How to present a property without revealing where it is

The answer, straight away

A confidential sheet says enough for a colleague to know whether they have the right buyer, and not enough to identify the property. It is the document that works on your behalf, because it is the only one another professional can forward to a client without asking your permission each time.

If it does not exist, every introduction needs a phone call, and phone calls do not scale.

What goes in

The municipality or approximate area. Not the address, not the street, and not the name of the locality if that alone would be enough locally.

The type and the approximate size. Detached villa, around four hundred metres, garden, view.

The price band, not the exact figure. Between three and four million says what is needed without fixing the number.

Two or three qualifying features. Pool, sea access, parking, condition.

What is required to see more. Buyer qualification and a confidentiality agreement, said upfront, so nobody wastes time.

What stays out

Recognisable photographs. Even one, if it frames a view everybody in the area knows.

The floor plan, which almost always identifies.

The owner's name, obviously, and also the details that make it deducible: their profession, the reason for selling, how long they lived there.

The street number, even partially, and land registry references.

How to choose the photograph

If you want one, use a detail: a section of stone floor, a corner of a loggia, the texture of a wall.

It should communicate the level, not the location.

The most common mistake

Writing a sheet so vague that nobody understands what it is. A villa in Liguria between three and four million lets no colleague recognise their own buyer.

You need precision on the features and vagueness on the position, which is exactly the opposite of how a listing is written.

How to tell it is working

Circulate it to twenty professionals. If no questions come back, it is too vague.

If somebody comes back naming the property, it is too precise. And at that point it is already too late, because the people who did not tell you also know.