Do they really think we won't notice ?

16 years ago

I can understand downplaying a negative on a property and I can also understand only mentioning the positives about a place. What I don't get is all the fibs I see in the descriptions of the houses.

One said "highway barely visible" that would only be the case if you never looked out your window or into the back yard, AKA the highway. You could not avoid seeing the highway unless you drive up and enter the house with your eyes shut. In fact if someone from the highway tossed their gum it would hit the roof.

There was another one that said "you have to straign to see a neighbor". The neighbor's house was in the front lawn.

I just don't get it. I would never ever buy a house where some one has completely lied in the listing. Is that even legal? Are these people hoping for buyers with severe visual impairments?

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Comments (11)

calliope
16 years ago
It might not be the people who listed it, but the agent. I need to speak to my agent about how she listed one of my houses. It's a nice and squeaky clean little cottage. Immaculate, but it's listed as "mint". I'm sorry, it has warts just like any other home its age. If I were a prospective buyer and looked at those things needing done down the road, the whole sales pitch would lose credibility to me if it were presented as mint. Mint is what I'd expect out of a newly constructed home.
qdognj
16 years ago
The descriptions at least let you know in advance that there IS a nearby highway, and a neighbor who is close, so the additional descriptive words are not important in my book,as i know what to expect
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theroselvr
16 years ago
We live in a town that has "soil" that's called sugar sand. If you look at it, it's a gray sand with a little dirt. Growing grass is hard, but after being here 7 years, I've managed to. We've actually sunk a lot of money into real soil over the years; but will people realize it? Probably not since people come here from town with real soil..

There's an agent that likes to photo shop grass. I always know when one of her listings come through my email.. it's that photo shop colored grass. Deceptive? To me it is, especially since I worked my butt off growing grass.

One said "highway barely visible" that would only be the case if you never looked out your window or into the back yard, AKA the highway. You could not avoid seeing the highway unless you drive up and enter the house with your eyes shut. In fact if someone from the highway tossed their gum it would hit the roof.

Are you looking in NJ at some of the new communities we've walked? Orleans has a really nice community in South Jersey, very pricey for the area.. guess what you can not only see but hear? I have no clue how they sell them.. well, yeah, I do. They're nice houses but come on. Does the highway not matter?
minet
16 years ago
Probably the agent's writing ... our dinky older tract house in SoCal was listed as "fabulous" - made us laugh. It was ok, and we'd spiffed it up some, but by no means was it fabulous! I asked our agent to revise the copy and he did, some, but left the "fabulous."
annie1956
16 years ago
Roselvr I live prob 5 miles tops from you and I would love to be able to call what I have "sugar" - it's just plain sand. (And I'm not talking 5 miles towards towards the ocean)
This past summer killed my front yard (that started out as sod 3 yrs ago) and we can't keep anything in the horse pasture.
But hey - we get great percolation in the rain!
berniek
16 years ago
Homes might look nice on the internet and virtual tours and google earth will help, but I suggest every buyer should walk a property and the neighborhood and check out what is important to them.
I'm told by other agents that out of state buyers are buying homes over the internet, without even setting a foot in them. That's scary to me.
househunting
Original Author
16 years ago
I have seen homes online and thought "wow what a gem" then you see it IRL and gosh they are much different. Some houses just photograph well or the pictures are taken buy someone with experience. I wouldn't buy a house with out setting foot inside a few times.
theroselvr
16 years ago
Roselvr I live prob 5 miles tops from you and I would love to be able to call what I have "sugar" - it's just plain sand. (And I'm not talking 5 miles towards towards the ocean)
This past summer killed my front yard (that started out as sod 3 yrs ago) and we can't keep anything in the horse pasture.
But hey - we get great percolation in the rain!

Hi Annie!
Have you tried throwing topsoil down? I can't tell you how much "dirt" we've taken out of here. Thankfully we have a dirt divider in front on the house, I've been throwing it out there.. usually in the same spots. Seems that every time it rains it washes away lol

I know someone out in Springfield township.. they have the opposite, bad rocky clay. Think I'd rather have what we have, it's been easy to dig out.
annie1956
16 years ago
Roselvr - We actually did bring in a few loads of topsoil before we sodded. I think it just "sinks" into nothingness. We looked great in the spring/early summer. This past summer was just too dry for DH to keep green.
theroselvr
16 years ago
I bought grass seed from the local Tru Value hardware store. It did really well this summer despite lack of water. It's still looking ok. Hopefully it will survive the winter and still be fine in the spring.. we'll see.
cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
16 years ago
"I'm told by other agents that out of state buyers are buying homes over the internet, without even setting a foot in them. That's scary to me."

That would be me. I bought long distance without ever seeing my home.

I was familiar with the area so kind of knew what to expect in that regard. I also had someone come and tour the house and take 100's of extremely high resolution photographs for me. I saw more in those photographs than I would have ever seen had I toured the home in person- I could see the grime around the bathtub drain in close detail.
Then I had my Mom do a walkthough to give me a sense about the atmosphere of the place- how it felt when she walked in and if she sensed a happy home or a nightmare. I know it sounds silly, but how a house feels is important to me and I trust my Mom's instincts.

It was sort of fun not seeing our house until we pulled into the driveway. Fortunately I have so far been very pleasantly surprised- the neighborhood is much, much nicer than I anticipated, the lot is much, much larger than we thought and everything has worked out very well.

Do they really think we won't notice ?

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Do they really think we won't notice ?

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