Real estate agents live by abbreviations, but many potential homebuyers do not have a clue what these abbreviations mean.

Yes, one wants to reduce the cost of the ad by decreasing the number of characters to reduce the expense. But you still want to get your point across. Write out your key selling point and abbreviate the standard information.

Common Real Estate Abbreviations are:

Acres - 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

Norman Rosskothen is the Branch Manager of Mortgage Trust Group, Inc. in Waltham, MA. He has over 14 years of real estate and mortgage experience. Before entering the mortgage industry, he sold real estate under the Century 21 and RE/MAX systems. He can be reached at norman@mtgmortgages.com For more information and articles, go to http://www.mtgmortgages.com.