I've been apartment hunting online for St. Louis and I have a few tips for people.
1) If an apartment lists "clean" as one of it's characteristics...or god forbid, the ONLY descriptive word used...run like the wind. That is probably the only nice thing people can say about the apartment.
2) Words like cozy or charming generally mean that this apartment is under 600 square feet.
3) Character usually means that the apartment has an awkward layout, or is pretty old and creaky.

I hope this saves you a lot of time.