Talking Points
- Want to sell a house fast? It’s not what’s sad, but how it’s said that matters.
- Houses that real-estate agents describe as “move-in condition” sell 12 percent faster than homes listed without those words. “Starter homes” sell 9 percent faster. But be careful: A house called a “handyman special” sells about 50 percent faster, but the final price is 20 percent lower than listings that lack those worlds.
- For the past decade, Paul Anglin, associate professor of real estate at the University of Guelph in Ontario, has been studying the effect of certain words in house descriptions.
- One of the worst offenders is “motivated” sellers, which both lowers the sell price and slows the sale. Oddly, pleas of “must sell” have no effect on sell time or price, Prof. Anglin says.