With more and more real estate information now available to consumers online either through individual REALTOR® websites or via http://www.realtor.ca/ , the accuracy of listing information with respect to any given property is becoming increasingly important and often frustrating.
As licensed REALTORS® we are required to carry errors and omissions insurance and we are in fact responsible for not only the accuracy of our work reading Agreements of Purchase and Sale but also with the listing of properties as well. For example, the Alliance for Canadian Real Estate Education (ACRE) has specific guidelines to follow with respect to measuring the square footage of a home in order to ensure there is no misrepresentation.
One of the more contentious issues of late is with respect to the number of bedrooms a home may have. A room without a closet is not technically a bedroom. More importantly a room in a basement without a window does not constitute a bedroom. Building code requirements stipulate specific window sizes for basement bedrooms so as to allow adequate space for a person to escape through in the event of a fire etc.
The correct format relative to accurately portraying bedrooms in a real estate listing is as follows. If a home has 3 bedrooms above grade and 1 in the basement then the listing should read 3+1 bedrooms not 4 bedrooms. A house with 2 bedrooms up and 2 down would be 2+2 bedrooms etc. To this point in time, http://www.realtor.ca/ does not have the ability to differentiate bedrooms in this manner. Consequently a home with 1 bedroom on the main floor and 2 in the basement would appear online as a 1 bedroom home. Understandably this infuriates the seller. Later in November, the Canadian Real Estate Association will be implementing programming changes to http://www.realtor.ca/ that will correct this shortcoming.
In the meantime if you were thinking of selling you home, how many "legitimate" bedrooms does it have?
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