There’s always something to howl about.

Descriptive text as benefit, not feature

Over the course of developing Estately, Doug and I have looked at a lot of listings. We’ve seen humorous irregularities, things like the neighborhood called “Seattle” that has been carved out of adjacent cities or the neighborhoods of large cities that are promoted to city status by agents who apparently want no one to ever find their property on traditional, select-your-city-from-a-list real estate search sites.

After the awful photos, which are well documented by Athol, the most painful part of viewing listing after listing for me is the “descriptive text.” Of the dozens of boxes agents fill for every property, this is the one where a listing agent can sing the praises of the listings benefits and go beyond the laundry list of features.

Or at least it should be the box that is about benefits.

But all too often it is either meaningless filler or a relisting of selected features. It’s like real estate agents, people who are steeped in personal marketing strategies, who bandy about marketing words like conversions and leads, had never heard of benefits.

The following are a few of the regulars; the features buffed with flowery adjectives and sent off to the ether, and my amateurish reworking of them. I don’t market for a living, so I’m sure (positive!) we’ll see better reworkings in the comments.

Feature: Beautiful view, huge picture window
Benefit: Watch the sunrise through the picture window from anywhere in the living room

Feature: only 15 minutes from downtown, hot tub
Benefit: relax in the hot tub after a short (less than 10 minute) commute from downtown

Feature (barely): You’ll love this floor plan!
Benefit: hallway-free floor plan maximizes living space OR open floor plan maximizes feng-shui

Things I wouldn’t put in a public description because they aren’t features or benefits:

  • all appliances stay+washer/dryer (that’s in the amenities)
  • close to all schools (really? every single school?)
  • Move in Now! (no!)
  • 2 cats and a lrg dog that live here (transparency is good, but that makes me think “pet odor!”)