Putting lipstcik on a pig

Some Realtors have become masters of the art of putting lipstick on a pig to dress it up - specifically putting great sounding write-ups in the MLS descriptions to try to attract buyers. I showed a "stunning bungalow" last week and the main thing stunning about this dumpster queen was the smell when one waked in. I've seldom seen real, honest descriptions used when the house is a bowser. One that I did see recently was for a lakefront cabin and the description stated "house likely a tear down, but great lakefront lot". that turned out to be a very accurate description of the place and both the customers and I appreciated the honesty. It's a disgusting waste of time to go to a listing and see that the "beautiful ranch waterfront" is actually a ramshackle mess on a pond, but that happens a lot.

Another favorite trick of the less scrupulous real estate agents is to list the Sq Ft of the finished basement as part of the overall Sq Ft for the house. In general, even if the basement is a walkout, the Sq Ft there should never be added in to the total Sq Ft of the house and is as close to truly deceptive advertising as on e can get. It's OK to list the Sq Ft of the finished part of the basement in the comments as additional living space. It's also OK to list all of the finished space on the lower level of a bi-level or raised ranch home, since that space is finished to the same level as the upper level and was designed to be part of the living space.

The brings up the subject of when a "finished basement" is really finished. One of my office acquaintances is also an appraiser and he tells me that from an appraiser's point of view, if the basement isn't finished using materials and techniques that are the same as the rest of the house, then it really isn't "finished". He said the dropped ceilings and painted concrete walls just don't cut it as far as being finished. I agree. You can't just throw down some carpet and put in a dropped ceiling and call the basement finished. That's just putting lipstick on the pig.