What should a single property website include?

A listing site has one job: get a buyer who's interested in this home to book a tour with you. Everything on the page should help with that, in the order a buyer looks for it.

What has to be on a single property website?

1. The best photo, big, at the top. Then the rest in a gallery that works on a phone.
2. The price and the address. Right under the photo. Don't make people scroll for either.
3. The numbers buyers check first. Beds, baths, square feet, lot size, year built, parking.
4. A tour request. A short form that goes to your email, plus your phone number as a tap-to-call button.
5. A real description. A few short paragraphs on what it's like to live there, in your words.
6. The floor plan, if you have one. Serious buyers look for it.
7. The neighborhood. What's nearby and how far: parks, coffee, the train, the freeway.
8. Open house dates, when you have them.
9. You. Your photo, name, phone, email, brokerage and license number.

What order should it all go in?

Photo, price and address first. Then the key numbers and a "Book a tour" button. Then the gallery, the description, the floor plan and the neighborhood. You and the tour form close out the page. Most people will look at it on a phone, standing in front of the sign or scrolling past your post, so the first screen has to answer "what is it, where is it, how much."

How should you write the neighborhood section?

Describe the place, not the people you picture living there. The National Association of REALTORS® puts it simply in its fair housing guidance: describe the property, not the buyer. "Easy walk to the train" is fine. "Perfect for young families" or "ideal for empty nesters" can read as preferring one kind of buyer, and that's the kind of line that gets agents in trouble.

Distances, places and features keep you safe and are more useful anyway. A buyer learns more from "four blocks to the farmers market" than from "great community."

What does California require on a listing site?

If you're licensed in California, the Department of Real Estate says websites you own or control count as solicitation materials. That means your eight-digit license number and your responsible broker's name have to be on the site, and the license number can't be in smaller type than the smallest text on the page. Your broker may have more rules on top of that.

Outside California, the rules are different in each state, so check yours and your broker's.

One more thing: a public property website counts as marketing the listing under the Clear Cooperation Policy, so if your MLS follows it, launch the site on or after the day the listing goes in.

What can you leave off?

• A search bar of other listings. An IDX feed on a single property site sends buyers away from the home you're trying to sell.
• A mortgage calculator widget. Buyers use their lender's or the portal's. It slows the page and adds little.
• Your full bio. Two lines and a photo. Link to your agent site if you have one.
• Music or autoplay video. People open these in open houses, on trains and in bed.