That cramped studio apartment which triggered your claustrophobia? The broker described it as "cozy". The neglected wreck of a house with birds nesting in the closets? A "fixer-upper".
Smart home exchangers avoid the sorts of tricks real estate brokers use to put a happy face on serious problems with a house. You don't want people who feel ripped-off and defrauded to have the keys to your home while you are staying in their fairly-described mansion somewhere far away.
But there is another pitfall in describing exchange homes that doesn't involve deception. Don't use real estate terms which are well-known to everyone in your country or community but are meaningless to swappers reading your home exchange listing.
For example, I have recently been offered several nice houses by Canadians, all of whom used the expression "Canadian heritage home" to describe their residences. What could this mean? Perhaps the wallpaper has a lovely maple leaf motif. Maybe it's another way to say "log cabin". I have no idea.
The British are fond of describing their bedrooms as "en suite". Are they perhaps mangling the French language, meaning to say "une suite"? No, it turns out this has something to do with plumbing.
Americans may be the worst violators of this over-reliance on real estate lingo. Does anyone else in the world know what a "Jack and Jill" bathroom is?
What I'm saying is be descriptive. Real estate marketing terms are short and coded to avoid using too many characters in an advertisement. You have an entire home exchange listing in which to let people know all about your home. People will be reading your listing who don't have English as a first language, or may not speak English at all. Jargon created to sell homes isn't going to make sense to anyone who isn't selling them.
Have you noticed confusing real estate terms in a listing or swap offer? Let's see if we can decode them together.
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