Does A Room Require A Closet To Be Classified As A Bedroom?

[Wayne Henry]

Received the following message from a homeowner I am completing an appraisal for. Looking for my colleagues opinions.

"Maryland follows the IRC regulations for bedrooms, which means that it must have a private entrance, meaning you can't have to go through one bedroom to get to another one. It has to be a minimum of 70 square feet, it has to have a minimum of 7 feet of wall on at least one side, it has to have at least 2 electrical outlets protected by circuit breakers, and it has to have egress. Your bedrooms we built meet all of these requirements

There is no requirement for closets

http://www.ericstewartgroup.com/blog/what-makes-a-bedroom-a-legal-bedroom"

I did search Fannie Mae and of course theres no guidance, so where did a closet requirement come from for a room to be classified as a bedroom. Apparently a window is required and other configurations but I can not locate any information regarding a closet requirement. Please comment.

 

[Meandering]

Depends.

Old houses did not have closets, but they still have bedrooms.

It can be seen as a lack of renovation, or modernization and could be a quality consideration in the current market.

.

 

[Michigan CG]

Bedrooms do not have to have closets.

 

[bnmappraisal]

I agree with the above 2 posts. A BR does NOT have to have a closet. Consider what the market demands. i.e. would the "avg Joe" walking into this property consider/use this room as a bedroom? Would that be the consensus of potential buyers? I did a property with this today. I'm going to call it a bedroom as the functional layout, etc would most likely be used as a BR by a potential buyer. There's also a bathroom right there as well.

 

[Howard Klahr]

Received the following message from a homeowner I am completing an appraisal for

a) How old is the home?
b) why is the homeowner concerned?

 

[Wayne Henry]

a) How old is the home?
b) why is the homeowner concerned?

The house is was built in 1950, and it is a basement room. It is one of two rooms in the basement. The room has a window but no closet. The owner received the comment I quoted from the builder completing the renovation. The builder quoted the IRC regarding the matter. Not sure why Fannie Mae never gave guidance on this issue.

 

[DTB]

What difference does a basement bedroom make? And how much does adding a closet cost?

 

[glenn walker]

<<<<< --- NO prior to tract built homes ( Pre-WW-2) very few homes had built in closets and the ones included in tract homes are cheap to construct.** Folks used "Armoires" a piece of furniture that can be purchased in many sizes. They are still sold today and some can cost thousands of dollars in fact it's the newest trend in large custom homes. have seen armoires as large as 6 ' X 20' ( It was a propagated myth repeated even though It has never been true but I still run into appraisers today who believe it. Of course those are the same appraisers who believe if a car has no windshield wipers it's not a car. Just Saying

 

[residentialguy]

Folks used "Armoires" a piece of furniture that can be purchased in many sizes. They are still sold today and some can cost thousands of dollars in fact it's the newest trend in large custom homes. have seen armoires as large as 6 ' X 20' ( It was a propagated myth repeated even though It has never been true but I still run into appraisers today who believe it. Of course those are the same appraisers who believe if a car has no windshield wipers it's not a car. Just Saying

Screw the armoire into the wall and voila...instant custom built-in closet!

 

[glenn walker]

Does the bathroom have a door on it ? If not maybe it's not a bathroom LOL