Everyone needs and wants TLC. But be careful when it is said to be needed by a property up for listing. TLC, in the housing market, may mean a whole lot more than just ‘tender loving care’.

Brokers have always proved to be linguistics when it comes to listing properties in the advertisements page. Though not sure when the phrase started to pop up in their ads, brokers prefer ‘TLC’ over more befitting descriptions such as ‘needs renovation’ or ‘handyman’s special’. ‘TLC’ then is now liberally sprinkled in numerous listings and may mean different things for different people.

One Brooklyn House townhouse was listed by Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Madeline Williamson as ‘needs a good dose of TLC’. The townhouse, priced at $1.1 million, has a ‘not horrendous kitchen’ and bathrooms that has not seen renovation since they were built in 1986. With its floors creaking, the townhouse can cost an additional $100,000 to $200,000 for renovation.

Williamson says, “It’s a question of how someone wants to live. TLC means that you love it as it is now and love it even more when you get it the way you want it. It’s a softer way of saying it needs a major renovation.”

Another broker, Craig M. Dix, says listing can sometimes be a language of ‘euphemism’. If ‘cozy’ is ‘small’ and ‘quiet’ is ‘poorly located at the back of the building’, then ‘needs TLC’ is ‘total gut job.’

Corinne Pulitzer, though, says even with the euphemistic ad listings, everything is still about managing expectations. When showing a place to a prospective client, it is important to not staging anything and show the property as it is.

Surprisingly, even with the term coming to mean more money for renovation, some people still prefer to go for ‘TLC-needing’ properties. One reason is that these properties are cheaper than newly-renovated properties.

If you are also like Sarah Miller, who is looking at a Harlem resident that was described as ‘needing TLC’, then you would also enjoy looking at same properties. She says sometimes it’s better to get a house and oversee the renovations than get a house renovated by others. With the latter, only superficial work is done and you’d still have to shell out for renovations that you need and want.

With the housing market on a slump, it will be best to not just trust what is written in housing ads. Check the house yourself, and see if a house ‘needing TLC’ is something that fits your needs or not.