A plain-language guide to titles, descriptions and details that make local buyers message you instead of scrolling past.
Most resale listings fail in the first two seconds. A buyer scrolling Facebook Marketplace or a local group sees a blurry photo, a title that says “Stuff for sale,” and a price with no context. They keep scrolling. The item was fine. The listing was the problem.
We write a lot of listings for things that come out of storage units, and the lesson we keep relearning is simple: buyers are not looking for a deal first. They are looking for a reason to trust you. A good listing gives them that reason quickly.
Start with the title a buyer would type
Think about what someone actually searches for. Nobody types “nice chair.” They type “office chair mesh” or “Herman Miller” or “ergonomic desk chair Woodland.” Your title should include, in roughly this order:
- Brand, if there is one worth mentioning
- What the item is, in the plainest words possible
- One key detail, like size, model or color
- Condition shorthand, such as “new in box” or “for parts”
“Singer sewing machine with cabinet, 1970s, untested” does more work than “Vintage sewing machine!!!” It tells the buyer what it is, roughly how old, and what they are getting into.
Lead the description with what matters most
Most people read the first two lines and then decide whether to keep going. Put the facts that change the decision up top: condition, whether it works, whether anything is missing, and pickup location. Save the nice-to-know details for later.
A simple structure that works for almost anything:
- One sentence saying what it is and its overall condition.
- What is included and what is not.
- Known flaws, stated plainly.
- Measurements or specs.
- Pickup area and how to arrange it.
Say the flaws out loud
This is the part sellers skip, and it is the part that builds trust fastest. A scratch you mention is a detail. A scratch the buyer finds at pickup is a broken promise. If you did not test an electronic item, say “untested” rather than “should work.” Buyers can tell the difference, and the honest version usually sells just as well because it filters out people who would have backed out anyway.
The listing that admits a cracked corner gets fewer messages, but almost every one of them turns into a sale.
Use measurements, not adjectives
“Large” means nothing on a phone screen. “32 inches wide, 18 deep, fits in a hatchback with the seats down” answers three questions before anyone asks them. For furniture especially, measurements save you a dozen back-and-forth messages.
Write like a neighbor, not a catalog
Local buyers respond to a human voice. One short sentence about where the item came from or why you are selling it makes the listing feel real: “Came out of a storage unit in Woodland, still sealed, we have not opened it.” You do not need a story. You need to sound like a person who will actually show up at pickup.
Know who you are writing for
Before you write a word, picture the person most likely to buy the item. A parent setting up a first apartment for a college student in Davis wants different details than a contractor looking for a second set of tools. The parent cares about whether the dresser fits up a narrow staircase and whether the drawers slide smoothly. The contractor cares about the model, the battery platform and whether the chuck wobbles.
You do not need a full customer profile. One sentence in your head is enough: “This is for someone who needs a working desk this week and does not want to assemble one.” That sentence tells you which facts belong in the first two lines and which can wait until the end.
The same item can even be listed twice for two different buyers. A vintage sewing machine can be described for a collector, with its age, model and original cabinet, or for a beginner who just wants to hem curtains, with whether it runs, whether the bobbin case is present and whether it comes with a foot pedal. Pick the buyer most likely to pay your price and write for them.
The details buyers ask about most
After enough listings, you notice that the same questions come in again and again. Answering them in advance is the single fastest way to shorten the path from first message to pickup. These are the ones we see most:
- “Does it work?” Say tested, untested, or for parts, every time.
- “Where is it?” Give a general area, such as “north Woodland” or “near downtown Davis,” never a full address in the listing.
- “Will it fit in my car?” Measurements, weight if it is heavy, and whether it comes apart.
- “Is the price firm?” Say firm, OBO, or open to offers.
- “What comes with it?” List accessories, cables, remotes, manuals and hardware.
- “Any pets or smoke?” For upholstered furniture and fabric items, this matters to a lot of buyers.
- “Can you deliver?” If you cannot, say pickup only.
If your listing answers all seven, the first message you get is far more likely to be “When can I come?” than “Is this available?”
Length: how long is too long?
There is a myth that buyers never read long descriptions. The truth is that buyers skim, and they read the parts that matter to them. A long description that is well organized is easy to skim. A long description that is one giant paragraph is not.
For a $10 kitchen gadget, three lines is plenty. For a $300 piece of furniture or anything electronic, a fuller description with short sections is worth the effort, because the buyer is taking a bigger risk and wants more reassurance. A good rule of thumb is that the description should grow with the price and with the number of things that could go wrong.
Use line breaks generously. Short lines and simple labels like “Included,” “Flaws” and “Pickup” help people find what they need on a small screen.
Words that quietly cost you sales
Some phrases show up in thousands of listings and almost always hurt more than they help:
- “Like new” when it is not. Buyers have learned to distrust it, so use it only when it is true and show photos that prove it.
- “Priced to sell” says nothing about the item.
- “No lowballers” in capital letters reads as hostile and scares off reasonable buyers too.
- “Serious inquiries only” rarely filters anyone and makes you sound difficult.
- “Retails for $500” unless you have verified the current retail price. Buyers will check, and an inflated number damages trust.
- “Don’t ask if it’s available, if it’s posted it’s available” may be true, but it adds friction at exactly the wrong moment.
Replace each of these with a fact. Instead of “priced to sell,” say “priced below recent sold listings for the same model.” Instead of “no lowballers,” simply write “$60 firm.”
Keep a reusable listing template
Once you have written a few good listings, turn the structure into a template you can copy every time. Ours looks roughly like this:
- Title: brand, item, key detail, condition
- Opening line: what it is and its overall condition
- Tested status
- Included and missing
- Cosmetic flaws, with photo numbers
- Functional notes
- Measurements and weight
- Pickup area, timing and payment
- Price and pricing approach
A template keeps you from forgetting important details on a busy day, and it gives your listings a consistent look. Buyers who see several of your posts start to recognize the format, and recognition turns into trust.
Update the listing as you learn
A listing is not finished when you post it. If three people ask the same question, the answer belongs in the description. If someone points out a detail you missed, add it. If a buyer cancels because the color looked different in person, reshoot the photos. Each update makes the next conversation shorter, and keeps your reputation intact in a local market where people talk.
A before-and-after example
Here is a real-world style listing the way many people write it:
TV for sale. Works good. $100. Pickup only.
And here is the same item written with the structure above:
Samsung 43" 4K smart TV, model UN43TU7000, tested and working. Includes remote and stand legs; no original box. Small scuff on the lower right bezel (photo 4), screen is clean with no dead pixels. Pickup in Woodland, weekday evenings or Saturday morning. $100 firm.
The second version is longer, but it answers every question a serious buyer would ask: what model, does it work, what is included, what is wrong with it, where and when. The first version guarantees five messages before anyone commits. The second often gets a single message that says, “Can I come Saturday?”
A final check before you post
- Would a stranger know exactly what this is from the title alone?
- Is every flaw in the description also in a photo?
- Did you say whether you tested it?
- Are measurements included for anything large?
- Is the pickup area clear, without giving out your home address?
Where most people get stuck
The hard part is not knowing what a good listing looks like. It is writing twenty of them in a row on a Sunday afternoon without every description starting to sound the same. That is where a lot of sellers have started using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to draft listings, then editing the draft into their own words.
The catch is that a vague request gets a vague result. Type “write a listing for a sewing machine” and you get three paragraphs of breathless filler about “timeless craftsmanship.” What works is giving the tool the same structure above: the facts, the flaws, the measurements, the tone you want, and the platform it is going on. Then you get a draft you can actually post after a quick check.
Whatever tool you use, the rule stays the same: you are responsible for every word. Read it, fix anything that is not true, and only then post it.
Got a storage find you want to sell, or something specific you are hunting for? Tell us what you have or join the local Facebook group.