I haven’t thought hard enough about this as I don’t value property the way an appraiser does. If you count the bedrooms in the basement and the bathroom, you can’t count it as square footage also, can you? Wouldn’t that duplicate the value of the same space?

No you are not the only “house junkie.” I too am fascinated by homes.

I actually laughed out loud at your open house fiasco. Oh my.

When I used to appraise, the only time I ever used $10 for basements was when it was unfinished. Because that was a rough estimate on concrete costs. A finished basement should have a value higher than that, but typically not as high as living space equal to or above the threshold. There just isn’t the same cost involved in creating the space.

THAT WAS YOU????? And all this time I thought it was an urban legand! Made my day, Ardell.

I saw one where the appraiser used $10 a square foot for finished basement. I thought that was awfully low.

Thanks! Fabulous! I’m not big on “hot descriptive words”. I got in big trouble for just using the word “huge” once. I go to my Open House and there’s a crowd of people waiting. My ad said there was a HUGE deck in the yard. The newspaper printed a typo on the word deck. They used an i instead of an e.

I don’t think I have ever used the word stunning to describe a house. Women can be stunning, but not houses.

On the East Coast, years ago, the Philadelphia papers would change our ads. I remember I used “quiet street” once and the word “quiet” was banned and removed. HUD had issued a warning that ads could not refer to people. I was talking about traffic, but the newspaper read it as “quiet neighbors” and removed it.

Can’t use “Executive Homes” as it refers to the type of people who might live there. Can’t use “Family Neighborhood” or the word “family” at all. It’s not a law…it’s a HUD guideline to never use words that refer to people in any way when writing real estate ads. Hence “master” should not really be used at all.

I get excited about views, so I might have used “spectacular” views somewhere. I’m so literal that if I say it’s “spectacular”, it IS. So if you ever see me say “Great Room”…it will be Great

There are situations where a builder puts a lot of money into finishing a basement area. Two examples would be a home theater and wine cellar. Done correctly, there is a miles of wiring, elaborate lighting, built in speakers and soundproofing expense. Another example could be an elaborite paneled and brick, arched entry wine cellar complete with corking station. The basement s/f in these scenarios should comp well with the rest of the home’s fit and finish.

No kidding, I presently have a Redmond listing with a ballroom, and a Kirkland listing with a HUGE walk in closet.

Speaking of secret rooms, how about the “wiring” room. I helped a client who spent over $500,000 on the wiring alone! It all terminated in a room behind a library (that had one of those trick swinging bookcases, just like you see in the movies hiding a secret room).

I’ve also seen “spa” rooms decked out with sauna, spa, showers, massage table and everythng else you can think of along those lines.

I agree, Chef’s kitchen is NOT electric! Don’t ya love seein’ the 4 burner electric range in the listing described as a “Chef’s Kitchen, or Gormet”?

I think a fun idea for a post would be to chat about some of the adjectives we use to describe properties. I suppose our descriptions are highly subjective. Anymore I gag at the thought at writing “gormet” kitchen. I did use “Au Pair” with the Redmond lisitng. Perhaps our most overused word right now could be “Stunning”? What are your thoughts on hot descriptive words?