Property descriptions that don't sound like every other listing

Search Rightmove for almost any price bracket and the same handful of phrases show up over and over: "immaculately presented," "must be viewed to be appreciated," "a wealth of period features," "early viewing is highly recommended." None of these are wrong, but all of them have been used so often that experienced buyers' eyes slide straight past them. They've become visual noise rather than information, filler that fills space without telling a buyer anything they can actually use to decide whether to book a viewing.

The test worth applying to every sentence in a listing description is simple: could this exact sentence be pasted into the listing next door without anyone noticing it doesn't fit? If a sentence from your listing could be pasted into next door's without anyone noticing, it isn't doing any work. It's generic enough to describe almost any property in the price bracket, which means it's not actually describing this one.

What replaces generic language isn't necessarily more elaborate language. It's more specific observation. Not "a wealth of period features" but "the original 1930s parquet flooring survives in both reception rooms." Not "a good-sized garden" but "a 60ft south-facing garden, mostly laid to lawn, with a paved seating area that catches the evening sun." The second version in each pair takes barely any longer to write and gives a buyer something concrete to picture and weigh against the last few properties they've looked at.

It's also worth writing for the specific buyer the property actually suits rather than every buyer in general. A two-bed flat near a well-regarded primary school reads differently to a young family than "conveniently located for local amenities" does. Naming the school, the walk time, the actual amenities, does more work than the vague catch-all phrase that's trying not to alienate anyone and ends up saying nothing to anyone.

None of this means abandoning warmth or a bit of personality in the writing. A listing that reads like a legal document isn't the goal either. It means every sentence should be pulling its weight by telling a genuinely specific buyer something genuinely specific about this property, rather than filling space with phrases so common they've stopped meaning anything.