My lovely wife is not the jealous type, but she does have a unique way of describing my former girlfriends in ways that don't reflect the girls I knew. One in particular girlfriend seems to get the brunt of her humor.
I made the mistake of telling her that this particular young lady stuck a straw up her nose when she was two or three, and her pediatrician had to go nostril diving to retrieve it. It appears that she was out with her mom shopping when they stopped by a dime store snack bar for a little lunch. During lunch, while mom wasn't looking, she slid her small paper straw up her nose until it disappeared.
I guess the fear of telling her mom that her straw was up her nose was greater than the uncomfortable feeling of having a paper straw somewhere between her eyes and her frontal lobe, so she stayed quiet. After a little while, her nose began to run and when a day of two passed with no noticeable relief, her mom took her to the doctor. Imagine his surprise when he found the straw up there.
Now, the part of the story that my wife always messes up is the age part. But, she often forgets to relay a few other factual aspects of the story. For instance, she rarely tells that it was a small paper straw. In her story, it was more like a plastic curly straw with a favorite cartoon character attached. In her typical, "Bless her heart voice" she explains that it was the cause of a slight lobotomy, but it was only minor brain damage. After all, she went on to be cheerleader, right? And finally, she gets the actual age of my former girlfriend wrong each time. I've heard everything from 15-18.
What's my point? Marketing. When we list a property and put a description in the MLS, it should resemble the property listed, at least a little. I'm always fascinated when I'm with a buyer who has found a house on one of the more common consumer listing websites, and it has a glowing description. Wow! All of that for $49K. Let's go see it.
Imagine my surprise (not really) when the listing doesn't live up to the write-up. Let me encourage you to be creative. Be a WordSmith. Use visiual language to describe your listings, but make sure I can find it when I drive down the street. If it says, "Beautiful views," I don't expect that to mean the four college girls living across the street. "Recently landscaped" is not the same as filling an old truck tire with flowers. Be creative, but at least get close to an actual descripiton.
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