We’ve all searched around the countless listings of real estate properties and homes for sale, but have you ever wondered how much an impact their descriptions make on the price? Real estate economist, Professor Paul Anglin, and the University of Windsor examined nearly 20,000 listings and their sales data to determine if there were any interesting variables when it comes to buying and selling a home. What they uncovered was the value of the word “beautiful.”
The Value of Words
What Paul and his colleagues did was a comparison between describing your house as “beautiful” vs “move-in ready.” The difference was astounding — $12,500 to be exact (for a $250,000 home). They concluded that real estate listings sold 5% higher while “move-in ready” had little to no effect on the price. But it doesn’t stop there. Homes described as beautiful or gorgeous sold almost 15% faster. “Landscaping” hastened a sale by 20% while “move-in ready” only sped up the home’s sale by 12%. Other words like “must see” and “vacant” had no effect on the time before a sale.
If you’ve been doubting the power of words, think again. They can make or break a real estate listing. In fact, words like “must sell” and “motivated” actually slowed the sale by 30% while “ranch” slowed it by 10%.
What Some Word Descriptions Really Mean
As we’ve looked around homes online and sometimes gone to open houses, we’ve quickly realized that the descriptions didn’t exactly fit reality. So, here’s some tricks to real estate descriptions and their real meaning:
- Lots of Potential = Fixer-Upper Home
- Cozy = Small
- Charming = Old
- Low Maintenance Yard = The backyard has been paved over or the soil is so rocky that nothing grows there.
Finding La Jolla Real Estate
Next time you’re looking at a real estate listing, pay close attention to its description. You’ll want to know exactly what you’re looking at before spending your valuable time to visit the property (which is why pictures and video tours are perfect). Search our current home listings below and see what you uncover!
