Many home sellers are finding that words matter. When describing their home's features in a real estate listing, including certain features can net a 24 or 40 percent premium to a sale price.
Home sellers priced in the bottom one-third of all homes that included "solar panel" in their listing got an additional 40 percent premium as opposed to homeowners who did not name that feature in their listing. In the middle segment of the housing market, saying "shed/garage studio" brought the highest premium for sellers, at 24 percent, Zillow finds. For sellers looking to sell fast, advertising features like "exposed brick," "open shelving," and "mid-century," brought in buyers at a faster rate than for owners who did not include those features.
Of all homes listed for sale on Zillow between 2016 and 2017, those mentioning “steam shower” in their listing descriptions earned their sellers a 29 percent higher sale price than listings that didn’t mention it, the highest premium among more than 100 listing terms analyzed by Zillow. “Professional appliance” came in a close second, also helping sellers cook up a 29 percent premium over listings that didn’t advertise that feature. “Pizza oven” came in third, netting sellers a 25 percent premium. That’s a lot of extra dough.
