by Phil Green
Following on from Circles Sales’ listing of the fake ‘Grand Mansion’ in Somerset Road (concocted from images from Cheshire, London, Cheltenham and Connecticut), another dream home was rumbled – this time a £1.5million house allegedly in Bracebridge Road, Sutton Coldfield:
This particular property is actually in Foxcombe Road, south of Oxford, and advertised for sale by Savills estate agents:
Circles Sales’ lengthy online description of the property was lifted virtually word for word from a Quantills listing of an actual house in Bracebridge Road:
The original states:
“The Grange is a Arts and Crafts Grade II Listed family home, built in 1906 by Isaac Langley, a renowned Edwardian builder, and designed by Haywood Farmer…”
…amended by Circle sales to read:
“The Cloves is a Arts and Crafts Grade II Listed family home, built in 1906 by Isaac Langley, a renowned Edwardian builder, and designed by Haywood Farmer.”
In June the agents Savills took exception to their photograph being plagiarised:
SAVILLS CALLS IN LAWYERS OVER LOOKALIKE HOUSE LISTING
Circles Sales response was to replace the stolen picture with another one, equally ‘fake’:
This one features a house in Hartopp Road, Sutton Coldfield marketed by Hunters:
The garden pictures used by Circle have been taken from the websites of 2 garden contractors:
Other properties in Circle Sales’ New Street window include this one in Lordswood Road, B17, marked as ‘Sold’:
But this particular picture is actually of a house in Westfield Road, B15, taken from the website of Simon Michael Homes:
This freehold detached 6 bed house in Shirley, B90, also marked as ‘Sold’…
…is actually an office building in Hall Green, B28, offered to let on Office Genie.
This Victorian 4 bed semi-detached house which Circle Sales describes as being in Livingstone Road, Kings Heath, B14…
…is actually in Barron Road, Northfield, B31:
And the interiors on Circle’s fake listing have been lifted from this old Thornley Groves webpage featuring a house in Broomfield Lane, Hale near Manchester!
This bog standard semi in Stechford Lane, Birmingham B8 with a price tag of £200,000 and an implausible half acre of land attached…
…would actually set you back nearly £500,000 as it’s in Bushey near Watford:
As for the attached half acre of land shown on Circle Sales’ display, that is actually a building plot north of Perth in Scotland!
Curiously, this house advertised by Circle Sales as being in Stoney Lane, Yardley actually is in Stoney Lane…
…although Circle have taken the picture from a Prime Estates listing where the price tag is £60,000 more:
However, the featured kitchen and bathroom clearly aren’t in Yardley as they come from two American websites:
Finally, you might well think this large Victorian semi in Vivian Road, Harborne has a whiff of sea air about it.
That’s because it’s by the coast in Falmouth, Cornwall!
But you would have to walk a long way to make a cup of tea because the kitchen is in Brighton…
…and even further if you want to drink it outside because the garden is somewhere in the USA!
So much for Circles Sales & Lettings’ New Street window of dreams. Their suspect listings online on Zoopla, Prime Location, Rightmove etc are another story… But the moral is the same: give this alleged estate agency a wide berth!