Broker Babble
“Broker babble” is “real estate-speak” by real estate brokers. The babble uses terms as a broker sees fit—even though the words can be misunderstood by others. “Broker babble” has been cited in print since at least November 30, 2005. when it was used on the real estate blog Curbed NY.
Curbed NY began its “The Brokerbabble Glossary” on February 15, 2012. “Welcome to The Brokerbabble Glossary, where we take a word or a turn of phrase that seems to show up in an unreasonable number of listings and decipher its true meaning” was the opening line.
Curbed NY
The Brokerbabble Glossary
(The first entry is February 15, 2012—ed.)
Curbed NY
On the Market: Hermès Design on East 57th?
Wednesday, November 30, 2005, by Lockhart
Almost pegged this listing Broker Babble, but we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.
Curbed NY
Broker Babble: Anxious, Nervous in Sunset Park
Tuesday, February 28, 2006, by Lockhart
All indications are that Sunset Park is Brooklyn’s next hot gentrifying nabe, so what’s with this $739,000 Fillmore listing?
New York (NY) Times
Preparing for Bonus Season
By JOSH BARBANEL
Published: December 10, 2006
(...)
When it came to sage advice for their less fortunate brethren, the star brokers had but a few crumbs to offer. Leonard Steinberg, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that brokers had to learn the language of Wall Streeters. Be informative, stick to the facts. “When you start speaking in broker babble,” he said, “they are turned off immediately.”
Malcolm Carter—Real Estate News
April 6, 2011 at 5:05 am
Babble barely benefits brokers, buyers
Okay, I’m hardly guiltless when it comes to describing properties in Manhattan with original words and phrases. But what bloggers and others refer to as “broker babble” has captured my attention of late. To me, it is only at a slight remove from babies’ babble.
Listed (MSN Real Estate)
Behind the babble: An expansive one-bedroom?
Writers look at common phrases from real-estate listings and attempt to decipher what the agents really mean. Does anyone have a tub you can’t soak in?
By Teresa at MSN Real Estate Jul 27, 2012 1:06PM
One of our favorite features in the family of Curbed blogs is the BrokerBabble feature: the decoding of what real-estate agents really mean by some of the words so common in real-estate listings.
What’s BrokerBabble? Curbed writes: “The concept: Take a word or phrase that shows up in an unreasonable number of listings and decipher its true meaning.” Just in case you’re in doubt, the editors include photos of what the place really looks like, as opposed to what the babble implies.
The BrokerBabble Glossary section was started by Curbed New York’s Jeremiah Budin and expanded to the other Curbed sites
The New York Observer
Broker Babble: State Bans Fancy-Sounding, Phony Real Estate Titles
By Kim Velsey 4/30/13 3:07pm
So much for all the senior vice presidents, vice presidents, executive vice presidents, managing directors and all the other clunky important-sounding titles that real estate brokerages love to parcel out to their top-sellers. For a long time, brokerages have crowned their best and brightest with meaningless titular appendages that brokers are only too happy to slap on their business cards. Now the satisfaction of a job well done, big fat commission checks and the money and power that come with selling millions of dollars in real estate will have to be reward enough.