Misleading listings on rightmove

[Upsidedownsides]

There seems to be a new estate agent trick when listing properties, to take dining rooms and extra living space and list them as bedrooms to try and improve a properties chances against the filters. So as long as the property has a living room and kitchen every thing else is listed as a bedroom, even when it quite obviously isn’t.

I dont know why RM allows it. It’s such a waste of time, you click on a property and it is just so unsuitable. This one for example is listed as 4 beds, it’s barely 3!! You could only get a single bed in the third bedroom and wouldn’t be able to get any storage in.

Now that's the layout I specifically looked for when I was searching. As others I have a relative that will be moving in with me at some point in the not too distant future and we needed space for a downstairs bedroom. There are 4 bedrooms in that house, the configuration doesn't suit you, but that's what floor plans and descriptions are for.

Use the Area360 add-in for RM on Chrome. Then you can click on the floorpan directly from the list page - and also see other information that the EA may not be ready to disclose.

^ I can't tell you how often I have spent 20 minutes or more scrutinising a potential home only to subsequently find that it's in a flood zone or the area is really noisy. Area360 can help you save time and skip those properties quickly.

yeah I hate it, its been around for years though.

We need a 4 bed and hated listings that did that, instantly discounted and none end up selling. As a family I do not want us (or 1 kid) on a different floor. Its not fire safe (especially as its usually all the way through living through rooms so hard to reach).

I don't mind box rooms listed as bedroom, I need seperate spaces but willing to sacrifice size as long as a bed safely fits its a bedroom. Both me and DH had the tiny box room as kids and it did us no harm.

There is no legal requirement for a older private owned property other than it needs a window to offer a fire escape and cannot be a 'through room'... only new build or rented have laws on size.

There is like 5 houses pulling this trick in my town... NONE have sold.

One I will even say is a specially built disabled annex for a wheelchair user with full accessible wet room. So a legit 4 bed but there is just no real market for it.

The others are chancers, 3 listing dining room as bedroom and 1 listing a walk in wardrobe (accessed via the master bedroom with no other way to connect to the house) as a bedroom.

Everyone argues the 'disabled/elderly' thing but its not actual something virtually anyone looks for. My mam was bed bound most my lufe, could only get around for necessities (hospital appointments etc...) via a full electric wheelchair. She lived upstairs in our normal house thanks to classic aids like a stair lift. We had little to no 'special build requirements, just stair lift and ramp but managed fine for 30 years.

I have seen about 5 houses in the last 2 years that are standard 2 stories with full lifts for wheelchairs, they are more common than 'special' downstairs rooms. Disabled people also get grants to adapt their house to their needs so can buy any standard house and have it customised.

The demand for future proofing for being old and the needs of disabled people being as being just cram them in the dining room are massively overestimated (and a bit insulting) on mumsnet. I see the misguided 'logic' to thought that mobility = downstairs but it just does not transfer into reality really.

It's gardens for me. A few years ago they built a row of four houses in my village, they've all got five bedrooms and three bathrooms, which is lovely. Family houses, great. However, they have a back garden so tiny that you can't even put up a rotary washing line without it scraping at least one of the walls. So, family house for three or four children - and nowhere outside for them to play.

The house that’s linked is a two bedroom house with aspirations. The bedroom on the first floor would be better as a dressing room and downstairs as a dining room/ office. It’s bottom heavy and I wouldn’t want to go to the conservatory from a bedroom.

I suppose it’s an attempt at future proofing by having a shower room downstairs. But it’s not a four bedroom house.

It's fine by me.

When we last bought, I wanted 3 beds + space for WFH / office so I didn't really care whether the 4th bed was up or down stairs. It's downstairs and now kitted out properly as an office so I don't know if I would list as 3 or 4 beds if / when we sell. The room exists as well as the separate living room & dining room though so perhaps that's more acceptable!

But if people have no personal need for an office, but they do have an extra child...?

Well given that Rightmove allowed my DPs house to be listed as a 2 bed by 1 agent and a 4 bed by another- with both listing's appearing next to each other on their site - I'd say that they probably don't scrutinise the listings!

So 3 beds and an office not 4 beds, its absolutely fine and normal to have an office space anywhere but what actually would make a downstairs office a 'bedroom'?

Our house is a 3 bed but the under stairs cupboard is easily big enough to be an small office, even has a built in desk already (but we don't use it as its always cold with no radiator so just store stuff there), on no planet is it or could it ever be a bedroom though.

People keep saying I need 3/4 beds as I work from home but an office does not equal a bedroom you can have 2 beds and a down stairs office and its not a 3 bed.

But how would a two bed house with an office downstairs be marketed? Two bed house with three reception rooms? Which must be unusual!

Well my downstairs office could easily have been set up as a bedroom if wanted. It's about 12' square with a big window to the garden, comes off the hall. How would you like an EA to describe it on RM? Bearing in mind there isn't a field for office or extra reception rooms.

I don’t see the problem, some people would like a bedroom downstairs, with bungalows bedrooms could be used as dining rooms or another reception room don’t see why the opposite can’t be true for a house, there is no law to say bedrooms have to be up a flight of stairs.

RM doesn't list/filter reception rooms, it only lists bedroom and bathrooms. EA can then write in the description anything.

Its also not at all uncommon to have multiple reception rooms, big houses obviously do (couldn't afford it but followed my dream house for ages, it had multiple dining room, sitting room, living room, conservatory, games room, bar, gym and cinema).

With many extending houses its becoming common, we will be converting the garage into a 3 usable space for an office.

I agree but I all can say is that I didn’t have a problem with the fact the downstairs room we now use as an office was listed as a bedroom when we bought, it really doesn’t matter.

I mean, I'm not the authority or writing the laws here, just stating an opinion! Others may make it a walk in wardrobe, an orangery, a snug or reading room, an arts space...😄

It could be used as a bedroom though, what's the problem with this? Some people might be looking for a ground floor bedroom too. Does a bedroom qualify as one only if on the upper floor?

I totally get where you’re coming from but it is weird though because in a bungalow obviously all the rooms are on one floor so if a bungalow had more than one reception room, what would you call the others? And how about chalet houses where there’s often an unbalanced layout with say two beds upstairs and two downstairs?

I think the crucial thing is whether the room is in the middle of a living space or somewhere practical for a bedroom, in your example it seems like there’s a conservatory off the downstairs “bedroom” so I wouldn’t class that as a bedroom because you have to be able to walk to it to get elsewhere. I think it also needs to be close to a toilet.

It says living/bedroom 4. A friend had this arrangement for his disabled wife. Others do it when a parent lives with them. Depends on whether the layout floats your boat or not. The third bedroom is certainly big enough for a bedroom but depends who is buying and how they wish to use the rooms.

It should just be labeled as dining room, study, sitting room or just additional reception room. Then the potential buyers can decide how they might wish to utilise the room.

Most buyers looking for that specific number of bedrooms would expect them to be upstairs in a house. To be misled into thinking that they are looking at a 4 bed when it's actually a 3 bed with additional reception rooms is shady. Well, just a waste of everyone's time.

Some houses are actually built and marketed by the builders as having a downstrairs bedroom. (Often chalet style). Would people class that as a bedroom?

I actually think most people look at flood plans and size of house and decide if it works for them. Certainly chalet bungalows have downstairs bedroom. Looking at the plans, the downstairs bedroom and conservatory are obviously a more recent extension. In fact this is the layout of my friend’s house. I think it’s pretty obvious the owner might well use this as a bedroom so buyers can decide what they wish to do. I expect pp might have been given for a bedroom too. I cannot say I often see this but it’s not necessarily incorrect.

I'm looking for at least a 3-bed, and I need 3 double sized rooms. I wish there was a RM filter for this.
As PP, often the 3rd bedroom, especially in new build, is a single but this was a new one for me - their 3rd bedroom is advertised as a "nursery bedroom". It's a flipping cupboard! It's been on the market for a while and they have reduced the price at least once.