Listing of the Day advertising critique - Biloxi MS

In an effort to improve the impact of the marketing of listings, I randomly choose current listings around the country in a variety of price ranges and comment on their effectiveness. No current clients of mine are used, nor do I know any sellers or buyers or have any additional information about the property.


227 Rue Petit Bois, Biloxi MS 3 + 2 $249,999


http://www.homefinder.com/MS/Biloxi/60147845d_227_Rue_Petit_Bois

There is only one photo in this advertisement and it leads to a mixed reaction upon first glance. The house itself looks to be solid, well built, newer, and large, which is a positive. We can clearly see that there is an attached garage, also a positive in this warm climate environment. However, we have a car and a van in the driveway, a less-than-spectacular looking lawn, and what appears to be an empty house inside.

The description copy is also a mixed bag. Terms such as “amazing style” and “open concept living” were probably put in to add sizzle, but they fail to tell a potential buyer anything helpful. Even after personally reading thousands of property ads over the years, I’m not sure I know what “bullnose corners” are, while I have to guess that “s.s. appl’s” refers to stainless steel appliances.

The last sentence is Realtor fluff at its best, ending with “convenient w. Biloxi location too!”. We are left with no idea of what makes this property a good location. We can tell from the address of the property that it is in Biloxi, along with the fact that many potential buyers probably find this advertisement because they search by city. There are only 4 lines of description copy as it is, and wasting words wastes the selling opportunity for the listing agent. We are never told how many cars fit in the garage anywhere in this advertisement.

Worse yet, this ad still needs editing. One sentence starts with a lower case letter, it shows “s. S. Appl’s” just like that, which is not correct casing in addition to being a confusing abbreviation. Sorry, but this typesetting makes everyone look bad. If this is really how the listing agent turned in this ad, the newspaper should have made the necessary punctuation changes.

Meanwhile, the description does not enhance the photo, and vice versa. Too little thought went into the preparation. If this is a “custom home”, we have nothing in the photo to support that since it doesn’t look lived in. If this is a newly built home (which we are not told), the photo would support that, but the current description copy does not. For a quarter-million dollar property, when there are other homes in the same price range and area now available, potential buyers do not need to be seek clarification when they can easily click ahead to the next property. The seller is entitled to having the agent do more than put in a hastily snapped single photo and some fluff in the copy being the representation of this property.

GRADE: D




Note: This commentary is uncompensated and for marketing purposes only and is no reflection on the featured property. Its accuracy is not guaranteed. Neither Dave Kohl nor First In Promotions shall be held responsible for any representations.

At this time, I have openings for more realty agent/office clients to critique current and brand new listings on an hourly basis. No current or past client listings are featured on this blog.Random listings are chosen around the country.

Your comments are most welcome!