In Real Estate, Sometimes, Love Hurts

Lower-priced homes are most likely to have the word love in property descriptions, while million-dollar homes are most likely to be described as sexy and seductive, an analysis of listings finds.  In luxury real estate, love is cheap and sex sells.

An analysis of roughly 1.6 million home listings found that lower-priced homes were most likely to have the word love in property descriptions, while homes priced in the millions of dollars were most likely to have sexy and seductive in the descriptions. Love is basic, said Javier Vivas, an economic researcher for Realtor.com, which analyzed the data. It’s a pre-canned pitch to generically describe something beautiful.

Realtor.com looked at homes for sale as of Feb. 1 to look for terms of endearment used by real estate agents when listing the properties. Then it calculated the median asking price of homes described with mushy words. Listings with the word romance had a median asking price of $820,000. Seductive homes were listed for a median of $640,000, and sexy properties had a $620,000 median price.

When you talk about extreme wealth, you’ll see terms like sexy bandied about, regardless of the product, said Adam Alter, an associate professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business. Luxury products strive for uniqueness, he says, and it makes sense that salespeople use impassioned language to set their brand apart.

There also may be regional differences in how agents pitch homes. Listings in the West were most likely to use terms like romantic and seductive; the Midwest was the least likely to use any terms of affection, including love. This is likely a function of coastal markets having the most expensive homes. Marketing, oh the games we play!