This morning's mix of email contained a link to an article on Trulia that I just "had" to read. It promised "5 Surprising Buyer Turnoffs."
Since I provide blog posts to a few agents, I'm always on the lookout for new buyer and seller tips that they can share with their own readers. That subject line offered to tell me something new, so off I went to read it.
All I can think is that the writer has seen that list of words that are guaranteed to make people open your email or follow a link to your article. It includes words like:
- surprising
- new
- exciting
- free
- secret
- little-known
- ground-breaking
- hidden
They're all fine words to use - but ONLY if you have something to say that backs up the claim.
This writer didn't.
That is, unless you think it's surprising that buyers are turned off by dirt and clutter, a seller following them around the house, ugly wallpaper, misleading photos, or inflated prices.
I was disappointed, as I'm sure every other reader was. But worse - my opinion of that writer just fell a few dozen notches because she gave her article a misleading headline.
She could have called it "The most common buyer turn-offs" and it would have been truthful, but she chose to lure people to her article with deception.
So - she tarnished her own reputation by choosing to write a lie. A few of her commenters were pretty vocal about their disgust - saying that a misleading headline was just as bad as misleading photos.
(Am I being unkind? Perhaps these 5 turn-offs were a surprise to her? Do you think that's possible?)
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