It’s legal. We have pretty lax zoning laws in this area. It could be rented, but then again all kinds of things can be rented in this county. The biggest question is the liability without a legal ingress and egress for the sleeping areas. Not sure how that would be looked at. But then again we have tons of houses without legal ingress and egress windows on the main floor of homes around here. Actually I don’t think the value would be different one way or the other. Definitely some obsolescence, but it could easily be remedied for about a $1,000 of framing and drywall. It’s actually a pretty nice family room area etc. Apparently it was used as a mother-in-law suite.
What does "liability" for lack of ingress /egress to sleeping areas mean If it means the areas lack windows, then don't call them bedrooms because per ANSI and other standards they don't meet it-
The fact that you have tons of houses there without legal ingress windows on main floor means market accepted but that'' s a value issue , apart from what physically exists, and lenders do base lending decisoins on what physically exists whether or not its market accepted.
The value is one aspect of UW, the lenders' decision to accept or reject or a property is the other aspect, and appraisers have to be careful not to mislead about what physically exists such as calling partitioned off rooms in a basement with no windows "bedrooms" .fwiw below how I might describe it,
"Subject has a finished basement accessible only through garage with no access through main dwelling (disclosure 1 ) , The X sf walk out finished basement can be used for in law suite, family use or possible rental use. Presently it used for (describe) "
"The finished basement consists of a kitchen with stove ( disclosure 2, let lender decide if they want to accept it or make subject to removal ), a living room,, and two drywall partitioned areas set up for sleep/bedroom use. These 2 partitioned off areas do not have windows (disclosure 3)
It is unknown if permits were pulled assumption is no permits pulled since owner did not say they obtained permits (disclosure 4) .
Finished basements done without permits is market accepted in the area. and it is finished in a workmanlike manner. The finished basement is a line item on grid for contributory value, with comps A and B having similar finished basements ( if u can find comps like that).
In other words, the value is the easy part. You mentioned "liability", that is covered when you disclose everything and are clear about what the property consists of.
When I have a funky, not permitted or gray area property I describe and disclose, that way it is a lender decision to lend on it and they knew upfront what the property issues were.
