Before recently meeting with a seller I printed the previous listing sheet for her home. It showed that the home had 3 bedrooms and a full basement. When she gave me a tour of the home I was puzzled only seeing 2 bedrooms upstairs and knowing that there wasn’t a bedroom on the main level. Sure enough the 3rd “bedroom” was in the basement. Unless a basement is a walkout basement, you can’t count any rooms in the basement as bedrooms.
While discussing the bedroom discrepancy, she showed me the appraisal that was done when she bought the home. In addition to seeing that the appraiser described the home as having 2 bedrooms and a den, I also noticed that the square footage for the basement was significantly less than for the main level! Thus, the seller thinking she was buying a 3 bedroom with full basement home had really purchased a 2 bedroom with a partial basement!
The seller said she specifically told her buyers agent that she wanted to buy a 3 bedroom home. She showed me the “comparables” her buyers agent had run for her which was nothing but a dump of several properties of various sizes that had sold in the area.
Shame on the listing agent for mislisting the property. Interestingly, the property had previously been listed as 3 bedrooms and a full basement, so the listing agent may not have been deliberately misleading, but just lazy.
However, there is no excuse for the buyers agent.
She should have caught that the bedroom count was incorrect.
She should have caught that the basement wasn’t a full basement.
She should have produced comparables for a 2 bedroom with a partial basement.
A large part of a buyer agent’s responsibilities is to look out for her client’s best interests. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen in this case.
Fran Bailey specializes in downtown Chicago, Lincoln Park and Lake View condos, co-op apartments and houses. She has shared home buying and selling advice since 2006 and written about over 130 Chicago high rises. To schedule showings for any listings, get a 
