Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, number 546, Having an Open House.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 546.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development, Transcription by CastingWords.
The learning guide contains all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, cultural notes, comprehension questions and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
So if you're having difficulty understanding something or want to look at the vocabulary and get new sample sentences or new definitions, go to the website and download the learning guide.
This episode is called Having an Open House.
It's a dialogue between Kyoko and Ernie.
They're going to be using some vocabulary that is common when we talk about open houses.
When you sell your house, we'll find out more about that in a minute.
Let's get started.
We're not supposed to be here.
I think we should leave and let our real estate agent hold the open house without us looking over her shoulder.
We're not looking over her shoulder.
I just want to sit in this car to see how many people go in and out.
You know there'll be a lot of looky-loos.
And plus there'll be a sign-in sheet so we'll be able to see afterwards how many people stopped in.
Hey, someone's coming in now.
That's the stager.
She's making some last-minute changes.
She really doesn't need to do anything else.
We did everything our agent told us to do.
We made cosmetic repairs, painted, and decluttered.
What more could they ask for?
She's just doing some minor landscaping, putting some plants along the front path and around the front door.
Let's get out of here before people start showing up.
I don't want to seem like I'm spying on my own house.
What does it matter?
Hand me the fact sheet for our house.
I want to read it through again to make sure the agent didn't miss anything.
Okay, the square footage on the house and the lot are correct.
She noted that our addition is permitted and she mentioned the upgrades.
Good.
Where are you going?
I'm not going to sit in this car for the next four hours.
Let's go to visit our neighbor's open houses.
Good idea.
We'll see what our competition is and maybe we can steal some of their open house ideas.
Kyoko begins this dialogue by saying to Ernie, we're not supposed to be here.
What she's saying is that this is a place where they are not permitted or that they should not be in.
We're not supposed to be here.
A real estate agent... refers to a person, the agent, who sells houses and buildings, real estate.
So a real estate agent is someone who sells and buys homes, buildings, and sometimes just the land.
An open house is an event where people can come into a home that is for sale, walk through it, look at it, learn about it, ask questions of the real estate agent the person who's selling the home for the owners.
In the United States, this is a very common custom to sell your house.
You have usually on a Sunday afternoon from 1 in the afternoon to perhaps 4 or 2 to 5.
You have people come to your house.
You advertise your house for sale.
People come and walk around it and look at it and can ask the agent questions.
Typically, however, the owners of the house are not at the open house.
The real estate agent is responsible for showing the house.
Some people like to have open houses because it gets more people interested in their house and perhaps someone will buy it from looking at it.
Some people don't like open houses because many times the people who go and look at the house are not really interested in buying it.
They just want to see what the house looks like.
So if you come to the United States and you're in a large city, you can buy the Sunday newspaper.
Take a look at the open house listings and simply go and take a look at some houses, pretending perhaps that you're interested.
Many people go and look at other people's houses if they're going to be selling theirs to see how good the house is for the price.
It sometimes helps you figure out what price you want to put on your house.
Most real estate agents know that many of the people who come to the house are not really that interested in buying it.
They just want to see.
Sometimes even the neighbors come and look at a house that is being sold in their neighborhood.
Kyoko says that she thinks that she and Ernie should leave.
She says that they should let their real estate agent hold the open house.
To hold an open house means to have an open house.
Without us looking over her shoulder.
To look over someone's shoulder is an expression that means to watch another person's work very closely, to pay careful attention to what another person is doing, especially when that person doesn't want you watching them.
So you're doing something at your desk in your office and your boss comes over and looks at what you are doing and watches you work.
You might say to him, why are you looking over my shoulder?
He may or she may not actually be looking over your shoulder, that is, looking down at your desk with their head above your shoulder.
It's the expression that we use to mean to watch someone else working when they don't really want you watching them working.
Ernie says, we're not looking over her shoulder.
I just want to sit in this car to see how many people go in and out.
So they're not in the house.
They're sitting in their car outside of the house.
Kyoko says, you know, there'll be a lot of looky-loos.
A looky-loo is an informal expression for someone who likes to see what is happening, especially someone who doesn't really need to see it.
So, in this case, looky-loos would be people, as I mentioned earlier, who go to the open house and don't want to buy the house.
They just want to see the house.
Kyoko says, and plus meaning.
In addition, There'll be a sign-in sheet so we will be able to see afterwards how many people stopped in.
A sign-in sheet is a piece of paper where everyone who is participating or attending a certain event puts his or her name, sometimes the address and the phone number.
In open houses.
Real estate agents ask everyone who comes into the house to sign the sign-in sheet, mainly to get their name and telephone number and call them later to see if they're interested in selling their house or interested in buying the house.
It is also proof to the owners of the house that people came and looked at the house and The term sign-in sheet can be used for any event, anything that you want people, when they first come to, to put down their name, sometimes their signature.
So Kyoko is telling Ernie that they don't need to sit there and watch everyone going into the house.
They can just look at the sign-in sheet later.
Ernie says, hey, someone's coming in now.
Someone is going into their house.
Kyoko says, that's the stager.
She's making some last minute changes.
A stager, S-T-A-G-E-R, is a person whose job it is to make the home look nice.
Sometimes, when people move and they haven't sold their house, the house will be empty when people come to look at it.
Real estate agents have found that people are more likely to buy a house if they can imagine themselves in the house.
And that means putting things in the house, the empty house.
That will help you imagine what the house will look like.
So you put a bed in, you put a television in, you put pictures on the wall.
None of these belong to the owner.
They're just there to help the people looking at the house to get a better picture, if you will, of what the house looks like when there is furniture inside.
To make last-minute changes means to change something right before the event starts, in the last hour or maybe last day.
Ernie says she really doesn't need to do anything else.
That is the stager.
We did everything our agent told us to do.
We made cosmetic repairs, painted and decluttered.
To repair something is to fix it.
A cosmetic repair improves the appearance of something, in this case the appearance of the house.
You don't actually make it a better house or a stronger or safer house.
You may paint the walls, for example.
That's a cosmetic change.
You may fix something that is broken so that it looks better.
That would be a cosmetic repair.
To clutter C-L-U-T-T-E-R means to put too many things in a space, on your desk or in a room, so that it looks crowded.
To declutter then means to take away things so that the space is more open, that you can see the desk, you can see the room better.
Kyoko says the stager is doing some minor landscaping.
Landscaping is when you do something with the plants, the trees, the grass outside of a home to make it more beautiful.
She says that the stager is putting some plants along the front path where people walk into the house.
Let's get out of here before people start showing up, she says.
To show up.
Is a two word phrasal verb meaning to arrive, to appear, to come to a particular event or place.
What time did your brother show up last night?
You were waiting for him.
He was late.
He didn't show up until eight o'clock.
Kyoko says, I don't want to seem like I'm spying on my own house.
To spy on something means to look at it in secret to get information.
Ernie says, what does it matter?
What difference does it make?
Hand me the fact sheet for our house.
Hand me means give me, put in my hand, the fact sheet.
A fact sheet is a piece of paper with detailed information about something.
It could be about anything.
For a house, the fact sheet would have the price, how big the house is, and so forth.
Ernie says.
I want to read it through meaning.
I want to read it completely again to make sure the agent didn't miss anything.
Okay, the square footage on the house and the lot are correct.
The square footage is the number of square feet in a particular area.
It's a way of measuring the size of a house.
The lot, L-O-T, is the land that the house sits on or the building sits on.
Lot has a couple of other meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional definitions.
Then Ernie says that the real estate agent noted or put on the paper that our addition is permitted.
And she mentioned the upgrades.
An addition to a house is a new part of the house that was built after the original house.
The word addition has some additional definitions.
Once again, the learning guide will help you.
When we say that a part of the house or a building is permitted, we mean that it has all the necessary permissions and government documents.
If you decide you want to add a new room to your house, you need to get permission from the city to, And the city comes and looks at it to make sure that what you built is safe.
This is part of getting something permitted.
Many people, at least here in Los Angeles, because it's so expensive to get a government permit.
A government approval will add things to their house without getting approval from the government.
Of course, if the government finds out they'll have to pay for the permit, but usually the government is too busy trying to do other things like spend our money.
Ernie says that the real estate agent mentioned the upgrades.
An upgrade is an improvement to something.
For a home.
Usually it's making the home better, perhaps by putting in a nicer kitchen, putting in a nicer refrigerator.
These would be upgrades.
Changing the carpet, that would also be a minor upgrade.
More cosmetic than anything else, but still, it makes the house nicer.
Well, Kyoko says that she doesn't want to sit in the car for the next four hours during the open house.
She says, let's go visit our neighbor's open houses.
Ernie says, good idea.
We'll see what our competition is, and maybe we can steal some of their open house ideas.
So Ernie and Kyoko are going to look at other open houses just like I mentioned earlier, people often do to see if they can get some ideas about selling their house.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
We're not supposed to be here.
I think we should leave and let our real estate agent hold the open house without us looking over her shoulder.
We're not looking over her shoulder.
I just want to sit in this car to see how many people go in and out.
You know, there'll be a lot of looky-loos.
And plus, there'll be a sign-in sheet so we'll be able to see afterwards how many people stopped in.
Hey, someone's coming in now.
That's the stager.
She's making some last-minute changes.
She really doesn't need to do anything else.
We did everything our agent told us to do.
We made cosmetic repairs, painted, and decluttered.
What more could they ask for?
She's just doing some minor landscaping, putting some plants along the front path and around the front door.
Let's get out of here before people start showing up.
I don't want to seem like I'm spying on my own house.
What does it matter?
Hand me the fact sheet for our house.
I want to read it through again to make sure the agent didn't miss anything.
Okay, the square footage on the house and the lot are correct.
She noted that our addition is permitted, and she mentioned the upgrades.
Good.
Where are you going?
I'm not going to sit in this car for the next four hours.
Let's go visit our neighbor's open houses.
Good idea.
We'll see what our competition is, and maybe we can steal some of their open house ideas.
There's no need for the boss to look over the shoulder of the writer of this script.
It's by Dr. Lucy Say, so you know it's going to be good.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
