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Estate Agents - overly descriptive?

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bought the property guide yesterday for the first time in 3 yrs, to look for a 3 bed semi for my sister in the price range of say £100-150k. a couple of well known local estate agents have adverts which caught my eye on price but also as using potentially misleading advertising. i thought this had been stamped out in the age of the 'tinternet where everything can be researched, but what do people think of these 2 examples?

first one was advertised as handsworth, but is actually on fishponds road , which is almost certainly woodthorpe/richmond, certainly has never been in Handsworth.

the next one was the new builds at Monteney Gardens, advertised as Ecclesfield, again its within S5 which has always been shiregreen/parson cross? Yew lane being the dividing line of postcodes.

 

descriptions are also "flowery" still, according to them almost every area in sheffield is "sought after":D

 

is it me or is it the old misrepresentation to help sell routine still prevalent?

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I like "deceptively spacious" .

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must admit that some of the wording seems a little old fashioned to say the least, trades descriptions act exemptions must apply to estate agents in the area by the look of it.

i know they have a hard job to do in some situations to sell houses, but sentences like "nestling within" and "deceptively spacious "as above must set bells ringing before people visit.

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I find myself laughing out loud on a daily basis whilst browsing through some of the descriptions on rightmove. It's all very entertaining, however, I never get annoyed because unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast that is property. It shouldn't be, but it is, and probably always will be just like it is with second hand motors. Whether buying, selling or renting, you simply have to surrender to the fact that time will be lost on thorough due diligence.

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I like "deceptively spacious" .

 

lol although it's hard to find a property like that these days

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I find myself laughing out loud on a daily basis whilst browsing through some of the descriptions on rightmove. It's all very entertaining, however, I never get annoyed because unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast that is property. It shouldn't be, but it is, and probably always will be just like it is with second hand motors. Whether buying, selling or renting, you simply have to surrender to the fact that time will be lost on thorough due diligence.

 

your thoughts on describing fishponds rd as handsworth, and monteny gardens as Ecclesfield? surely that could be classed as misrepresentation?

I do actually know someone who lives on yew lane s5 who says they live in upper ecclesfield, thats why that particular advert caught my eye. :)

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i also like the descriptions of Dore and Bradway, if you believed the adverts they are still medieval hamlets where lords and ladies live. dont get me wrong, v nice houses in the adverts but totally oversold by description.

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can anyone explain 'must be viewed to be appreciated'? well, yeah... stating the obvious!

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can anyone explain 'must be viewed to be appreciated'? well, yeah... stating the obvious!

 

Yes that's one of my favourites. As if you would ever think 'Wow, this one looks lovely in the photos, no need to bother with a viewing or a survey, I'll just pop round to my solicitor right now with a suitcase full of cash'. I think the explanation is it's code for 'OK we did our best with the photos, but it's better than it looks, honestly'.

 

Another favourite is 'popular location' which means 'a lot of people live in this extremely densely-populated area, but very few of them would do so if they could afford to live somewhere else'.

Edited by Bilge

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Yes that's one of my favourites. As if you would ever think 'Wow, this one looks lovely in the photos, no need to bother with a viewing or a survey, I'll just pop round to my solicitor right now with a suitcase full of cash'. I think the explanation is it's code for 'OK we did our best with the photos, but it's better than it looks, honestly'.

 

Another favourite is 'popular location' which means 'a lot of people live in this extremely densely-populated area, but very few of them would do so if they could afford to live somewhere else'.

 

that was my same train of thought, every single area of sheffield is either "sought after" or "popular". you would think they were describing a different city to the one we know and love! actually describing houses as being in other postcode areas surely rings bells with people you would think, and its not just one Estate agent, its many of them.

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My late friend Eric Taylor, the senior partner of E Taylor & Co was a one off. He had a trainee who said to him "I have just been instructed to market the most desirable property that we have had on our books for months". Eric replied "Have you seen it?", the trainee replied "No". Eric then said "At least walk through the bloody front door and out of the back door lad".

 

I'm sure that the trainee would have had to visit the property prior to advertising it, but Eric could never get excited about anything that he hadn't seen with his own eyes, he was old school.

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Yes that's one of my favourites. As if you would ever think 'Wow, this one looks lovely in the photos, no need to bother with a viewing or a survey, I'll just pop round to my solicitor right now with a suitcase full of cash'. I think the explanation is it's code for 'OK we did our best with the photos, but it's better than it looks, honestly'.

 

 

yeah or 'we did our best but the house is in a poor state and needs work, but there's potential, honest, come and have a look if you don't beleve us'

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