The Altman Close

Chapter 18WEAPONS: LISTING LANGUAGE, INTERIOR DESIGN, AND STAGING

Boom, another listing! Return to the office with your new property to sell; hang it around your neck like a gold rope chain! Now, you need to capture a buyer. Whether you’re listing the property on the MLS or it’s off-market, get that first weapon in place. In this chapter we’ll see what happens when we combine these weapons with others in our arsenal.

A Killer Description

Arm the listed property with a killer description. Those buzzwords make this property appeal to any buyer, yet they are crafted to target an audience you know the home will speak to. This is “listing language.”

You have to take on a few roles here: you’re part journalist to report on the actual facts of the property, part salesman to hook the buyer, and – dare I say it – part poet (or lyricist). I’m not saying you need to be Maya Angelou or Bob Dylan, but . . . well, it would help. To be honest, I think the words of living rap legend Jay-Z embody what we agents do best: “I sell ice in the winter, I sell fire in hell, I’m a hustler, baby, I’ll sell water to a well.”

The Altman Brothers have someone in the office dedicated to writing listings. If you don’t, I recommend enticing potential buyers with a little word-flow of your own by . . . uh, okay, borrowing it. Check the magazines, architectural descriptions, and other real-estate listings. Learn how the pros describe homes. Focus on the feature elements that attract.

Play it up, but not too ...