everything.”
• Fair Housing: No sentence describes who the home is for (families, couples, retirees, singles).
• Fair Housing: No sentence describes the neighbors or the people in the area.
• Fair Housing: No words like “exclusive,” “safe” or “perfect for an active buyer” that could read as a preference or assume physical ability.
• Craft: Filler words are cut: spacious, charming, move-in ready, won't last long.
• Craft: It fits your MLS's character limit without losing a fact buyers search for.
• Craft: It ends with a next step: a showing, an open house date or a call.

What your score means

• 12/12: Publish it.
• 9–11: Close. Fix the misses, especially any Fair Housing or fact item. Those aren't optional.
• Under 9: Start from the hook. Our step-by-step guide walks through a rewrite.

More free guides: Fair Housing words to avoid · How to write a listing description that sells