Real Estate - Are Your Words Producing Results?
Friday, October 31st, 2008as your listing been sitting on the market for a while? Not getting a good response to your advertising? Maybe it needs a little boost. Ann Brenoff of the Los Angeles Times put together an article last year that you may find useful or at the very least serve as a reminder of ways to describe your listings.
Discoveries were made by a Canadian professor, Paul Anglin - who teaches real-estate and housing trends at the University of Guelph in Ontario, during a study of sales patterns utilizing the wording of over 20,000 Canadian home listings from 1997 to 2000.
He found that such words as “Motivated Seller” will take 15% longer to sell and will net 4% less or “Good Value” will net 5% less or speaking of “Value” or “Price” will increase the days on the market.
However, words that indicate “Curb Appeal” or that the home is “Attractive” have decreased days on the market, as well as “Handyman Special” sold in half the average time. He also found that homes described as “Beautiful” sell 15% faster and net 5% more in price than the norm. Paul also mentioned the use of “Granite”, “Maple” and “Gourmet” all netted higher sales prices. When the word “Landscaping” was used the listing sold 20% faster. “Move in Condition” resulted in 12% shorter stay on the market, but had no effect on the sale price.
The one phrase that I found to have mixed reviews was “Must See”, Paul Anglin noted that this was received about as enthusiastically as a dinner-time telemarketing call and had a statistically insignificant effect on the number of days homes took to sell. However, Jstankevicz, who is a management consultant and focuses on information technology (IT) from Cave Creek, AZ stated that “Must See” showed a positive effect. You decide!!
It does go without saying that the words you use must apply to the listing. If it’s a rundown home, then the word “beautiful” or “attractive” will get a negative response, not a sale.
The one thing you need to remember your description of the listing is their first impression next to the pictures; and it should be as good as you can make it! If you use “curb appeal” then the home/property better look good, so the potential client will agree as they drive by and get their second impression.
Warmly,
Laurie
