Can You Sell More with Fewer Adjectives?

Among the 25 most commonly used words in real estate listings are descriptive words such as beautiful, spacious, luxury, huge, and must-see.

Now, there's nothing wrong with these words. Consumers are familiar with them. But when it comes to listings, is familiarity a good thing?

Home shopping is a frustrating experience. Listing after listing, picture after picture, consumers develop shopping fatigue.

My theory is that listing descriptions can be a factor in this fatigue. Adjectives make listings vague and unclear. As a result, listings look the same during the home shopping experience—regardless of what they contain. Wordy listings full of adjectives and irrelevant information can take 30 percent longer to sell.

For example, 'beautiful' is used so often that it has no meaning. What is 'beautiful'? According to the listings I've seen, just about everything is beautiful—the master bedroom, the backyard, the neighborhood, the neighbors, the landscaping, the house itself, the windows, the ceilings, etc.

The word 'beautiful' is used so often—either to describe things that are not beautiful at all or are plainly beautiful to the naked eye—that the word is superfluous. Saying something is beautiful does not affect whether the reader perceives the object to be beautiful or not.

Make things simple for your readers. Call things what they are (it's not a 'beautiful 3 bedroom house'—just a '3 bedroom house') and let them decide what they think of them.

Communication is best when it's clear. Clear communication will help your listing cut through the noise of listings oversaturated with adjectives and adverbs.

Stay tuned to the blog for another idea on writing listings: expanding your lexicon.

To view the original article, visit the Lone Wolf blog.