Property Listing for Selling a Condo: What a Good Sales Brochure Contains

What a Listing Is For and Why It Decides the Sale

A property listing is the structured sales document for your apartment. It summarises all essential information so that a prospective buyer can judge within a few minutes whether the apartment is suitable for them. Most prospective buyers first see the online advertisement and decide, based on a few photos and key figures, whether to read on and make contact.

A professional listing thus fulfils several tasks at once: it arouses interest in the right target group, it informs completely and truthfully, and it pre-filters, so that primarily serious prospects suited to the apartment come to the viewing. At the same time, the listing is part of the pre-contractual communication. The information in it is understood by the buyer as a description of the apartment, which is why care and accuracy serve not only trust but also your own legal protection.

A thin or flawed listing, by contrast, leads to unnecessary queries, to viewings with the wrong prospects, and in the worst case to disappointed expectations on site. A first impression can only be made once.

Photos and Floor Plan: The Visual Core

Images are the first thing prospective buyers notice and the most common reason why an advertisement is opened or skipped. For a condominium, the following are recommended:

• Tidy, bright rooms, photographed in daylight and without private clutter, with a straight image frame instead of converging lines.
• All relevant rooms: living room and bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, hallway, as well as balcony, terrace, cellar or parking space, if available.
• An image of the building and the entrance area, showing the location and condition of the house.

Photos must show the actual condition. Exaggerated image editing, wide-angle shots that make rooms appear larger than they are, or retouching out defects lead to disappointment at the viewing and can raise expectations that become legally relevant.

Equally important is the floor plan (Grundriss). It gives prospective buyers a realistic sense of the layout, room arrangement and size, and answers many questions in advance. A clearly labelled floor plan with square-metre figures belongs in every good apartment listing. At Richter Immobilien-Transaktionen, high-quality photos and an appealing visualisation are part of the professional preparation of the documents within the sales mandate.

Property Data and Location Description: Factual and Complete

The core of the listing is formed by objective, verifiable property data. This includes, among other things:

• Living area in square metres and the number of rooms,
• Year of construction of the building and, where applicable, the year of major modernisations,
• Floor, lift, orientation, as well as balcony, terrace or garden,
• Condition and fittings of the bathroom, kitchen, floors, windows and heating,
• Cellar, parking space or garage, as well as the earliest possible handover date.

Describe the condition factually and honestly. Promotional wording is permitted but must not assert false facts. With the living area, accuracy is especially important, as deviations can trigger disputes and liability; state the basis on which the area was determined.

The location description supplements the property data with the surroundings: the district, infrastructure, shopping facilities, schools, kindergartens, doctors, as well as connections to public transport and roads. An honest, specific location description helps prospective buyers fit the apartment into their daily life and addresses the right target group precisely.

Mandatory Details from the Energy Certificate under GEG § 87

Anyone selling an apartment and placing a property advertisement in commercial media must state certain energy indicators, provided that an energy certificate (Energieausweis) already exists at the time of the advertisement. This obligation is governed by § 87 of the Buildings Energy Act (GEG). For a residential building, the advertisement must contain the following five details:

• the type of energy certificate, i.e. demand-based certificate or consumption-based certificate,
• the final energy demand or final energy consumption from the certificate,
• the main energy source of the heating named in the certificate, such as gas, oil or district heating,
• the year of construction of the building named in the certificate, and
• the energy efficiency class named in the certificate (A+ to H).

Irrespective of the advertisement, § 80 GEG obliges the seller to present the energy certificate or a copy to the prospective buyer no later than at the viewing. Immediately after conclusion of the purchase contract, the energy certificate or a copy must be handed over to the buyer. If no valid certificate yet exists, one must be issued before the sale.

Missing or incorrect mandatory details can be penalised as an administrative offence with a fine. The energy figures in the advertisement should therefore be taken precisely from the certificate.

HOA Aspects: Service Charge, Reserve Fund and Declaration of Division

Unlike with the sale of a house, a condominium belongs to an owners' association (WEG). For buyers, it is therefore decisive what ongoing costs and which community they are buying into. A good apartment listing contains transparent information on this:

• the monthly service charge (Hausgeld) and roughly what it is composed of, such as operating and administrative costs as well as the share for the reserve fund,
• the status of the maintenance reserve (Erhaltungsrücklage) (formerly the repair reserve), since a well-stocked reserve offers security against unexpected special levies,
• references to known or resolved major works and any special levies.

Central is the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung) with the community rules. It governs what is individual property and what is communal property, as well as the rights and obligations within the community. Buyers examine it closely, as well as the most recent minutes of the owners' meetings and the latest service-charge statements. These documents need not be included in full in the listing, but should be kept ready and disclosed during the sales process. Whoever presents these points early and correctly avoids later surprises and strengthens the trust of serious prospects.

Legal Care: No False Statements, No Wilful Deceit

A listing may advertise, but it must not deceive. All statements of fact should be accurate, and known defects must not be concealed if they are clearly important for the purchase decision. In the notarial purchase contract, an exclusion of liability for material defects is customary. This exclusion does not apply, however, if the seller has wilfully concealed a defect or has expressly warranted a particular quality.

If the seller knowingly makes false statements or conceals a material defect that is not recognisable to the buyer, a rescission of the contract on grounds of fraudulent misrepresentation under § 123 BGB may be considered; in addition, claims for damages are possible. Embellished energy figures or an incorrectly stated living area can also have such consequences.

In practical terms, this means: take data from reliable sources, mark estimates as such, and present the condition realistically. Carefully prepared, legally sound documents protect not only the buyer but above all you as the seller. This article provides general information and does not replace legal advice in an individual case.

Layout, Order and Common Mistakes

A clear structure leads the reader from the first impression to the details. A proven order for an apartment listing is:

1. Cover page with title photo, a short heading and the most important key figures,
2. Short description with the highlights of the apartment,
3. Location description and surroundings,
4. Property description with condition and fittings,
5. Property data and HOA details such as living area, year of construction, service charge and reserve fund,
6. Floor plan and photo series,
7. Mandatory details from the energy certificate as well as contact details.

Among the most common mistakes are: poor or too few photos, a missing floor plan, vague or promotionally exaggerated descriptions, incomplete property data, omitting the statutory mandatory energy details, and unrealistic expectations that the apartment does not fulfil on site. For a professional result, it is worth writing the listing to suit the target group, checking all mandatory details, and proofreading the documents before publication. Richter Immobilien-Transaktionen, based at Königsallee 61 in Düsseldorf, prepares professional, legally sound listings within the sales mandate and draws on a network grown over decades with more than 20,000 contacts in Düsseldorf and North Rhine-Westphalia.