When a person is looking online or flipping through a magazine of real estate listings, the first thing they’ll notice is the photos. If they are interested to look further into the home, the next thing they turn to is the listing description, which is why making sure a real estate agent properly lists the home is crucial in making sure your home sells as fast as possible.
A study done by Bennie Waller, a researcher and professor of real estate at Longwood University in Virginia, reported that positive opinion words can help boost a home’s sales price—using “beautiful” or “fabulous” even just once can increase the price by 0.9 percent.
Here are some tips for agents on how to write the perfect listing that will attract buyers and other real estate agents.
Don’t be redundant
Make sure the listing captures the buyer’s attention and keeps it there. Repeating the same information over and over again will lose the buyer’s interest. Make sure you say things and list features once and powerfully. Change up the length of the sentences, and make sure you use different adjectives for when you’re describing certain things. Authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics said in an article on Trulia.com that “An analysis of the language used in real estate ads shows that certain words are powerfully correlated with the final sale price of a house.”
Highlight featured amenities and upgrades
You want to make sure you list all the necessities someone would be looking for in a home. The multiple listing service (MLS) will typically not spare a lot of room to type in your description, so make sure you list stuff that will for sure not show up in the details section.
The MLS will give you room in the description to expand upon upgrades and why the home is “state-of-the-art.” This is where you will want to talk about any renovations, upgrades, additions and featured amenities that will stand out.
Levitt and Dubner mention how using words like “granite,” “energy efficient,” “maple,” “gourmet” or “move-in condition” attract more buyers than empty adjectives like “great,” “fantastic,” “wonderful” or using exclamation points in your description.
You want to mention that you have “new granite kitchen countertops” or “new solid oak wood flooring in all the bedrooms.” This enhances the photos you provided and fills the buyer’s head with positive adjectives that gives details about the home they are interested in purchasing.
Letting potential buyers know the homeowner cares enough to repair or upgrade their home means it’s most likely a well-maintained home—one they’d want to purchase.
What’s in a word?
Levitt and Dubner talked about how certain words can have certain connotations, which applies to any situation in life, but certain words have shown that they can decrease profits, make deals or break them when it comes to real estate.
Also when writing a listing, the wording needs to appeal not only to potential buyers but other real estate agents, so SEO keywords play a big part in this seeing that many people turn to the Internet to find listings now.
In MarketingArtfully.com’s article “Real Estate Marketing: 100 Great SEO Keywords for Realtors,” they broke down the top real estate marketing search terms they found by: for realtors and real estate agents; selling a home; short sales and foreclosures; seller tips; for buyers; condos, town homes and villas; MLS; buyer tips; first time home buyers; foreclosures; and a list of miscellaneous words that were searched for and related to real estate listings.
The Copy Cat Phrase Finder is a tool used by real estate agents to find and extract popular real estate words that are commonly used online. Here is a list of some words they found that someone selling a home would WANT to use in their listing:
- accessible
- canopy
- capable
- charming
- colorful
- cutting edge
- distinctive
- dynamic
- elaborate
- elegant
- extensive
- framed
- fresh
- functional
- historic
- ideal
- innovative
- inviting
- luxury
- manicured
- masterpiece
- modern elegance
- modest
- pastoral setting
- posh
- quaint
- remodeled
- spacious
- state-of-the-art
- textured
- timeless
- towering
- transformed
- treasure
- tremendous
- unique
- unmatched
- unpretentious
- unsurpassed
- upscale
- versatile
- vestibule
- vibrant
- welcoming
When it comes to listings, it is important to pick words that accentuate the home and will also be searchable online. It could be the greatest home ever but if the real estate agent doesn’t know how to market it, that gem of a home will be swept under the rug.
SOURCES:
http://www.thecopycat.com.au/real-estate-words/
http://www.trulia.com/pro/sellers/five-listing-description-deal-killers-and-makers/
http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/04/22/study-words-in-listing-ads-can-boost-sales-price
http://marketingartfully.com/2013/06/19/real-estate-marketing-100-great-seo-keywords-for-realtors/
