Words that work in your listing description

There was an article in yesterday’s Vancouver Sun about which words in a listing description help and which hurt. It was an interesting article about the use of specific words and how they can impact the sale of a home. You can read the full article here (c/o LA Times via the Houston Chronicle – not the Vancouver Sun).

I have spoken about agents providing value and not just data…. this is a great example of the value of a real estate agent. Anyone can write a description of a house. But a real estate agent should provide value in writing a description of a house that is using stats and facts like the ones in this article so that the home sells faster and for its full value.

Those that help
•Handyman special
•Curb appeal
•Move-in condition
•Landscaping
•Granite
•Gourmet
•Golf

Those that hurt
•Motivated seller
•Good value
•As-is
•Clean
•Quiet
•New paint

On a side note and I think a good example of having information available on the internet for all to see. I was trying to find this article on VancouverSun.com but for some reason it is not there. (I’m not sure why, maybe they only have the rights to use it in the newspaper and not on the internet.) Either way, it took me less than 2 seconds to Google the authors name and find the exact same article but on the LA Times website. So I linked this blog post there.

Why does this matter to you? Well, I run into agents all the time that want to limit the information they put on the internet thinking it will bring them a “lead” when that person has to call or email to get the details they want. I suggest to you that you are actually losing that lead by doing this. A simple Google search for the address, building name, mls#, etc will most likely provide the information that the searcher is looking for – and it won’t be your website they end up on!