It’s small wonder that with this spring’s selling season underway, the northwest’s house hunters can afford to be a discriminating bunch—they have the luxury of picking and choosing from a crop of truly inviting offerings. And it doesn’t hurt that today’s low mortgage interest rates have enabled more properties to fit within more family budgets.

For those of us who get to translate those home offerings into words for the local listings, the job is to find phrases that draw attention to each given property’s uniquely attractive features.

But there’s another dimension that complicates things. English is a rich and powerful language, but when it comes to marketing lingo, it’s also true that these days everyone is being deluged 24/7 by vivid advertising claims. We’ve all developed callouses when it comes to the ballyhooing we get from every quarter.

Today’s house hunters have developed sales resistance. Times 10!

So what’s the answer for cooking up language that helps a property jump out from among the others? One way is to find out your city’s Top 10 listing phrases—and avoid overusing them! Same ‘ol, same ‘ol isn’t what works when the object is to attract potential buyers. True, some truly accurate descriptors can’t be totally avoided—but emphasizing them isn’t likely to fire many house hunters’ imaginations, either.

Here are a group of most frequently appearing Top 10 listing words and phrases—with some alternatives more likely to spark more attention from house hunters:

  1. Beautiful (‘gorgeous’ ‘spectacular’ or ‘captivating’ bring more energy)
  2. Hardwood floors (what kind of wood—and what hue?)
  3. Stainless steel (at the very least, add ‘gleaming’ or ‘lustrous’)
  4. Updated (‘renovated’ ‘remodeled’ ‘renewed’…or maybe even ‘reimagined’)
  5. Private (this one is actually okay as-is…it may be a cliché, but it’s a desirable one!)
  6. Spacious (puh-lese! How about ‘cavernous’ ‘commodious’ or ‘enormous’?)
  7. Landscaped (another okay one, but in need of a boost—like ‘lusciously’ ‘stunningly’ or ‘exquisitely’)
  8. Custom (‘tailor made’ ‘individualized’ ‘unique’ ‘personalized’ or ‘specially crafted’)
  9. Clean (this is close to Top 10 listing phrase malpractice: if it’s clean, it’s surely also ‘spotless’ ‘flawless’ or ‘immaculate’)
  10. Brand new (could be ‘state of the art’ ‘untouched’ ‘mint’ or ‘just completed’)

Even after a bit of polishing, those Top 10 listing phrases and words need to have a credibility boost via listing photography that illustrates what’s being promised. Putting the whole package together is just one part of the service you can count on when you give us a call!   

Craig Reger Group

503.893.2022

We sell more because we do more.