Garage Conversion Being Used As Bedroom With No Closet

[KeyWhiz]

Our assessor does not even count bedrooms, only bathrooms.

It certainly varies from county to county. I work in an area where I cover about 6 counties. I've got one county who doesn't list either because they state "we don't know because we don't go inside". I've got another that lists not only the room count but the number of plumbing fixtures.

How they handle unpermitted space varies wildly as well. I've got one county that will issue a permit for an addition or a conversion but leave it as unpermitted on the records because they say they do it as favor to the homeowners so that their taxes aren't increased because of it.

Fun stuff!

No. I would simply not do it and screw the closet issue. I am not certain a closet is a requirement of FHA, Fannie/Freddy or anyone else to call something a bedroom. I would call it "off grade" and say it is used as a spare bedroom. And even if I considered it as a 4th bedroom, zero adjustment up.

A few years ago I went into a 20ish year old subdivision and someone had converted the bedroom. So I went to hunting bedroom conversion comps and the difference between a "converted" one and a house with a functional garage was almost zip...nada. nothing. But a couple of sales had built onto the house, converted the garage to bedroom while building a new garage. Those had a significant and measurable increase in price.

This is where I'm at with it. Thanks for all the input. Just needed to make sure I wasn't going to make a mistake by being too stubborn.

 

[KeyWhiz]

They're trying to intimidate you because they think you are malleable... because you sort of sound that way.

It's a converted garage. You gain some funky living area but lose the garage. Who the heck makes bedroom count adjustment anyway... except in the most "young family neighborhoods" or where people are warehoused?

I think you made the right call the first time around. You will probably lose the customer and make the borrower mad, but skru them.

Nah, I won't lose the customer. They already gave me the leeway to call it as I see it. I just wanted some input on the matter. The weirdest thing to me was them sending me a copy of the assessor's card that was changed after my effective date.

I sound malleable? Uh. OK. I'll try to work on that, lol. But no. The homeowner doesn't know me well enough to think I'm malleable. They are probably just upset that I didn't value the home where they thought it should be. what else is new? And the lender? They just want to close the deal and move on to the next one.

You don't make bedroom count adjustments? Between a 3 and 4 bedroom home? Might be different where you are.

 

[TRESinc]

does it still have the garage doors? how about a driveway? i am in the camp of some others - it is not on the same hvac as the subject and sounds kinda atypical. granted the only thing i know about your market is from vacations to vegas but i would imagine that gaining an extra bedroom would not offset the loss of not having a garage and in the end it would be detrimental to the value of the property.

Who the heck makes bedroom count adjustment anyway...

i do when the situation calls for it.

 

[KeyWhiz]

does it still have the garage doors? how about a driveway? i am in the camp of some others - it is not on the same hvac as the subject and sounds kinda atypical. granted the only thing i know about your market is from vacations to vegas but i would imagine that gaining an extra bedroom would not offset the loss of not having a garage and in the end it would be detrimental to the value of the property.




i do when the situation calls for it.

It never had a garage door but it has the driveway. It has some nice French doors instead. It was originally converted by the builders to be the office space for selling the subdivision. Outside of the fact that it's not connected to the HVAC, it's to the finish of the rest of the house. For me? It was borderline whether to include it in the GLA or delineate it. I chose the latter because of the HVAC thing and, frankly, because I had a comp with the same thing done to it so I could support calling it something else. And also because even though the finish is to the rest of the house, you have to step down into it like a garage and walk through the laundry room the get to it. For me, delineating such things on the grid has become more a matter of erring-on-the-side-of-caution over the years. Especially since I will be asked to comment as to why my GLA number is different from the assessor regardless. I might as well separate the space on the grid if it makes sense.

I'm not in Vegas, (other end of the state) but up here I find the garage vs garage conversion value is generally a wash. I think it's about 50/50 as to what the typical buyer would prefer to do with that space.

 

[ramrcdk]

This is what I'm thinking. The finish is very close to the rest of the house. Were it connected to the HVAC I probably would have included it in the GLA in the first place. It's a close call on where to grid it, and that part really isn't the issue. It's the whole "call it a bedroom just because the homeowner wants me to and make it a cost-to-cure" thing. I've never been asked to that before. I've never seen a homeowner go to the assessor and get a room count changed. And it's not like he's going to add a closet.
I've got half a mind to make it 'subject to' the closet being added and force him to do it.

OK so you do what the LENDER demands (requests) & then what?
IS then the owner -lender wanting you to make "adjustments" for the now extra # of bedrooms?
Including the "garage space as main living SF" : Then perhaps NO similar SF sales already in the report, additional grid sales, considerations of : line bracketing issues, super-adequacy, no closet-functional consideration, proving why 2nd reasoning "was not your initial reasoning" ...just WOW! Come here-from Sic' Em ?

Where does this...end?

 

[KeyWhiz]

OK so you do what the LENDER demands (requests) & then what?
IS then the owner -lender wanting you to make "adjustments" for the now extra # of bedrooms?
Including the "garage space as main living SF" : Then perhaps NO similar SF sales already in the report, additional grid sales, considerations of : line bracketing issues, super-adequacy, no closet-functional consideration, proving why 2nd reasoning "was not your initial reasoning" ...just WOW! Come here-from Sic' Em ?

Where does this...end?

I've decided to stick to my guns on this one. Now it's just a matter of how I word it all in the addendum. Mulling it over in my head before I submit the report later this afternoon.

As I sit in my own home-office space which has no closet but does have an egress---could I demand an appraiser call this a bedroom and now suddenly I live in a 5-bedroom house just because I, as the homeowner, say it's a bedroom? Would I need to move my desk out and stick a bed in here before the inspection?

It seems a ridiculous request to me. I just need to figure out how to best word it to make clear that it is without being tooo snarky.

 

[ramrcdk]

I've decided to stick to my guns on this one. Now it's just a matter of how I word it all in the addendum. Mulling it over in my head before I submit the report later this afternoon.
As I sit in my own home-office space which has no closet but does have an egress---could I demand an appraiser call this a bedroom and now suddenly I live in a 5-bedroom house just because I, as the homeowner, say it's a bedroom? Would I need to move my desk out and stick a bed in here before the inspection?
It seems a ridiculous request to me. I just need to figure out how to best word it to make clear that it is without being tooo snarky.

Perhaps, request a (number of) time consuming document (s) : like "A Permit" showing the garage space as being "heated area", budget-construction cost for an adequate closet (typical buyer desire found "typical" in the market), etc. Also IF found true: changing the report as per request will then need to consider different functional obsolescence considerations which may be found to be of no further value once reconciled and the extra Fee would be $___ due to the fact I did comply to all Scope Requests and Guidelines in the Initial Report. What you have provided is "an after report completion request" which will require use of an EA and other time consuming considerations.

You will find necessary response tools in : "For what are the reasons an appraiser can make changes to a report, after delivery. "
Use: quotes from your text books, GSE engagement or typical report lending guidelines, after delivery requests results would ...be a wash once obsolescenceS were applied (once proved),
Think on it, I will too!

 

[CANative]

If you make a bedroom count AND a GLA adjustment you're probably double dipping. Your house was designed as a three bedroom and the garage conversion was for purposes of a value in use - by the developer for a sales office and for the current owner as an extra bedroom. It's not natural and it would be wrong to compare this house to houses designed with 4 bedrooms.

 

[Mr Rex]

Does bedroom count really matter after 3 in your area? What about the functional issue of having to likely traipse through the laundry, kitchen, breakfast area and down a distant hall to go to the bathroom or shower? Likely still works out to $10 less per sf than "standard" GLA, its just a matter of where the deduction appears on the grid. As one poster has often said, just because a cat has kittens in the oven doesn't make them biscuits. Just because there is a bed in the former garage make it a bedroom. That said, I have bigger hills to die on and a little explanation goes a long way to soothing the savage beast that is a borrower and/or loan officer in search of closing.

FWIW, I'm think someone using a converted garage as a bedroom doesn't understand that most folks today like closets in their bedrooms. The horror!

 

[Michigan CG]

You don't make bedroom count adjustments?

Never and no one I have talked to can ever support that adjustment.