ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 54

sales process and dichotomous in itself. To achieve a successful outcome, real estate agents must
be proficient at negotiation, understand building design and technologies, have extensive working knowledge of consumer and property laws, understand selling and marketing principles and
possess in-depth knowledge of the geographic and demographic composition of the region in
which they work (Arndt et al 2013). Agents are generally remunerated via success fees, thereby
aligning both parties towards a successful outcome. The objective to sell is innately linked to a
marketing campaign that highlights the houses’ most attractive attributes to attract the most
suitable buyer (Bridge 2001, Perkins et al 2008).
Advertising is a core element of any marketing campaign. The advertisement is produced to attract qualified buyers with the aim of motivating them to enquire and view the property. The
agent has an aligned interest to the seller to produce quality advertisements as it; prompts buyer
inquiry, is a means of enhancing agency and is designed to “locate” the property within its submarket through the use of persuasive language (Bruthiaux 2000).
To be successful real estate agents must be “in-tune” with the market in which they operate to
ensure advertisements are written to attract suitable buyers to the house being offered for sale.
Real estate agents often use emotive text to highlight characteristics of a house to create desirable images in the mind of reader (Pryce & Oates 2008). Studies have shown that real estate agents
manipulate linguistic patterns in order achieve favourable outcomes (Beangstrom and Adendorff
2013, Perkins et al 2008, Schollmann et al 2001). Textual variances of real estate advertisements
can be informative when examining social change. Studying house advertisements over 20 years
Rodriguez and Siret (2009) observed that housing preferences had changed in the use of space
and the concept of comfort within the built environment. They noted “advertisements are a compact description of the characteristics and qualities that dwellers and real estate-agents give to a
house in order to make the best sale” (Rodriguez and Siret, 2009:93). Following this observation,
real estate agent advertisements are considered a useful way to examine social trends and; therefore, words that refer to solar technologies ought to appear in house advertisements if a demand
for such technologies in housing was emerging under a market led policy, such as that favoured
by successive Australian governments.

Framing the research: The City of Melbourne
The City of Melbourne is a large cosmopolitan city comprising approximately 4.35m people (ABS,
2013) with much of Melbourne’s original growth to the east of the city’s CBD. Currently extensive
development is occurring in the city’s western region creating a city with wide spectrum of old
and new housing styles and technologies. Many suburbs in the inner and