Words matter. And they can matter a lot when you list your home for sale. Striking a balance between a bland property description and one that will attract potential buyers is important and can result in the price you finally realize.

Common problems, according to Christine Stulik at Trulia, are overuse of some descriptive words and misuse of others. Words that are overused tend to lose their descriptive power, and words that are misused lack meaning and specificity.

Context is important. What may be a tired descriptor when referring to your home in general could be an accurate descriptor of a particular feature.

Stulik notes three words that are particularly overused in property descriptions and one popular, but grammatically meaningless, misuse.

Gorgeous. If everything is gorgeous, then the word has no meaning — or place — in a property description. But if, as a real-estate agent in San Francisco pointed out, your house has a “gorgeous backyard” in San Francisco, where backyards can be scarce, then the word means something. Besides, with plentiful photos, videos and 3D walk-throughs, buyers are quite capable of deciding whether your house is gorgeous.

Luxury. This one may be both overused and misused. A top-floor apartment is not necessarily a penthouse, nor is a kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops a “luxury kitchen.” By draining meaning from the word, you could be setting expectations too high for prospective buyers, who will be disappointed when you didn’t deliver the “luxury” they were looking for.

Charming. To many buyers who have been looking at houses for a while, and have already visited one described as “charming,” the nearly universal synonyms for this word are “cozy” and “tiny.” However, as description of a room in a 4,000 to 5,000 square-foot house, “charming” or “cozy” could be very attractive.

Stulik also notes the misuse of the word “boast,” as in, “This house boasts a three-car garage, ….” An inanimate object like a house does not boast because, well, inanimate objects can’t talk. This sort of grammatical construction is both overused and more than meaningless.

Of course you want your home to stand out, and sharp descriptors will really help. Finding the right words, not the easy ones, is the hard part.

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