PropertyShark Staff 
Selling a property can take a long time, and in NYC the average selling time can last even longer than in many other parts of the nation. One of the things that agents can do to speed up a sale is to work on the listing description carefully.
And if you ever wondered what those “magical” words that might help sell an NYC home faster are, a recent study made by real estate listings portal Point2Homes (PropertyShark’s sister company) might give you some answers.
Their analysts scanned almost 2,000 NYC homes that sold in 90 days or less in 2012, (the average is 180 days) and created a list of the specific words used by the agents who closed those deals.
Download this list and more valuable data regarding the most popular listing keywords used by agents nationwide and regionally, at the end of their study.
Who Wants to Sell an NYC Home Fast?
Judging from the words that appeared most frequently in East Coast agents’ listing descriptions, home buyers in this area are looking for more practical features in a home. For example, it needs to offer the possibility to “move right in,” be “renovated” and “close to everything.”
And NYC home buyers seem to be after even more specific features.
Real estate agents in the Big Apple sold homes faster when they used keywords such as “closet space,” “city views,” “soaking tub,” “sunny,” “open kitchen,” “oversized windows,” and “elegant” in their listings. Knowing how hard it is to find these features in an affordable NYC home, we’re not overly surprised to hear that home buyers flocked in. Therefore, a combination of words referring to light, space, and views–all in high demand in NYC–stands very high chances of being a winning one.
There might be another important aspect of selling a home fast.
As senior vice president and managing director with Brown Harris Stevens, Elaine Clayman, underlined, it’s not only the features you include in the ad that may help a home sell faster, but also how you choose to describe them. In her own words, “Soaking tub is more inviting than bath tub, for example. Private storage is also more compelling than public storage”. Therefore, if you are able to come up with an inspired description of your home for sale, you might inspire others to go ahead and buy it, maybe even faster than you would expect.
Most Popular Listing Keywords Nationwide
How does this compare to nationwide results? Point2Homes analysts scanned 300,000 listings active in 2012 all over the country and then broke down the results by price and geographical area.
“Beautiful” is the most popular keyword used when selling a home across the nation. Surprisingly, it is the only adjective in the top 3. It is followed by “hardwood floors” and “stainless steel appliances,” terms used to describe amenities. Here’s a cloud with other common terms used when listing a home (the bigger the word appears, the more common it is):
Area and Price Influence Choice of Listing Keywords
While there are lots of terms that are popular nationwide, the choice of specific keywords used in listings varies between regions, that is, there are certain words which have a strong impact in certain areas but couldn’t be found in others.
People on the West Coast for example may like “beautiful” homes, but if you want to convince them to buy you have to give them something more specific, like “mountain” or “ocean views.” And it also helps if that “beautiful” home is located in a “gated community.”
Things are really different on the other side of the country. East Coasters prefer to “move right in” in “renovated” homes with “gleaming hardwood floors.”
Point2Homes folks put together this really nifty map showing what specific words agents used the most when advertising homes in several geographical areas:
Keywords also vary when looking at homes in different price ranges. It seems that while average home buyers are interested in “beautiful” homes, wealthy ones like “private” properties more.
People looking to spend up to $1 million look for “well maintained” homes with “lots of storage,” and a “covered front porch”. Home buyers in the $1 – $5 million range are interested in “ocean views,” a “guest house,” and a “media room,” while those willing to spend over $5 million seem to want a property with “a pool house,” “a wine room,” and “a home theater.”
What do you think about these words? Let us know your opinion by writing a comment below!
