The listing quality score, decoded: 96 points, four categories, no guesswork

If you list under the Developer estate type — a parent listing with multiple child units, the way most housing developments get published — you get a quality score capped at 96 points instead of the 100 a single-property listing sees. That's not a bug or a lower standard. It reflects that a development doesn't have one price or one floor plan; it has ranges and a roster of units, so the scoring swaps a couple of single-listing checks for development-specific ones. Everything else works the same: four categories, each built from fields you either have or don't, adding up to a number with no hidden weighting.

This is the largest category, split into three tiers. Critical fields are worth 15 points total: having at least one child unit under the estate (5 points), a price range across those units (5 points), and an area range (5 points). Important fields add up to 12: your child unit count scored on a curve (1 point for having any, up to 4 points at 20+ units), year built (2), total floors (2), at least one feature or amenity (2), district (2), and street (2). Premium fields cap at 8: feature count scored again on a finer curve (1 to 4 points), plus 1 point each for district, street, and zip code, with a bonus point if you've filled all three.

Title and description, scored independently and added together. Title length moves you from 2 points (any title at all) up to 8 points at 51+ characters, but writing in ALL CAPS or triggering the spam filter subtracts 3 points regardless of length — those are penalties on top of the tier, not a separate scale. Description follows the same shape: 2 points at 100 characters, up to 12 points past 500, with a richness bonus of 2 or 3 points added on top once you clear 300 or 500 characters.

Photos alone are worth up to 18 points, on a six-step curve: 3 points for your first photo, 6 at two, 9 at three, 12 at five, 15 at eight, and the full 18 once you're at twelve or more. A virtual tour adds 3, a floor plan adds 2, a walkthrough video adds 2. This is the one category that behaves identically for single listings and developer estates — the code path is the same function either way.

This is where estates diverge from single listings. You still get 3 points for a verified email and 3 for a phone number on file, plus up to 4 points for location precision (exact address scores 4, an approximate blurred pin scores 3, a hidden pin still scores 2). What single listings replace with a price-consistency check against the local market average, estate listings replace with an active children ratio: the share of your child units that are currently active rather than sold or paused. Clear 80% active and you get 3 points; 50% gets you 2; 30% gets you 1. Below that, nothing. It's a fair swap — a development doesn't have one market price to check against, but it very much has a state of "is this actually a live, maintained project," and that's what this measures instead.

Every unmet criterion above generates a specific tip string, not a vague nudge: "Add price information for child properties," "Activate more child properties to improve visibility," "Set exact location for better discoverability." If you're staring at a 61/96 score, open the tips list before you touch anything else. It's a direct map of exactly which checkbox you're missing, in the same language used to compute the number.

Because the trust category here is entirely behavioral (verification, contact info, location, activity), nothing in an estate's score checks whether your pricing is realistic for the area the way a single listing's does. That's a deliberate gap, not an oversight — there's no single "market price" for a whole development to compare against — but it means a 96-point estate listing can still be priced badly and score perfectly. The quality score tells you the listing is complete and trustworthy. It doesn't tell you the price is right.

Open your estate's Quality tab and start with whichever 5-point completeness item is missing before you touch photos. The cheapest points are always the ones you haven't claimed yet.