Why do some estate agents list flats as houses?

Splatfoot

Or possibly to show the seller they are getting lots of RM views when they are not? I've seen countless houses listed as barn conversions!

Countrysider

Splatfoot said:

Or possibly to show the seller they are getting lots of RM views when they are not? I've seen countless houses listed as barn conversions!

My partner used to work in an estate agents, and said this happened a lot because 'Barn Conversion' is the first property type selected in an alphabetised list in the Rightmove CMS dropdown. It's therefore either carelessness or not-bothering by the EA to select a property type other than the default. 

This was in London and there are, naturally, not many barn conversions in London lol. 

[Deleted User]

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Ditzy_Mitzy

It may be to do with the internet, specifically getting round filtration mechanisms provided by Rightmove et al.  Prospective buyers are likely to filter out undesirable properties at the outset, thus will avoid listings categorised as 'house share' or 'studio flat' in favour of 'terraced house' or whatever.  This means vendors of less desirable things never actually get any attention paid to their adverts, so they categorise differently.  It seems to happen a lot with cars for sale, too, with automatics put down as manuals and so on.  

SpanishBlue

NatNat77 said:

I often see semis listed as detached too. Very annoying! 

One of the agents in my area does this a lot.

I have in the past used the option on RM to inform them of the error, but I never get a reply, and the "error" is still there weeks later so I don't bother now.

At least I know which EA I won't be using next time I move!

cattie

In my area I've noticed one ea has described, on more than one occassion, a flat for sale in a block as 'block of flats for sale.' Very odd. 

csgohan4

my other bug bear is EA using fish eye lenses to make box rooms look like a double room. 

NameUnavailable

Very annoying, I found this too, but also searcing on the usual websited, I filter out shared ownership properties or retirement properties and still get the lot inlcuded!

I don't know if it's a mistake on the agents part, the website host or a deliberate ploy!

Mobeer

Most common one I see is end of terrace becoming semi dettached, which looks suspicious.

But have also seem flats as houses and houses as flats in land registry sold prices, which makes me think many of the wrong listings are due to error rather than intention.

Jenni_D

Mobeer said:

Most common one I see is end of terrace becoming semi dettached,

Technically it is ... it is joined to only one other property. The fact that that property is joined on both sides is irrelevant.