If real estate were a country, it would have its own language.
The American property market is diverse. While Malibu may be the luxury real estate capital, New York City could easily be called the commercial real estate center of the country. Every area's eccentricities have a cultural background to it; therefore, the property lingo a real estate agent uses in one city may not work in another.
A recent study by Redfin, the popular real estate brokerage firm, found that different regions use different words to describe a particular home feature. For example, a covered porch is called a "lanai" in Hawaii and a stove is called a "cook top" in Texas. "Vaulted ceilings" are called "cathedral-style" in New England and a "ranch" is called a "rambler" in the Northern Plains, reports The Wall Street Journal.
"Real estate is a very local business, so you end up calling the same thing different things all over the country," Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, told the Journal, adding that the variations in the lingo stem from the cultural differences of the regions.
To analyze the differences in real estate lingo, Redfin looked at home listing descriptions in nine U.S. regions from 2009-2013, considering features that could be described by two or more words in different parts of the country.
They found that "patio" was the most variably described feature with 15.9 percent difference among listings. "Office" and "ranch" followed with 7.4 percent and 5.7 percent respectively.
Real estate lingo isn't only affected by culture, but a desire to sell, too. Property agents like to call it the "language of persuasion," reports Movoto Realty. For example, "gourmet kitchen" probably means a large kitchen that just has an island and some extra appliances, "near transportation" means the neighborhood is noisy and "charming" or "cozy" indicate the place is small.
Language is also starting to change in order to do away with inherent sexism present in many terms, researchers noted. Michael Neibauer of Business Journal conducted a survey to find the word "master bedroom" or the "master suite" is slowly being replaced with "owners bedroom" or "owners suite." According to the survey, the word "master" has "connotation problems" that incline toward the male gender and can sound "racist" as in "the slave master."
Just like any other language, real estate lingo is dynamic. After the property market crash and subsequent recession, several new words have been added to the real estate dictionary. Forbes has a small list of words newly added to the vast vocabulary that includes "Fannie, Freddie" (of course).
Check out Realtor.com's "cheat sheet" to real estate lingo here.
