How to Write a Listing Description for a Property With Unusual Features

Every agent eventually takes a listing that makes them pause at the keyboard. Maybe it's a converted church with no traditional bedroom count. Maybe it's a house with a 1,200-square-foot workshop that dwarfs the living space. Maybe the primary suite is on the ground floor, the kitchen faces north, or the lot is shaped like a right triangle. The instinct is to bury these details or write around them, hoping buyers won't notice until they walk in.

That instinct is wrong, and it costs you showings. Buyers who discover a deal-breaking feature at the showing are annoyed. Buyers who already know about the feature and came anyway are motivated. The difference between those two scenarios is how you write the description. Your job is not to hide what makes a property unusual. Your job is to find the buyer for whom that feature is not a problem, and in some cases is exactly what they want.

Start by Categorizing the Feature Accurately

Before you write a single word, decide what kind of unusual feature you're actually dealing with. There are three categories, and they require different approaches.

The first category is features that look unusual but are actually practical advantages. A primary bedroom on the ground floor sounds odd until you frame it as accessibility, convenience, or separation from upstairs guest rooms. A detached garage at the back of a deep lot sounds inconvenient until you note it creates a private parking court and a buffer from street noise. These features need reframing, not apology.

The second category is features that will genuinely narrow your buyer pool. A dome home, an A-frame with no usable attic, a property zoned residential but configured for light commercial use. These require honest, direct description aimed at the specific buyer who wants exactly that. Trying to broaden the appeal here usually just confuses everyone.

The third category is features that require buyers to do something, usually spend money or change their plans. An unfinished basement, an outbuilding that needs a new roof, a layout where the only bathroom is on the second floor and there's no easy way to add one below. Write these clearly, including context that helps buyers assess the scope. Vagueness here creates angry buyers and failed transactions.

Lead With the Property's Clearest Strength

A listing description for an unusual property should almost never open with the unusual feature. Open with the strongest conventional selling point, whether that's location, lot size, price per square foot, or a recently renovated kitchen. Establish context first so the reader has reason to keep going.

If you open with "Former church converted to residential use," you've already lost half your audience before they read anything else. If you open with "Corner lot on a quiet residential block, less than four blocks from downtown, with 3,400 square feet of living space and 18-foot ceilings throughout," your reader is already forming a picture. Then when you explain the architectural history and the stained-glass windows that come with it, they're evaluating those details as part of a package they're already considering.

This approach is not manipulation. The buyer still gets every material fact. You're just sequencing information in a way that keeps the right buyers reading long enough to get to the features that might make this property exactly right for them.

Write the Unusual Feature in Specific, Functional Language

The most common mistake agents make when describing unusual features is getting vague or overly enthusiastic. Both approaches backfire. Vague language reads as evasion. Over-the-top enthusiasm reads as compensation.

Write the feature the same way you'd write any other feature: with specifics. Instead of "one-of-a-kind detached studio space," write "detached 800-square-foot studio with 10-foot ceilings, a dedicated 200-amp electrical panel, and a utility sink, currently configured as a woodworking shop." That sentence tells a contractor, a hobbyist, a small business owner, and an artist all exactly what they're looking at. Each of those buyers can make a real decision.

If the feature has been used in a specific way, say so, then note the obvious alternatives. "Currently operating as a two-unit rental with separate entrances and utility meters. The configuration also works for multigenerational households or a live-work setup where one unit serves as office or studio space." This gives buyers permission to see the property through their own lens without you having to guess which lens they're using.

Avoid phrases like "has great potential" or "the possibilities are endless." Both signal that you couldn't figure out what to say. Buyers don't want possibility. They want information they can act on.

Handle Objections Before Buyers Raise Them

When a property has a feature that commonly triggers buyer hesitation, address it directly in the description. Doing so builds credibility and filters for committed buyers.

If the property is on a busy road, don't ignore it. Say something like "Facing a main arterial, with a 40-foot setback and mature arborvitae screening along the front property line. Interior noise levels are consistent with a quiet residential setting based on seller disclosure." You've named the concern, provided context, and let buyers draw their own conclusions with full information.

If the floor plan is genuinely unusual, a split-level with four different floor elevations or a layout where you walk through the primary bedroom to reach a secondary bedroom, draw a verbal map. "The layout runs from the kitchen and dining area on the entry level, down four steps to the main living room, and up a separate staircase to three bedrooms." Buyers who read that and still want a showing are ready for what they'll find. Buyers who get there and discover it on their own often walk out annoyed, regardless of how much they might have liked it with the right expectations.

Acknowledging the objection is not the same as underselling the property. It's the same principle a good inspector uses: name the finding, give context, let the client decide.

Match the Description Length to the Feature's Complexity

MLS character limits vary by board, but most give you somewhere between 500 and 1,000 characters for a public remarks field. For properties with unusual features, use that space deliberately.

If the unusual element is minor, one unusual feature among otherwise conventional attributes, give it one sentence and move on. If the unusual element is the central fact of the property, a converted commercial space, a geodesic dome, a working farm with residential components, give it proportional space. Buyers who are filtering by conventional criteria will move on regardless. Your description should serve the buyers who stop and read.

For complex properties, consider where your MLS description fits within a larger marketing package. The MLS remarks field is the hook. Your listing page, property website, or fact sheet can carry the full picture. Use the MLS to get the right buyer to request more information or schedule a showing, then use the supplemental materials to answer every question in depth.

When you're building that supplemental copy, think about the specific buyer who wants this property and what they need to know to say yes. A buyer shopping for a live-work space needs to know about zoning, utility setup, and access. A buyer looking for a multigenerational property needs to know about bedroom placement, bathroom count per unit, and privacy between spaces. Write for that buyer specifically, and the copy will be more useful and more persuasive than anything written for a general audience.

Test the Description Against the Likely Buyer Profile

Before you publish, read the description as if you were the buyer who would actually buy this property. Not the median buyer, not every buyer. The specific type of person whose situation makes this property a good fit.

Ask whether someone in that situation would have the information they need to decide if this property is worth seeing. Ask whether anything in the description would feel misleading once they walked through the door. Ask whether the unusual feature is explained clearly enough that they'd arrive prepared rather than surprised.

If you can answer yes to all three, the description is ready. If the feature still feels glossed over, it probably is. Go back and add the specific detail that removes ambiguity. A showing from a buyer who arrives fully informed and still wants to be there is worth far more than three showings from buyers who leave frustrated.

Tools like Montaic can help you draft multiple versions of a listing description quickly, especially for complex properties where the framing matters. You can generate a version that leads with the lot, one that leads with the square footage, one that leads with the zoning flexibility, and compare which one best serves the buyer you're trying to reach. That kind of rapid iteration used to take hours. Montaic's free tier at montaic.com/free-listing-generator gives you a starting point for any listing, including the ones that don't fit a standard template.