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Front Of House & Other Really Important Information

front of house As I read Rick & Ines' great post Don't Steal The Show this morning, one line from the post caught my attention. "I have never understood why some agents have a fixation with walking people around a house saying "this is the bathroom, this is the kitchen, this is the pool," isn't that obvious?"

It struck me because this is exactly the same behavior some real estate agents display in their marketing of the home.

We don't buy houses based on information. Buying a house is an emotional decision.

And yet, property descriptions are filled with an endless stream of adjectives that do nothing but add to the noise. When your combing the Internet in your search for a new home, all of the descriptions begin to sound alike. The adjectives are so prevalent that they lose their value. Since I've never read "ugly master bath" before, I pay no attention to the words "beautiful" or "spacious" or "fabulous" or "gorgeous" placed in the description. Basically all you're telling me is that there is a master bath.

And, it really helps me NOT to have you put as the caption to a photo of the front of the house, "front of house." I know this may come as a surprise to some, but if I'm blind and can't see that it's the front of the house from the photo, then I can't read your caption either.

Your job is to get me to begin living in the house. I need to feel that this can be my home.

We start our search for a home based on information. "I'm looking for a four bedroom, three bath house in Woodland Hills, between $650 -$700K." But I've never bought a house based on information. We had been looking for our last home for months and had specific criteria and price range in mind. But the house we ended up buying was $50K over our "budget" and had one fewer bathroom and no master bedroom. We just fell in love with it the moment we walked in. We rationalized the purchase despite the fact that this homes "information" didn't match what we were looking for.

Help the Internet shopper begin the process of falling in love with the house.

Do your clients a favor: use more verbs than adjectives. Don't describe what's in the photo, describe how they're going to feel when they're in the photo! So, instead of "front of house," try "enjoy quiet evenings on the front porch." Instead of "gorgeous master bath," try something like, "soak in your private retreat." Instead of "elegant dining room," which is more a comment on the furniture that will leave with the current owners, try "entertain friends and family." You will set the home apart and yourself at the same time.

Craig Schiller's Real Estaging website has this as one of the reasons to stage a home properly. "Real Estaging creates an image of an inviting lifestyle that potential buyers picture themselves living." Your Internet presentation must have the same goal. Effective titles make a world of difference.

Be creative. Show your seller you understand their home. Try to use verbs when possible. Help the Internet shopper fall in love.

If you have used some creative descriptions that you felt worked well, give 'em up! We can all use the inspiration.

Posted by Jeff Turner on 12/21/2006 08:03 AM

Comments (42)

writing, selling, staging, captions, emotion, jeff turner

Originally posted at: Turner's Perspective: Front Of House & Other Really Important Information

42 Comments on Front Of House & Other Really Important Information

DEC

2006

What a great post. I have often wondered how Realtors do it, having to come up with descriptions that must eventually get so boring after they have been repeated ten thousand times. I think I feel a blog of my own coming on about this. Thanks.

Excellent post, Jeff. As a general rule, if I put any text on a photo it is to describe the room if it does not appear obvious (ex: family room vs. living room - sometimes it's not easy to tell which is which) or in the case of views, sometimes I'll include the description "view from living room/kitchen/bedroom/whatever" so the reader can get a better perspective. I also try to use a combination of adjectives and verbs. The problem is that, at least in the MLS description, we're limited to a certain number of characters and it takes a whole lot less characters to write "an inviting front porch" than "enjoy quiet evenings on the front porch". When a property has many upgrades or has been extensively updated, I quickly run out of room to list them all in the description field of the MLS.

James, blog away!

Leanne, I can certainly understand the limitations relative to the MLS, though I have no idea why they would need to limit the description to so few letters. It's just text, so there is no bandwidth issues. I see these "transgressions" more often on the agents own sites and on Internet tours and in captions fields attached to photos. I do see it as displayed above as well, where the title is actually on the photo itself. As with anything, my comments won't and can't apply to every photo, but when possible, creating emotion is preferable.

Jeff, I don't think it has to do with bandwidth... on the MLS it's a question of space (relative to all other fields). Since we want all fields to fit on one page (when we print the listing), we are limited to the amount of space allotted to each field.

I agree... I hate to see a virtual tour where the caption fields just say "kitchen" or "master bathroom"... I mean, if you're going to go through the trouble of putting a VT together, you should take advantage of all it can offer a viewer.

Leanne, thanks for the explanation. For the sake of thought provocation, the MLS should then have two fields, one that is used when printing, to insure it all fits on one page, and an expanded field that can be used for Internet display. Considering the importance of the Internet it seems backwards to limit it's effectiveness for the sake of print. I've got lots of rants about how local MLS systems handle and collect data, but I'll save that for another time.

: ) Thank you so much for your insight!

Having been on my board's MLS Committee for the past 4 years, I can tell you that it's like pulling teeth sometimes to get everyone "on board" with a proposed change. Even once the change has been agreed upon by the necessary parties, it has to then be implemented by the MLS vendor... with some exceptions, this usually takes months, if not longer sometimes. I'd love to read your rants on MLS related issues. Might I interest you in joining AR's MLS Issues group?

Leanne, thank you again for your commens and insights. I realize working inside any MLS will be a bureaucratic nightmare. But, change is necessary. The next time I rant about an MLS issue, I'll be sure to post it to the MLS issues group! You can count on it. Thank you for the invite.

Thank you for your input. I'm always looking for new ideas. I'm new to this industry and I'm in an office with well seasoned agents. I see this all the time. I want to stand out from the same OLD Realtor doing the same old thing. Thanks again for the idea.

Good piece Jeff.

In many aspects I compare home buying to "Sex Sells" or "Thats an amazing book cover"

For all the gizmos and features a home buyer is looking for, what they are really looking for as the #1 feature is "home"

That is a feeling, not a number. We all define our home differently, but ultimately it is the place we feel safe and secure, a place that makes us want to kick our shoes off and enjoy a cup of coffee, or the place we can work artistically like a maniac at two in the morning.

I generally find that many home buyers I've spoken to ultimately choose a home for a comical reason, like the main bedroom was pink and they "just love pink". They don'l look at whether or not the bathroom is perfect or not, but they still fell in love with the idea of "home"

I am not an agent but...Couldn't part of the issue be that the MLS was not designed to market properties to "the public" in the first place? It was meant to be a listing database for agents. I think the MLS has established a culture of small pictures and short, drab descriptions of properties that is so deeply ingrained in many agents' psyches that they never step back and say "Oh, I could be doing this in a different way." Why must the MLS be the defacto standard for internet marketing? A related example: I am amazed that some agents routinely ask me to send them photos of their property sized to 400px for the MLS and don't want any bigger versions for their own websites, even when it's included in the cost. "I'll just put up the MLS ones on my site" they say.

I think Jeff's point was that this type of poor verbal marketing is happening everywhere, even in places not controlled by the NAR or MLS.

Robert, you're in the right place for ideas. The people here on ActiveRain are willing to share!

Barry, I could not say it better myself!

Aaron, yes, that's my point exactly. But I also agree that the issue with most MLS systems, and there are 800 of them in the US, is that they are stilled married to old thinking. Change is hard.

But agent websites and company websites are not married to that old thinking. Yet, the practice is rampant. I always use the "front of house" example in my live speeches and it always draws laughs. Why? Because it's true.

Joe, thanks and very well put! This needs to be about the sizzle!

That sounds like good advice, Jeff..... letting the prospective buyers feel they are IN the house when they see the pics is something I never thought of.....

I am going to do it from now on.... =-D

Jeff, I don't read many MLS listings, but you are right, the ones that I have read usually all sound a like. What you suggest is a great idea for Realtors to set themselves apart.

Alexander and George, thanks. It's not just the MLS listings, by the way. It's everywhere.

Thanks Jeff, great post and having been in Real Estate for over 22 years I sometimes find myself falling back to old bad habits. I am taking this as a wake up call and I will return to having my wife redo my descriptions. I wonder if we don't get to busy and just slap words together to get the listing uploaded.

Thanks again for helping,

Jay

Great discussion. I agree that sometimes people just seem to slap words down to get the listing uploaded and in front of people. For a while, I thought that we needed to enforce a rule outlawing the use of the word "cute"....

Jeff ~ great post and observations. Verbs are ACTION words and that's exactly what we want people to do, take action.

The biggest problem I find is staying within the boundaries of Fair Housing Guidelines. We are not supposed to talk about "the buyer" but "the property". Accidently mentioning a home relative to a view could get one sued by a sight impaired person.

Jay & Deb, trust me, I understand the struggle to find the right words. It's a lot harder to do it this way. No question.

Kristal, thank you. Obviously you can't stray outside the boundaries of the fair housing rules. For those who are intersted, here is a version of the fair housing advertising and phrase list for reference.

DEC

2006

Great Post Jeff...In today's market, capitalizing on those emotional hot buttons makes the difference between blending in the crowd and setting your listings apart. The Luxury Home Specialist course talks about this as well. There is an agent who was a professional copywriter in his earlier career. He put his writing skills to use in creating elaborate and emotion invoking narrative in his website descriptions. I too tire of seeing agents on HGTV pointing out that "this is the kitchen..." Just as the advent of email has led to a resurgent appreciation of handwritten notes, I think the bells and whistles of online photos and virtual tours are best used when combined with well-written narrative that eases the potential buyer into the lifestyle about which they dream...Thanks for the reminder to step up my marketing efforts!

Great post, I am inspired to review my existing tours and will apply these principles when creating a new tour or writing an AD.

Neal, the luxury market does do a better job of this, that's for sure. Well written narrative can be a real differentiator for any price range.

Jennifer, I'm happy to hear this. Send me a link to your next effort and let me see how it turns out!

For great real estate copy, check out Stan Barron's site.

As an exclusive buyer's agent I have a different take on this concept. When I show a home I never say: What a great backyard. I say: Boy, can't you see your kids back here on Saturday morning playing football? I never say: This is a big family room I say: Where will you place your Christmas tree? In front of the big window where the neighbors can enjoy it or over by the fireplace where it is visable from the kitchen?

Shannon, that is an excellent example of evocative copy!

Sharon, since this started out as a reaction to Rick & Ines' great post Don't Steal The Show, we may have come full circle. This kind of thinking has to extend to our conversations as well. Of course you need to answer specific questions with specific answers, but your conversational style is engaging. Done correctly it moves they buyer closer to home.

Your examples are excellent. I'll have to remember that. Verbs make for better ad copy than adjectives.

Hey Deputy Jeff... first thanks for the props.

Yup... the ads and images MUST be "staged' as much as the property itself.

Awesome point as always.

Craig... it's all about staging! : )

Whenever you market a home on the Internet, whether on an MLS site, your own website, realtor.com, etc. you are also marketing yourself to potential new clients - both buyers and sellers. I believe your written words are as important in this effort as the photos you provide. I think you'll do yourself a world of good if your words add to the imagery rather than explaining it (telling me that I'm seeing the living room is boring me and detracting from the drama of the presentation). That's even more true when text length is limited (the MLS). It's more challenging to write great copy with fewer words. It's worth the effort. My information is anecdotal, but I've talked to hundreds of Realtors and those who write great copy almost always have success in attracting new clients from their Internet marketing.

Jeff, I love how you see yourself as a 'stager', at least to some extent. You are a credit to our name.

I love your posts; you are intelligent, innovative in your thinking and bring fresh content here on AR.

And I think it's cool that 6 kids! You are super cool, and we're glad to have you here!

Bill, thanks for chiming in and adding to this conversation.

Jessica, thank you. I wish I could take full credit for much of my comments, but a lot of them are the result of hanging out with Bill (who commented before you) and hours and hours hanging out with a very bright team of people who analyze things differently than most. I've benefited from their insights and it's nice to be able to share them here. I'm happy to be here!

DEC

2006

Jeff - thanks - I love clarity!

When I read this blog there were 32 responses and I decided not to read them, just to jump right in and answer from the heart.

NLP... neurolinguistic programming! Check it out at wikipedia. On second thought, I went to wikipedia to check it out and the definition was WAY over my head, so let me just give you the Reader's Digest:

Agents would do well to appeal to buyers from 3 angles: Visual (that'd be the virtual tour/photos), audio (some nice music and friendly-sounding audio), and feeling (that'd be the verbs Jeff is describing).

I love the way you express yourself, Jeff. "If I can't see from the photo that this is the front of the house, then I can't read the description either."

DEC

2006

Great post. I plan to take extra care with my next listings to evoke feelings. And I am looking forward to it!

Dawn... right on point.

Debi... I think you'll enjoy it more and so will your clients and potential clients. I'd love to see what you come up with if you can remember!

DEC

2006

Joe, my father gave me Elements Of Style when I was going off to college. (He also gave me a slide rule, but we won't talk about that) Roger Angell was not one of the contributors on that edition in 1979. It was the small paperback version. I used to read it once a year, just to keep fresh. I lost it in one of my moves and haven't replaced it, but your comment makes me want to go to Amazon.com and buy it!

JAN

2007

I've always wanted to read Elements of Style and have owned it several times in my life, probably have it now. But when I see the cover it reminds me of my brother, Chucky. I saw that book first when I was a small child, sitting in my brother's room.

As soon as I see it I am reminded to live life as Chucky did, and reading the book itself never happens. Chucky was dying from the time he was born from a degenerative disease. I watched his body fail him every day for 28 years before he died. And I watched him never whine, refuse to be treated differently, and attack the smallest of things we take for granted with obstinate vigor.

I learned a lot from that book and am reminded of the lessons every time I see it. Even though I've never read it.

JAN

2007

Ardell, you should read it. It will help you understand why it was on the shelf. Great, great story.

FEB

2007

Jeff, this is the hardest part for me. But I think this is going to help. Thanks!

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. As a consumer and soon to be seller, I applaud you all. I would love to have my home description appeal to a buyer's emotions.

To Bill Leider - you are sooooo right

Whenever you market a home on the Internet, whether on an MLS site, your own website, realtor.com, etc. you are also marketing yourself to potential new clients - both buyers and sellers.

I have an upcoming appointment with a broker who caught my interest because of her terrific photos and enhanced listings. I just took another look at some of her listings. She does use verbs in her descriptions. She also uses every bit of text space the enhanced listing option allows and uses a professional photographer for her photos. - It works. Before seeing her online listings, I had not considered interviewing her.

I hope this feedback is useful.

Nancy, thank you for taking the time to share. Your opinions and viewpoint are incredibly valuable!

FEB

2007

Jeff, Thanks for introducing me to Active Rain. I would have never have known about this incredible world....... There truely is great information! I am expanding my decorating into staging too and this is amazing.

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