The Circumspect Adjective
"Charming cottage-like home with gorgeous views of the nearby majestic
mountains. Three beautiful bedrooms, one of which is a palatial master
suite with its own private bathroom and spacious walk-in closet!
Capacious living room, with crystalline detailing! Cozy kitchen with
the very latest in appliances. Stunning huge fenced yard carpeted with
emerald-green grass and featuring two imposing maple trees. Close to
all amenities! Motivated seller is eager to sell this hidden gem to the
discriminating buyer!"
Okay, maybe the above is a wee bit
exaggerated, but not by much. Anyone who has done even a cursory search
for a home can attest that the use of so-called "descriptive language"
is rife in real estate listings. Sometimes it seems that the person
writing these descriptions is under the impression that the more
adjectives, the more impressive the listings sound.
Home
seekers want to know as much as possible about the home they are
considering contacting you for more information on. In these times
where home values have plummeted and many agents are trying to convince
disbelieving homeowners that their home isn't worth anywhere near as
much as they think they're going to sell it for, flowery language can
be seen as a way of masking drawbacks and make buyers suspicious before
they even set foot in the place.
So, let's take the above ad and work some magic on it:
"Investigate
this mid-sized 3 bedroom home on a half acre lot. Master bedroom has a
walk-in closet and own bathroom. Kitchen has recently been renovated
and has an ENERGY-STAR rated fridge and stove. Open-concept living room
opens up onto the patio with new shatterproof sliding glass doors. The
fully fenced yard has two mature maple trees that shade the patio area.
3 blocks away from corner store and within 5 blocks of Realtor's
Elementary and Broker's Middle School. On bus route."
So many
more facts, combined into an easily-understood informational paragraph.
While there are few frills in this ad, it points out the features of
the home and implies many benefits (near schools, conveniences and
transportation). Defining precisely what the home has to offer instead
of hiding it under perfumed phrases makes it seem more reasonable and
attractive.
The rampant adjectives and overused superlatives in
real estate advertising have become so common that they are often
mocked as clichés. While an adjective thrown in with useful facts can
be a charming accent, home buyers are more impressed by facts that help
them decide whether the home is right for them. By paring down listings
to sentences that impart needed facts while still being readable, you
will make it more likely that home buyers will not ignore your listing
by assuming that the flowery sentences hide faults and flaws.
