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Questioning My English

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408

As an immigrant, I always question my English. Sometimes I am absolutely sure how it should be, and I am right, and sometimes I am wrong. But I, probably, hesitate more than many of you when it comes to a situation, where I believe it is wrong…

 

Surfing our MLS today, I run into the following description of a condominium building:

 

“Each unit is equipped with private balconies and laundry”. It sounds to me as a rough phrase and I stumble into it as into a sharp knife. There is more here than simply the word “equipped” that bothers me, but other stuff is simply sloppy, while “equipped” sounds plain wrong.

 

I would have said that each unit has a balcony, and washer and dryer hook-ups are in the units (as opposed to being in the hallway).

 

I think balconies are not equipment, and this is the wrong word to describe them, but maybe I am all wrong?

 

What say you?

 

P.S. When I do not blog, I sell condos in Daytona area, and if you are curious what you can get and how much it could cost, just follow this link to the information about condos in Daytona Beach Area.

 

 

Comments (19)

Lenn Harley
Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA
Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

I say you are absolutely correct. 

That said, those glitches are not the worse I've seen. 

I suspect that folks with English as a second language are more sensitive to these things than others.

When proofreading, I often think, "How on earth could I have written that?"

Jun 10, 2014 06:04 AM
Hannah Williams
HomeStarr Realty - Philadelphia, PA
Expertise NE Philadelphia & Bucks 215-820-3376

Jon I say your English is awesome ..

Jun 10, 2014 06:21 AM
William Feela
WHISPERING PINES REALTY - North Branch, MN
Realtor, Whispering Pines Realty 651-674-5999 No.

Yes John.  To me it sounds like the agent was over embellishing a bit to try and make up for lesser things.

Jun 10, 2014 08:50 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Lenn - and then I come back to respond to comments, and catch a few mistakes... Embarassing.

It is interesting how it works. I am writing and a word pops in. i feel that this is the perfect word for this sentence and in this meaning... The problem is that I do not know this word and has never used it before. I would call my daughter and ask her and in 99% of the cases, she would confirm, that it is fine.

Jun 10, 2014 10:49 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Hannah - it is not, but thank you :)

Jun 10, 2014 10:50 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

William - I don't believe it is intentional. It is probably sloppy

Jun 10, 2014 10:51 AM
Andrea Bedard
Thompson Company, REALTORS® 240.593.2860 - Silver Spring, MD
Fluent in Real Estate & German, M.A. ABR ASP CIPS

I hear you Jon! I frequently double-check to make sure the meaning of a word or phrase is what I thought it was.. It's like Lenn said, as immigrants we are more sensitive to it.

Jun 10, 2014 12:18 PM
William Johnson
Retired - La Jolla, CA
Retired

Hi Jon, You are correct, It is a poorly written discription. And I am probably guilty of worse, LOL

Jun 10, 2014 04:39 PM
Jill Sackler
Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc. 516-575-7500 - Long Beach, NY
LI South Shore Real Estate - Broker Associate

No worries, Jon. We all do it. I'm constantly Googling for antonyms or synonyms of a word that will give me the exact connotation I'm searching for. Technically, I should not have ended that sentence with a preposition but I did because it sounds less formal than "for what I am searching."

Jun 10, 2014 10:02 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Andrea - I am in good compnay :) Thank you

Jun 11, 2014 12:55 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

William - I find it hard to believe. Sloppy English manifests itself in everything we write. Mistypes happen, and quite often, but sloppy English is more than that, and I am sure, you do not have it

Jun 11, 2014 12:57 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Jill - I often read comments, and think that they are better than my usually lengthy posts, and often times you comments are in this category. And I am learning

Thank you

Jun 11, 2014 12:59 AM
Jill Sackler
Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc. 516-575-7500 - Long Beach, NY
LI South Shore Real Estate - Broker Associate

Jon, you write very engaging stories. On that, we can all agree.  A few grammatical errors never hurt anybody.

Jun 11, 2014 10:24 PM
Than Maynard
Coldwell Banker Heart of Oklahoma - Purcell, OK
Broker - Licensed to List & Sell - 405-990-8862

You are correct....but our MLS has such imited write space that, at times, you must use poor styling to get all the information in there.

Now, everything is available to be checked and appear in lists or bullet points on the MLS sheet, but they are not that easy for a novice to locate. So, agents try to list all the 'important' stuff in the description.

Jun 11, 2014 11:42 PM
Than Maynard
Coldwell Banker Heart of Oklahoma - Purcell, OK
Broker - Licensed to List & Sell - 405-990-8862

I have had sellers send me page(s) of uprades or improvements that they DEMAND be in the MLS.

Of course, the vast majority of the improvements/upgrades are maintenance/common repairs or silly thinks like "Custom painted pink bedroom", "New cabinet hardware in half bath" (Seriously? You replaced both knobs! How did you afford it?)

Jun 11, 2014 11:47 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Jill - I know, but it irritates me that my hind-sight spelling is much better. Even here, I read my comment, and saw that I missed the letter in the word. Not deadly, but annoying...

Jun 12, 2014 03:33 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Than - I hear you. Good point. Still "has balconies" is shorter than "...equipped with private balconies"

I also do not really understand this use of private. What is so private about the balcony in a condo, especially when you can see your neighbors' balconies. And the best is when they say about private beach. Well, in Florida, we do not have private beaches... You can have a gated community, and can't get inside, but you can walk past it on the beach. And I love it.

Jun 12, 2014 03:37 AM
Rob Arnold
Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. - Altamonte Springs, FL
Metro Orlando Full Service - Investor Friendly & F

Realtors are not known for the great literary skills.  "Has" is better but as long as you understand the meaning that is what really matters. 

Jun 12, 2014 08:28 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Rob - surprising for me, but you are exactly right. When I got my first job, we had the nicest ladies there. I told them that I needed to brush up my English, and asked them to correct me every time I make a mistake.

Time was passing, nobody was correcting me, and I was very proud, and then I found a mistake myself. And I asked them why they did not correct me. They told me that they could perfectly understand me, and that was all that mattered. Same thing you said. So, they were not good teachers for me (LOL)

Jun 12, 2014 09:20 AM