Marketing 3 bed house as a 4 bed…

[ViaRia01]

… or any number of bedroom…. when the “4th bedroom” is in fact downstairs and would ordinarily be a dining room or additional reception room.

Does this annoy anyone else? Have you ever done this? Why do people do it?

OK, I know people do it to try to make their house seem more desirable. But it’s just a really slimey thing to do in my opinion. Buyers are not stupid, they can see just how many actual bedrooms the place has. But what it does do is waste everyone’s time when you filter the website for 4 bed or more and keep finding 3 bedroom houses with a separate dining room.

I’m not including bungalows in this obviously, nor chalet bungalows, bungalows with loft converted to a second storey. Barn conversions are also off the hook.

My own house was sold to me as a four bedroom (the fourth bedroom is downstairs and has a small skylight but not windows, it is very small, more like the size of a utility room and it is situated right next to the kitchen, exactly where one would expect to find a utility room). When we sell it, we will market it as a 3 bed with a downstairs office.

Clearly it's working since you yourself bought a three bed house advertised as four bed...

I'd assume you would knock value off your house when selling it your way

No one forces you to buy the house surely you would view and decide if it works for you. Many people would like a downstairs bedroom!

See also marketing as two reception rooms when it’s actually one big knocked through room.

When councils/HAs are now listing properties with a dining room or 2 downstairs reception rooms as having an extra bedroom - including one being “accessible” for people with disabilities, why shouldn’t private landlords or sellers?

With the amount of information on listings on property websites nowadays it shouldn’t come as any surprise to a potential buyer that one of the rooms listed as a bedroom is downstairs when they come to view a house and, if that’s not the set up they want, then don’t arrange a viewing!!

Yes it annoys me a lot. What also annoys me is them listing a room as a bedroom when only a toddler bed fits because of the stair baulkhead or when you can't get a wardrobe or chest of drawers in the same room. Where is your child supposed to keep their clothes, the shed?

I really dislike it when vendors do this. My house does have a downstairs bedroom, but, it has its own en suite and is separate from all main living accommodation.

I also hate rooms being marketed as bedrooms when they really aren't because all they have is a small skylight or similar and are barely large enough for a single bed, let alone any other furniture. It's a large cupboard not a bedroom.

I remember searching for 4 beds when I wanted 3 because more often than not the last bedroom would be a room that no one with functioning senses would consider a bedroom.

Totally agree!

I think in these days of internet, filters, multiple photos, floor plans etc it’s debatable how much of anyone’s time is actually being wasted.

My first flat was bought from picking up an A4 paper from an estate agent I had to actually walk into, with one photo hand stuck to the front!

So although in some cases I might roll my eyes and think, “4th bedroom my arse!” it wouldn’t bother me. For some people, it would count as a 4th. Ditto the reply about 2 reception rooms - if it’s been turned open plan, a stud wall to restore it to 2 is easy and relatively low cost stuff. Cheaper still a room divider.

I hate that. In terraced houses the 3rd bedroom is normally a tiny box room accessible only by going through a bedroom, and with no door. That’s not a bedroom.

It’s not slimey. It’s called selling. It’s not a trick or a secret that you only find out when you move in.

I think people are intelligent enough to know they can use the downstairs bedroom as a study or dining area. My friend has a converted garage as a downstairs bedroom for her son. It’s only ever been a bedroom. They’d never sell it and call the bedroom a study as it’s set up as a bedroom.

We have the same and call it the gym as that’s how it’s set up. I expect an estate agent would sell it as a snug, study, library, bedroom, the list goes on.

I also hate rooms being marketed as bedrooms when they really aren't because all they have is a small skylight or similar and are barely large enough for a single bed, let alone any other furniture. It's a large cupboard not a bedroom.

I agree with this

The American way of listing by sq foot rather number of bedrooms is probably the more honest way, but I suppose only really works for people who are happy to take down/put up internal walls. Over all I completly agree with you.

Yes it is annoying, we went to view a 4 bedroom house and I had to ask where the 4th bedroom is! Turns out it's the dining room. We ended up renting another house that was 3/4 bedroom as we managed to squeeze the dining table in the lounge and my sons bedroom is the dining room

All the estate agents near me do this. It wastes everybody's time trawling through loads of unsuitable listings, and it means they inflate pricing because houses tend to priced roughly according to number of bedrooms (obviously it's not the only factor but it is a major one). Plus when it happens in listing after listing it gives me this weird, depressing sense of dropping standards in housing, as if it's now deemed acceptable in a four bedroom house for there to be no actual dining space for five people except a breakfast bar or a table crammed into the inadequately sized living room, but hey let's price it as a 4 bed anyway.

Buy why cant it be a bedroom?
There's no law that says bedrooms have to be first floor or above.

It's very normal in HOMO or adapted housing to have bedrooms on the ground floor. With a population getting older it's only going to be more common place.

If people are using the room as a bedroom it would be ridiculous to call it something else!

As you say people can easily see by looking at the floor plan that it's a downstairs room. Whereas if they did the opposite and only listed 3 bedrooms then people who would be perfectly happy using the downstairs room as a bedroom would never see it.

Calling a completely accurate listing "there are 4 rooms in this house that could be used as bedrooms" "slimey" is a ridiculous over exaggeration. How much of your time does clicking on a link and looking at a floor plan take for you to get so worked up?

I slightly disagree. With a large family, I’d be interested in how many rooms are useable as bedrooms. A house with 3 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms wouldn’t appeal, one with a large living room and two bedrooms/ offices/‘reception’ rooms plus shower room downstairs does - as far as I’m concerned that’s a 5 bedroom regardless where the rooms are.
so yes it’s got to be proper bedrooms with space and windows etc but upstairs/downstairs seems unimportant to me

Our house is an extended bungalow, two of the original bedrooms still exist downstairs, although we use one as a lounge. Not sure what I would call it if I was selling. We have a very large living/dining room, separate kitchen and utility, very large hallway and two of the three original bedrooms downstairs, one still used as a bedroom. And two bedrooms, one used as an office upstairs. So could be two, three or four bedrooms all are a decent size not box rooms.

Our house was marketed as a 4 bed when we bought it. I've seen the same style house marketed as a 5 bed several times since. There's a small study sized room upstairs that would barely fit a single bed. Most use it as an office. We made it into a walk-in wardrobe. All the other bedrooms are big. There's no way it's meant to be slept in.

It's all about the money. An extra 'bedroom' means it can be priced higher. Doesn't matter how practical the space actually is for a bedroom.

I remember my parents trying this in the 2000s and it just resulted in annoyed viewers saying how the hell is that a bedroom?

Depends on your situation and what you need from the house. A downstairs bedroom/dining room can be useful if you need it for someone who can't use the stairs. We're just a couple, so only need one bedroom, but are looking at running our business from our next house eventually. So looking for a place with a decent square footage. Potentially a downstairs bedroom would be preferable, as we could keep work upstairs and live downstairs.

Plenty of houses seem to just have a small dining table in the kitchen and repurpose what was the 'dining room' as a bedroom or second living room. It would be good if Rightmove had an option to search by size in sq ft. Some new build 5 bed houses can be the same floor size as an older 3 bed.

Annoyed me too but where I live the dining room in the houses (directly off living room) is often used as a bedroom. I would hate it though. There is no loo downstairs and as it's right next to the living room you couldn't just go to bed if someone was up and watching TV. To me it isn't a suitable room for a bedroom and is a dining room in my house, but others use it as such so can't argue with it really!

The habit in this country about giving a random number of bedrooms IS annoying because it means absolutely nothing.

A 4 bed can be a grotty terraced with tiny box rooms or a stately home with 4 bedrooms, but 5 reception rooms, 2 play rooms.. When you look at the ads, the number of "bedrooms" stops being an issue past a certain price range!

You just have to ignore it when you look at the details.

MY pet hate is the lack of floor plans. I can decide by myself when I see one.

I'd always decide based on floor plans. I never understand advice like getting some plants or clearing clutter when the floorplan is what you're getting and not the dressing.