Reading real estate advertisements can be confusing. Real estate is generally advertised in either a display ad with a photograph of the house or a classified ad. Buyers prefer the display ads in real estate magazines as they can see a photograph of the property. However, these magazines have a two to three weeks lead time for publication. Therefore, you are several weeks behind the times. Properties can also look better or worse in the photograph than they do in person and you may rule out a good candidate based on the photo. Real Estate agents use the photo in these ads as the selling point and the description maybe brief. 

Most real estate is advertised in newspapers due to the short lead-time. The lead-time for a classified ad is two days and a newspaper display ad about four days. As a real estate agent pays by character in a classified advertisement, agents use many abbreviations to reduce the cost. These abbreviations can often be confusing to the Buyer.

Commonly used abbreviations in real estate advertising are: 

Acre - ac
Air Conditioning - a/c or AC
Apartment - apt
Basement - bsmt
Bath - ba, bath, bth
Bedroom - br, bed, bdrm
Building - bldg
Cathedral Ceiling - cath ceil
Central Air Conditioning - c/a
Central Vacuum - cvac, c/vac, central vac
Condominium - condo
Detached - det
Dinning Room - dr, din rm
Double - dbl
Eat in Kitchen - eik
Exposure - exp
Exterior - ext
Family Room - fam rm
Fenced - fncd
Finished Basement - fin bsmt
Fireplace - fpl
Floor - fr
Garage - gar
Hardwood Floors - hrdwd flrs
Homeowners Association - HOA
Included - incl
Kitchen - kit, kitch
Laundry - lndy
Large - lrg
Living Area - la
Living Room - lr
Luxury - lux
Master Bedroom - mbr
Office - ofc, offc
Parking - prkg
Private - priv
Room - rm
Separate Entrance - sep entr
Spacious - spac
Square Feet - sf
Subdivision - subdiv
Suite - st, ste
Townhouse - twnhse
Wall to Wall - w/w
Washer/Dryer - w/d
Workshop - wkshp
Yard - yd, yrd