In today’s market, visual marketing is truly the most important and effective way to market you listings. But, that doesn’t mean you can put the same old phrases in your marketing remarks. Thanks to keyword searchs, SEO, and smarter “google-ing” words are more important than ever! Some can really boost your listing – some can really hurt it! Check it out!
Words that could add value to your listings:
Statistics reviewed in a new report book from Zillow (The New Rules of Real Estate) show that spot-on and specific marketing remarks can add a couple grand to the final sale price of your listing! See the excerpt below!
“Bottom-tier homes described as luxurious tend to beat their expected sale price by a whopping 8.2 percent,” write co-authors Spencer Rascoff and Stan Humphries (of “Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate”). “Top-tier homes described as captivating tend to beat theirs by 6.5 percent. That means, if your home’s estimated home value is $110,000, but your listing includes the key word ‘luxurious,’ you could pocket an extra $8,965.”
Words like “landscaped”, “upgraded”, and “stainless” add supreme over-all value no matter the price tier your listings is in! But remember, you have to deliver on what your promise. If your listing isn’t upgraded, stainless (or have stainless appliances), or landscaped – you’re more likely to completely turn-off potential buyers.
Words that can be detrimental to your listing:
Some words are great – but some can cost you!
“If you’re not careful, picking the wrong adjective could cost you time, money, and in some cases, lots of both,” Rascoff & Humphries explain.
The image to the left shows words that caused mid-tier and top-tier homes to sell for less than expected. The 9 Top perpetrators are as follows:
FIXER – TLC – COSMETIC – INVESTMENT – INVESTOR – POTENTIAL – BARGAIN – OPPORTUNITY – NICE
These words all seem pretty typical for marketing remarks, yeah? It’s that over-use that has caused these words to now negatively impact listings. Buyers have come to associate these common words with negative connotations. ( AND you should never use the word investor as an adjective or potential candidate – that violates EHO agreements. ) “Nice” can have so many meanings, and is usually just a filler word that conveys no real meaning. If it’s a gorgeous view or a sturdy deck – those are much more qualifying than “nice”.
Sometimes just using an uncommon adjective can boost your listing better than others! Consider writing out your marketing remarks and then “upgrading” them with some synonyms from a thesaurus. Potential buyers will enjoy words like “captivating, inviting, chic, or durable” more than “improved, nice, big, etc.”