What You Say Is What You Get????

One of the places buyers and sellers go to find information regarding local real estate is www.trulia.com. Trulia aggregates a lot of great real estate information; crime rates, information regarding schools and to a lesser extent, comments from locals about the area. Truth is, it’s a great site that attempts make global real estate local. 

One thing I love about Trulia is a posting called “Real Estate Reality Check”.   A week or so ago, Tara- Nicholle Nelson posted an article entitled “What Sellers Say vs. What Buyers Hear”.  It was spot on in many ways.  The point of her posting was that well-intentioned but misguided sellers agents sometimes post property descriptions that mean one thing to seller and yet quite another to the buyer.  “Verbal home staging” can often send the wrong message to an otherwise interested audience. The classic example is the use of descriptors such as “cozy, darling, cute or charming”.  Sellers may feel these words convey a sense of security or good taste.  Buyers, on the other hand, instantly visualize small. 

Offers of seller financing, at least in today’s market, conveys to buyers that sellers are desperate to unload their property and will take whatever buyers have to offer.  Caveat Emptor, for sure!  In the end, Tara’s point is that descriptions should convey how it feels to live in the property without misrepresentation.  If your home needs work, corrections should be made ahead of time, budget permitting. I like to characterize it like this; sellers need to make their home look like a magazine because if yours doesn’t, the next one will.   

Addressing repairs allows the description to reflect reality.  I disagree with Tara on one point.  She suggests sellers should talk about necessary repairs right up front. My job as a listing agent is to “make the phone ring “ and get buyers thru the door. Verbal staging should move the buyer into the property. It should capture what a seller loves about living in the home. Including a repair list sets a negative tone.  Similarly, sellers who insist on interacting with buyers at times innocently say things that might sabotage potential offers.  I’m not picking on my favorite sellers but consider what a buyer hears when a seller says they don’t owe anything on the property.  It’s music to their ears because they assume that the seller can be completely flexible about what they’ll take for the property.  Similarly, talk about divorce or distress is just stating reality as far as the seller is concerned.  For buyer , it translates into “the seller has to sell”.  Remember, in today’s competitive market, what “you, your agent or the written description” say can seriously impact what you get!

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