 Real
Estate Ads
In the larger metropolitan areas there can be a hundred or more
houses available at every price range. Touring them all would be
a grueling ordeal. It becomes necessary to filter the ads,
to narrow the number of potential house tours to a manageable number.
It will be difficult to properly evaluate a home when feeling the
pressure to rush off to the next appointment. That can only lead
to information overload and confusion, making the decision process
more difficult.
One must keep in mind that the photos of homes for sale are staged,
meaning they are the best the home is going look from the best vantage
point and does not necessarily reflect reality, kind of like trying
to know a girl by looking at her glamour photos. Proportions are
distorted just by the nature of the snapshot. People taking them
are real estate agents not professional photographers.
Ad content can depend on the selling agent writing it. They can
be factual and informative or rosy and vague. They are used to bring
potential buyers in or more cynically a lure to reel in
fish. I have found that certain key words used broadly
by agents can mean something else entirely. For instance, houses
described as adorable, doll house, charming, cozy and cute are almost
always too small or does not have enough real positives to mention.
They become euphemisms used to deflect deficiencies.
Listed living space size or square footage is
an important number to pay attention to. Although that can be deceiving
as it can include potential living spaces you would not consider
livable or usable, such as an unfinished or partially finished room
or basement. A three to four bedroom house should have at a minimum
2000 square feet of living space. Anything less would have tiny
rooms.
Be skeptical if you see the word newer in the
description, as in newer roof, newer windows, newer this and that.
The word new is self explanatory but newer is subjective and virtually
meaningless to the buyer.
The house that my dad ended up buying, ironically in hindsight,
had a strangely understated home ad. The ad photos and the description
were drab and mundane and I had dismissed it. However, out of desperation
at the end of a disappointing day of tours, we had the real estate
agent show us the house. At the time it felt like the last throw
of the dice.
The ad seemed like a mistake, written for a different house or as
if the person writing it had not seen it. It was a brick rancher
in excellent shape, completely finished with high end components
and appliances. The ad did not mention or show the backyard and
it was the best we had seen. The entire yard was bricked and park
like, highlighting a mature maple tree. The house had everything
my dad wanted. It was ready to live in and concurred by the admiring
inspector.
A case of the unexpected happy ending by sheer dumb luck? Actually
all the hours spent studying the market had paid
off. We learned to navigate through the smoke and mirrors and recognize
a good deal when we saw it.
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