By Louise Parker
I once listed an abandoned farmhouse in need of a lot of cosmetic work. I advertised it as just that, hoping to appeal to the fixer-upper buyer, but no luck. It was in a pastoral setting, serene, with mature trees and a babbling brook nearby, and I felt calm every time I visited the property. So I changed the wording of the ad to reflect the way it made me feel. I plugged it as an “Artist’s Retreat”. It was the same house in the same condition in the same out-of-the way place. It sold one week later to a painter from the city, looking for a haven. I’ve been a fan of creative advertising ever since.
Have you ever sat down with a buyer and asked them what they were looking for in a house? And can you recall even one time the buyer asked you to find a house that was spacious, lovely and beautiful? No? Me neither, but spacious, lovely and beautiful are the most overused words in real estate ads. And, mea culpa, because even knowing that, sometimes I still slap one of them in a sentence in a frantic effort to meet an ad deadline.
It’s not like there are no other choices. Just consider that buyer’s answer. They might have asked for a quiet street, a bit of privacy, a garage, a big kitchen, something near the school, a house with no carpet, a bungalow, and so on. (Of course, we all know they end up in a semi-detached with wall-to-wall carpet, galley kitchen, no garage and 25 kms from the school.) So, I think in ad writing we should be using words that appeal to what the buyers are looking for.
I know the three big ones (Spacious, Lovely, Beautiful – to save space here, I’ll call them SLB) create an alluring image in the mind, but they’re kind of vague and subjective, don’t you think? When you use spacious and beautiful to describe the rather run-down 60-year-old bungalow (insert “dump” here) but you are referring to the fact that there is lots of room for improvement and it’s a beautiful investment opportunity, a buyer might consider that the only thing spacious is the distance between your ears. Of course, in this business we all develop skin thicker than a stack of Paris Hiltons boyfriends, and slough off the slur and continue to use the big three in the next ad.
I guess the point, and yes I do have one, is to present the alternatives to SLB. In my other life prior to real estate, I learned the formula for effective ad writing. AIDA is the acronym for a guideline to composing the best ad possible. The idea is to capture attention, hold interest, create desire and cause action. But when we get so caught up in just getting the darn thing written, we ignore the AIDA principle.
It is important to create an image in describing the property we list for sale. We want a buyer to contact us. We want them to be tempted by our choice of words. We want our sellers to be pleased with our creative and alluring description of their property. We are, however, restricted by word count, space and budget. So it’s important to make the most of it, by considering all the choices. Don’t be afraid to step outside the box in advertising. Use an unusual word. Set yourself apart with your command of the language. Invest in a good thesaurus and have fun with it.
Capture the attention, hold the interest, create desire and cause action in the mind of the reader. “A deck where your friends can party” is so much more visual than “spacious deck.” “A bedroom to captivate your imagination” definitely piques my curiosity more than “lovely master bedroom”. “This kitchen ROCKS” makes me want to see that kitchen more than “beautiful gourmet kitchen”.
This is advertising, folks! There is lots of room for creativity. A bedroom can sizzle. A bathroom can bewitch. A living room can flaunt.
A backyard can enfold. A family room can be animated, chipper and lively. That garage can be seductive and the workshop can be “knotty”. A house can have personality. It has character and ambiance and an aura. It can be expressive, playful, lonely and eager.
So, here is a small sample of alternative adjectives. Keeping the list on my desk helps me write effective, creative, readable ads. I hope it does the same for you.
Spacious: large, airy, ample, huge, sizeable, immense, vast, capacious, roomy, colossal, considerable, substantial, abundant, hearty, massive, major, (and plain, old “big”).
Lovely: handsome, comely, adorable, enchanting, delightful, exquisite, winsome, winning, captivating, alluring, pleasant, sweet, irresistible, fetching, fine, gracious.
Beautiful: endearing, blissful, serene, sublime, glorious, dazzling, fine-looking, attractive, becoming, rapturous, awesome, inspiring, engaging, bewitching, enticing.
Quaint and Charming: Unique, original, timeless, vintage, picturesque, whimsical, uncommon, rare, cheerful, surprising.
Private: Serene, tranquil, peaceful, quiet, unperturbed, placid, out-of-the-way, enveloped (by trees, gardens, nature), solitary, a retreat, a haven.
Other worthy and underused adjectives that attract attention and hold interest are:
Awesome
Bold
Cool
Dreamy
Elite
Exceptional
Fun
Funky
Glowing
Happy
Incomparable
Jaunty
Jolly
Pert
Resplendent
Sporty
Shining
Unsurpassed
Unmatched
Unrivaled
Vibrant
Vivid
Wholesome
Winning
So, go for it! Be brazen and brash and effusive in your choice of words. You’ll have fun, you’ll give that noggin a workout and the readers and potential clients might just think you’re the cats pajamas, all that and a bag of chips, top drawer, and most importantly….the one to call! Write on!
Louise Parker has been in the real estate business since she was about five years old, she figures. She remembers helping her her father, Tom Parker who owned Tom Parker Real Estate, carry signs through the woods looking for a place to plant them. She is now with Exit Realty Professionals of Enfield, N.S. and follows her father’s footsteps through the same rural routes, happily listing homes from exclusive lakefront properties or executive subdivision homes to cabins in the woods.
