Have you ever read the description of a house for sale and you’re excited about it, but when you go and see it, it’s not at all what you imagined? Here are some tricks to reading between the lines on the home description, that may save you some head ache and time. Enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions or feedback.
Here’s the decoder ring for real estate. When you see these words in a listing description and what they really mean.
Listing descriptions are often riddled with jargon that might not be self-explanatory to someone who is unfamiliar with the industry. To help potential buyers understand what all of this means, here’s an overview of some common terms so that they can find their dream home with ease!
Cozy – too small for most people, tight spaces
Cottage – little place you probably won’t want for year round living
Custom – non traditional and sometimes weird
Unique – this is one person’s taste is decorating and probably not for everyone
Modern, vintage, and rustic – this means dated and in dire need of updates
Great potential – be prepared to dump $100,000 into this house, or more, and probably needs to be stripped to the studs
Lovingly maintained – means they have not updated this since they moved in, but are clean and thoughtful. Probably needs to be updated but at least it’s clean
Hot or up-and-coming neighborhood – means half of the houses are old and worn and the lawns are unkept while half have new owners that are excited to be living there
Luxury kitchen – not likely, stainless appliances at best
There are certainly more, and I’ll add them as I see them. It’s exhausting reading these descriptions and knowing what I’m going to see to when I get there!