Rose Cottage Ltd

This listing is fictitious by the way – providing it to make a point…

Beautiful established country estate property in Greene County. Built in 1998, this 8,000 sq ft home has 6 bedrooms and 4.5 baths. Master is ensuite with jetted garden tub and his and her walk-in closets. Open plan living with 15′ ceilings in living and formal dining areas. Eat-in kitchen with quarry tile floors, granite counter tops, and all stainless appliances. 4-Car garage, Olympic-size swimming pool, extensive landscaping, and paved 1.5 mile gated drive all on 4.5 acres.

Price: $3,900,000.

Okay, I may have left out some of the usual details one might find in a real estate listing, and of course one would expect more images,but the first question I would ask is:

Where the HECK is Greene County?

A quick check of Google provided me with five Greene Counties in the US. Am I looking at a property in Wisconsin or Virginia? How about Missouri, Ohio, or Pennsylvania?

At least this listing revealed a price! Why would any real estate listing not do so? Is it the old adage that the first to mention a number is always the loser? I don’t think so.

Like it or not we’re living in a global and fast-paced world. Even if you are writing listing copy for your local Homes & Land magazine, just stating “Greene County” is not sufficient unless you are hoping or assuming that no one outside Greene County sees this listing.

Rather self-defeating from the get-go.

Assuming I can find out where Greene County is and that (especially if found online) this Greene County is my preferred-state Greene County, I’ll still want to know the asking price. My knowledge of the market – especially if this is a new location for me – may be minimal. Is this a $3,000,000 house near Arlington, Virginia or is it a remote Wisconsin $999,000 property? The price difference could be that much from state to state and from precise location to location.

The same thing often happens when listing agents list a property as being in “Such-and-such” subdivision.

Okay…

I could live a mere one or two counties from there and have NO IDEA where the subdivision is located. I might see the word “subdivision” and be totally turned off thinking high-density, quarter-acre lots when in fact, all homes in the mentioned subdivision are on at least one acre.

There is only but so much copy space for real estate listings and I understand that you can’t predict what any person’s “important” info might be but, if location, location, location is so important, make sure prospective buyers aren’t left guessing what it is.