In this article: how to use the popular AI program ChatGPT to write real estate property listing descriptions, with tips, examples and best practices.
Most real estate agents end up writing property listings at some point in their careers. And a lot of them struggle with it. If this describes you, you’ll be happy to know that ChatGPT can help you create well-written property listings within seconds. All you have to do is give it the right input.
Using ChatGPT to Create Property Listings
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can help you write compelling property descriptions quickly and easily. It does this by taking the details you provide and turning them into fully developed property listings, with a humanlike style and tone. This could save you a tremendous amount of time, while freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your real estate business.
Just remember that ChatGPT is not a replacement for your own expertise and knowledge. Yes, it can do some of the “heavy lifting” for you. But you’ll still need to provide specific and truthful information about the property, including features, location, and amenities. You’ll also need to carefully proofread the finished product to ensure accuracy. It’s a helpful tool — not a magic genie.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s explore how real estate agents can use ChatGPT to write property listings in a fraction of the time.
An Example Real Estate Listing
Before we get into the step-by-step instructions, I’d like to offer an example of what this application can do.
When creating this article, I experimented with different types of prompts to see what ChatGPT could deliver. (In this context, a “prompt” is a question or set of instructions provided by the user, in order to generate a response from the AI.)
For starters, I gave ChatGPT a heads-up by telling it what I was trying to accomplish. I typed in the following prompt: “I’m going to ask you to create a property listing based on some basic information I will provide. Do you understand?”
ChatGPT responded by saying: “Yes, I understand. Please provide me with the necessary information to create the listing description.”
But this is where I held back a bit. Sometimes, you have to challenge a software program or application to see what it’s capable of. So I purposefully gave ChatGPT limited information about the property, and then asked it to generate a description.
Here are the scant details I provided:
- Ranch-style home
- Location: La Jolla, California
- 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
- Big backyard with a pool
- Ocean view
- Walking distance to several restaurants and shops
And here is the property description ChatGPT produced:
By the way, I timed it. ChatGPT produced the above content in 34 seconds. How long would it take you to write a comparable description of this length? I’m guessing a bit longer than 34 seconds. Maybe an hour? Maybe the better part of an afternoon?
This simple example demonstrates the time-saving benefits provided by the ChatGPT artificial intelligence program. And you can apply those same benefits to many different types of real estate writing and marketing tasks, from blog posts to social media posts.
Here’s How to Get Started
By now, I’ve probably convinced you that this popular AI chatbot can save you a lot of time and energy when creating property listings. So, how do you get started? Here are the basic steps you’ll need to take when using ChatGPT to write property descriptions:
1. Gather all of the property details.
The first and most obvious step is to gather all of the pertinent details relating to the home you are marketing. At a minimum, you’ll want to provide the property location, the type of home, size and square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and any unique features that make this property stand out.
You’ll get even better results if you provide additional details, but consider this your starting point.
2. Choose a prompt to enter.
In chatbot lingo, the “prompt” refers to the specific instructions you give to the AI. This is your input. What you receive in return is the output. The better the input, the better the output.
When it comes to creating property listing descriptions with ChatGPT, you want to provide a specific prompt to get the best results. In addition to the basic property information like square footage and number of rooms, try to include some key selling points, such as its location, features, or amenities.
For example, you might prompt ChatGPT with something like: “Write a description of this charming two-story house located in a quiet neighborhood with a large backyard and a fireplace in the living room.” You could follow this up with some bullet points for the other property details.
Pro tip: Make sure your prompt is specific enough to generate a useful response, but open-ended enough to allow for creativity in the output. In other words, don’t micromanage the AI. It might surprise you with what it’s capable of doing. It sure surprised me.
3. Choose the appropriate tone
Believe it or not, you can actually tell ChatGPT what kind of voice or tone to use. You don’t have to do this, and it does a pretty good job on its own. But if you’re looking for a certain writing style or tone, make sure you include that within your prompt.
If you’re listing a luxury home, for example, you might want to select a more formal tone of voice and a higher level of detail. If you’re listing an apartment for rent, you might want to select a more conversational tone, along with a lower word count. You’ll have to experiment to figure out what works best for your needs.
You can even ask it to write with some occasional humor. But in my experience, it delivers humor with a “dad joke” level of corniness. You’ve been warned.
4. Generate the content.
Once you’ve entered your prompt and selected the appropriate settings, simply hit enter or click the input button. ChatGPT will then generate your content based on the information you provided. This might take a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the complexity of your prompt and other factors.
ChatGPT is an interactive AI chatbot. It actually learns from your interaction. You can ask it to “elaborate” or “expand” on a certain point. You can ask it to give you a second version of the content. You can ask it a lot of things, so feel free to experiment.
5. Edit and refine the property listing.
ChatGPT can generate well-written real estate property listings and descriptions within seconds. But it’s not perfect. It makes occasional mistakes. Sometimes it repeats itself. So it’s your responsibility, as a real estate professional, to carefully review the content it delivers.
You might also want to incorporate additional details about the property that weren’t included in the prompt. For example, you might add a few sentences about local schools, nearby parks, or public transportation options.
Think of ChatGPT as a time-saving productivity tool. It can help you turn basic property details into a fully developed listing, much faster than you could do on your own.
Best Practices for Creating Listing Descriptions
As you’ve just seen, ChatGPT can help real estate agents write engaging and informative property listings. But you’ll get even better results if you follow a few best practices. Here are three things to keep in mind, when using this AI tool to create listings.
Keep your prompts specific.
When giving prompts to ChatGPT, try to be as specific as possible. This will help the AI understand what you’re looking for and generate more accurate and relevant content. Instead of simply asking for a “property description,” you could provide more specific details as in the following examples.
- “Write a 100-word description of a 2-bedroom apartment in downtown Los Angeles with a balcony and city views.”
- “Write a summary of a 3-story beach house in Miami with 5 bedrooms and a private pool with hot tub.”
- “Write a description of a 1-acre rural property in upstate New York with a 3-bedroom farmhouse and a pond.”
Incorporate local details.
You can make your ChatGPT-generated property listings more compelling by incorporating local details and attractions.
If you’re listing a property in a popular vacation destination, you could mention nearby beaches, hiking trails, or other attractions. If you’re listing a property in an up-and-coming neighborhood, you might highlight new restaurants, bars, or cultural events in the area.
By having ChatGPT include such details within your property listings, you’ll make them more appealing to potential buyers or renters.
Experiment with different prompts and settings.
To get the most out of ChatGPT, you can also experiment with different prompts and settings. For example, you could ask it to use different tones of voice when creating content. You might ask it to be friendly, professional, informative or casual.
You can also experiment with the level of detail provided within the listing, by telling ChatGPT to be more general or specific. Lastly, you can adjust your word count as needed to create short and punchy descriptions, or longer and more descriptive ones.
Experimenting with the AI technology can actually be a lot of fun. But more importantly, it will help you generate the kind of content you need for each individual task.
Three Big Benefits of Using Artificial Intelligence
You can probably already see some of the benefits this program offers, when it comes to writing and marketing-related tasks. Here are the top three benefits I’ve discovered, based on two months of experimentation:
A time saver. This is arguably the biggest benefit of using ChatGPT to write real estate listings. As you saw in the example above, this application can create well-written property listings and descriptions in a matter of seconds. Even if you provided a dozen details, the artificial intelligence chatbot could write a fully developed listing in under a minute. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get anywhere near that level of productivity.
A different perspective. One of the surprising things I discovered when using ChatGPT to write property listings is that it can come up with ideas and angles I hadn’t considered. It can take the details I provide and describe them in a way that truly highlights their benefits. It has access to a lot more information than you do, so it might be able to highlight properties in a way you never imagined.
A better end-product. Let’s face it, there are some poorly written property listings online. (And that’s putting it kindly.) This usually stems from a lack of resources, time or talent. Many real estate professionals are simply too busy to spend an hour or two crafting eloquent property listing descriptions. ChatGPT can help you create quality content, even if you don’t have the capacity to do it yourself.