Do not count laundry room as a room

[Terrel L. Shields]

I iron all the time. Learned at a very young age.

I have way too many clothes after a buddy's wife dumped about 20 shirts on me and I had loaded up a huge number of shirts from another buddy's moving yard sale. I probably have between 40 and 50 shirts. So, I fill the bed with the non-permanent-press ones until its full then I spend 2 hours ironing them all. My closet isn't big enough to hold them all so I overflow to the spare bedroom. Iron about once every six weeks.

 

[Elliott]

Comp 1 - He made only a -$3000 adjustment for a 2Bed 1Bath difference?!?! (There's a story in there somewhere ... )

Alisie....you mis-pronouned the appraiser. I had two appraisals done in 2020 and 2021, they were both typical roll-your-eyes appraisals, with low or unexplained adjustment, and the appraiser missed the golf course frontage, I just threw them in a drawer, LTVs were 20%.

 

[Mark K]

... I just threw them in a drawer, LTVs were 20%.

Perfect example of when an appraisal is a total waste of time and money.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

If demand for 2 bed v 3 bed is equal, then SF covers all the differences between the 2. Ditto bathrooms. I have 2 bathrooms. I use one. If buying a house for myself, I only need one. If I was buying a house to rent, I only want 1 bathroom and zero carpeting. Lower maintenance.

 

[RCA]

From the perspective of doing a MARS regression - I know that it never chooses to regress on total room count or room counts other than those numbered below. - It has never seen a statistical reason to go beyond:

1. Bathroom Count
2. Bedroom Count
3. Garage Car Bays
4. Total above-grade living area (GLA)
5. Total below-grade living area
6. Total unfinished area suitable for easy conversion to living area, above and below grade.


I have have at times entered family room count, dining room count, etc., into MARS, but it has always concluded that these counts, when comparing homes, do not significantly impact valuation.

Such rooms are well-enough represented by the GLA. I would put adjustments for out-of-ordinary rooms that I know do impact value, e.g. sizeable and well-equipoed workshops and saunas in the residual, which with the RCA is constrained by the residual - that gives me the freedom to make such adjustment for exaplanatory purposes only, without impacting the value conclusion (the adjustments for variables that don't go into the regression, are by default in the residual.

 

[Alsie35]

Perfect example of when an appraisal is a total waste of time and money.

Not if the end result was a 2.75% 30-year interest rate!!!!

 

[Mark K]

Not if the end result was a 2.75% 30-year interest rate!!!!

I didn't say the loan was a waste of time. Doing an appraisal for a 20% LTV mortgage is a waste of time and money.

If I was buying a house to rent, I only want 1 bathroom and zero carpeting. Lower maintenance.

An extra bathroom would add $75 - $100/month to the income in this area. Might be worth some extra maintenance, which in my experience, was not that great. When I bought a house for a rental, the first thing I did was remove the garage door opener, the screen/storm doors, and the appliances. Those items cause more maintenance than an extra bath.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

An extra bathroom would add $75 - $100/month to the income in this area. Might be worth some extra maintenance, which in my experience, was not that great. When I bought a house for a rental, the first thing I did was remove the garage door opener, the screen/storm doors, and the appliances. Those items cause more maintenance than an extra bath.

But would a 2 bed, 1 bath house rent much more than a 2 bed 2 bath one all other things being equal? In a 3 bed 1 vs 3 bed 2, I can see the appeal, not so much with the 2 bed 1 bath scenario.

 

[Mark K]

But would a 2 bed, 1 bath house rent much more than a 2 bed 2 bath one all other things being equal? In a 3 bed 1 vs 3 bed 2, I can see the appeal, not so much with the 2 bed 1 bath scenario.

The second bath in a 2 bedroom unit makes it ideal for a room mate situation; each has their own bath. Also, often times a 2 BR has 3-4 people (parents, 2 kids) and the extra bath is very desirable.

Basically, the extra bath will bring in plenty of extra income to offset what little extra maintenance is involved. Similar to the extra income from a garage.

 

[Tiffany Gibbons]

I guess I'm the anomaly.... I iron my khakis and Polo the night before appointments. I don't like wearing things that looks like I got it from the bottom of the hamper.

I just don't buy things that have to be ironed. I have a fancy dryer that steams but most of the time i hang everything up. Even when I had to wear suits everyday for work they were dry clean only. I wear sandals and fancy flip flops all summer. I only wear real shoes if it's raining or muddy.