How to translate a listing for multilingual buyers
Translate the approved English listing copy, not a draft, into the two or three languages the buyers in that neighbourhood actually read, and put the result where those buyers are: the listing page with a language switcher, a community group post, a flyer, the message a buyer forwards to their parents. Keep the MLS remarks in the language your board requires. Describe the property in every language and never the buyer, and refresh the translations when the English changes.
In a lot of neighbourhoods the person deciding on your listing reads Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Tagalog or French before English, or is deciding with a parent who does. Most of them can read the English listing. The question is whether they will share it. A listing in a buyer’s own language is the one that gets forwarded to the family group chat, and that is the forward that brings the second viewing.
Pick the languages spoken on the street
The right languages are the ones spoken around the listing, which can be different from the ones spoken across the city. Look at the signs on the nearest commercial strip, the languages the local schools send notices in, and the buyers who came through your last three listings in the area. Two or three languages chosen that way reach more people than eight chosen from a census table. Start with the one you are most often asked for.
What to translate
- •The listing page: the description, the features list and the page’s own buttons and headings, so a buyer can read the whole page in their language and not just one paragraph of it.
- •The social caption and the community post: a caption for a language-specific group or page, written as a post and not as a translated ad.
- •The flyer or feature sheet: for a cultural centre, a place of worship, a grocery store noticeboard, or the open house table.
- •The email to a buyer’s family: when a buyer asks for something to send their parents, send the listing page link in their language and a short note.
Leave the MLS remarks in the language your board requires, and leave the legal and numeric facts as they are: the address, the lot size, the taxes, the condo fee, the possession date. Numbers do not need translating, and a translated date format is where mistakes creep in.
Translate the approved copy, once
Translate the English copy after it is final and checked, so the facts in every language are the facts you verified. A translation made from a draft carries the draft’s mistakes into a language you cannot proofread. When the English changes, a price improvement, a corrected furnace year, a new open house, every translation is out of date at the same moment, so refresh them together and keep a note of which language was last refreshed when.
If you do not read the language, have someone who does read the translation once before it goes on a flyer. Machine translation of plain property copy is good; a colleague’s two-minute read catches the one idiom that lands wrong.
The fair-housing line moves with the language
Translating a listing widens who can read it. It does not change who the home is for, and it must not read as if it does. The same rule applies in every language: describe the property and the neighbourhood, never the buyer you imagine living there. A caption for a Punjabi-language group says what the house is, in Punjabi. It does not say the house is for Punjabi families, and neither does the English one. Names of a place of worship or a community centre are facts about the neighbourhood and fine to include; who should live near them is not yours to say.
Where the translated copy gets read
- •The listing page with a language switcher at the top. A buyer picks their language and the whole page follows, which is the link you send and the link that gets forwarded.
- •Language-specific Facebook groups and WeChat, WhatsApp and Telegram communities. Post as a member would, with the listing page link.
- •A flyer at the places the community meets. Ask before you pin it.
- •The open house. A one-page sheet in the second language on the table costs nothing and gets picked up.
- •Your own bio, in the languages you speak, so a buyer knows they can call.
Frequently asked questions
Should the MLS description be in French or another language?
That is set by your board and your market. Most boards expect the remarks in English, some accept French, and the translated copy is for the listing page, social and print. Check your board’s rules on remarks before you change the MLS text.
Which languages should I start with?
The one or two you are most often asked for in that neighbourhood. In much of Ontario that means Punjabi, Simplified or Traditional Chinese, French, Spanish, Tagalog, Korean or Arabic. The neighbourhood decides.
Is machine translation good enough for a listing?
For plain property copy, usually yes. Have a speaker read it once before print, and keep the numbers and dates in the original form.
Does translating a listing raise a fair-housing problem?
Not on its own. The problem is wording that describes who should live there, in any language. Translate copy that already passes that test, and the translation passes it too.
How Listing Launchpad handles a listing in several languages
Listing Launchpad was built so the translation starts from the copy you already approved, and lands where the buyer reads it.
- •The languages: French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog, Korean and Arabic, which reads right to left.
- •The page a buyer forwards: choose the languages the listing page offers and buyers get a switcher at the top. The description, the page’s own headings and buttons and the listing chat follow the language they pick.
- •The caption for the group, the text for the flyer: every generated piece, the description, a caption, an email, has a Translate menu. The translation appears beside the original, ready to copy into a post, a WeChat message or a flyer.
- •The translation that goes stale: translations are saved with the page. When you change the English copy, the page shows that a translation is out of date, and a refreshed one takes a click.
- •The fair-housing line: each translation starts from copy that has already passed the compliance check, so the wording rules travel with it.
Each translation uses one AI copy generation from your plan’s monthly allowance, with no separate charge, and the listing page is on every plan, Free included.
Robert Cekan is a REALTOR® in Hamilton, Ontario, the publisher of Urbanicity Hamilton, and the founder of Listing Launchpad. The playbooks here come from running real listings.