Once the photography and seller documentation of features and details is completed the final site writing and assembly can begin. A review of all values/features/benefits of the home will reveal a list of things to write commentary for. A rough list order using a walk through sequence is started with when beginning, but things flow through the head in random fashion and are written and then can be re-ordered later.
Coming up soon will be a page showing what this part of the project looks like as we will take you through the process while creating a WordsEyeTour for our house shown elsewhere on the site.
You must write your web page in a realistically conversational tone. Talk to your reader as though they were sitting right there with you. This is vital and central to your presentation. This will likely not be easy to begin with so don't beat yourself up about it. Anything else but conversational pushes the buyer's imagination away, so practice for awhile. If you are beginning this at some point while you are living there with no plans to move you will be in a more relaxed mode to work on getting your voice.
Sales pitch, superlative laden listing description text will not cut it. It is a turn-off or laugh-off when it is beyond believable, and the buyer will turn the "quick-hook" on you. Only when it is fully believable will someone care to come back to read it again. That re-read goes a long way to making things memorable.
Words like stunning, soaring, swooping, extraordinary, breathtaking, mind boggling, gorgeous, awesome... should not be written verbatim, but used only as conceptual objectives. Describe these ideas with softer language that conveys those things without resorting to their actual use when talking to your buyer. What you want is for the buyer's imagination to enter the home and never leave. Words well written on your page will have a strong impact all on their own. Manipulative superlatives will simply defeat that and turn the buyer away.
We've noted that Realtors® really gravitate to the word "stunned." One brokerage nearby uses it in every listing they put up. C'mon, man...Don't fool yourself!
Trust that your reader may be truly "stunned" when you provide the words that convey that value to them, but... Give them the chance to feel stunned without you telling them they are. Use three sentences to get there. Remember that the reader will not read this only once, but many times if they've found they can trust the information and identify with your property.
A soft, conversational presentation without the superlatives keeps them engaged, and they will keep the site open for long periods while they try the place on to see if it fits well. They come back and read a bit at a time and daydream about it in between. Seduce your buyer without smacking them over the head with empty words and esoteric concepts holding no value for them.
This may be difficult for you if you have lived in the house for awhile and have established your own relationship with your surroundings. You may have an esoteric relationship with your home. Don't fall down the rabbit hole talking to yourself. You are not the buyer, and you can trust that your buyer very likely will NOT see things as you do and may be put off by you assuming they will. Stick to real values and features and keep it light and conversational.
Don't repeat things that are written about elsewhere on your page. This will begin to sound like a sales pitch after the reader goes through your page a couple of times... And nobody wants to read and re-read a sales pitch.
If you are a reader of fiction you may have a leg up on this conversational thing because you have writing role models to use as learning sources.
Like a book where the reader assumes the character's vibe, feels their emotions, and internally voices their dialog, you'll want to give your house a voice that does this as well. You want them to trust the story you write, so avoid superlatives and repetition causing your buyer to question the information on the very first read. Allow them to trust and contemplate it, and they will provide their own repetition because you have romanced them with the story, and can imagine their new life inside of it. This is the very soul of a WordsEyeTour presentation. You will want to take this to heart while you write.
A seller wants that daydream to continue because the daydream is about their house for sale and not somebody else's.
Once a buyer finds "their" home, they want to be there. If it is conveniently on their way home from work, they will drive by to see it often. They get to see one live showing, but with the site they can be there often. If they live very far away, well, it is all they have and when they are comfortable there, they'll stay. The real estate listing cannot behave this way. There's not enough substance there to facilitate the daydream.
The photos and wandering text give something for the eye to move around within. Although there is a beginning and end, there is no need to be in any one place when the immagination is working inside a daydream.
One could make a much sexier web page, but that would be distracting. It's not about a sexy web page, it's about a house and its values. The web page is only a place on the Internet where the house can talk about itself. Just words and photos in a wandering magazine format that everyone has seen all their lives. Easy to read and understand and nothing to push away a reader looking to fall in love with their next home. Memorable because of the potential home being described, where ALL of the focus must remain.
This next line is NOT a trivial request...
Before you write, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the US Department of Housing and Development's page on "Advertising and Marketing." Knowing what NOT to write can keep you out of trouble. As a for-instance, you can't make a statement like "a great home for families!" This would be considered discriminatory as it speaks to one group and can be seen to exclude others. "Great for guests" or "visitors" would be OK. Stay away from anything about quality of schools, low crime, churches, and leave that to Realtors® to provide sources for statistics research on their sites for buyers. Giving access to statistics search sites is OK, but talking directly about a statistic is considered "steering."
Don't forget, Marketing is Making Things MEMORABLE
Not just visible, but MEMORABLE