Horse with no name

[Colorado Guy]

Hey Guys and Dolls!

I went to the America concert this past week in Colorado Springs. Then today, I appraised a home with no bedrooms! Made me think of the concert.

This home is a rural property in eastern El Paso County Colorado. It looks like a barn from the exterior (YB 2004). Cty assessor and a past listing have the house listed as a 1 bed/1 bath home with 2000 SF. They must count and measure different then me. The house measured about 1100 SF, which includes a loft with 8 ft ceilings. The remainder of this is attached to the garage and is in no way finished area.

My question you to all. Would you call a loft a bedroom. It is open to the down-stairs by a 1/2 height wall. It does have a closet and the start of a 1/2 bath (the bath is so small; you cannot open the door fully as it hits the toilet!). There is egress from the loft, via a sliding glass door to a small patio.

My take is no - a home with no bedrooms. So, by definition, is it still a house??? The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal defines a house as, "A dwelling, may be single or double, e.g., duplex or townhouse, a row house, a split level ranch."

This is by far the strangest home I have seen in 6-years. This is a REO appraisal as well.

I found the following in the ANSI standards for measuring a home. ANSI is not law, but at lease somewhere to start:

Local custom determines the definition of a "room." In general, a room is a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, a dining room, a family room, an office or a den. Bathrooms, laundry rooms, sun rooms, lofts, closets, storage rooms and entries are not usually considered to be rooms.

Thanks

 

[Charles Knutson]

In LoDo (Lower Downtown Denver) I've seen open floor plan (no bedroom) lofts sell for a premium over lofts with one or two bedrooms. I recently did a report on a studio (no bedroom) condo with a Murphy bed -- but it had lots of support in the same building.

That said, SFRs with open floor plans can be tough to appraise -- underwriters want to see at least one comp with the same bedroom count, and sometimes they just don't exist.

The second floor of my house is one big open room, although it was designed to be subdivided into two or three bedrooms. Most of LoDo is within a one mile radius, and there is some potential crossover market appeal. Because of the open floor plan, appraising it has always been tough.

One alternative is to do a cost to cure for framing and drywalling one or two bedrooms, to compensate for the functional obsolescence. Since it's an REO, a substantial cost to cure allowance might make the most sense for the client.

 

[Marcia Langley]

Guy,

Your description of the loft area in regard to unfinished space was unclear to me.

But if the finished portion of the loft area is walled off from the unfinished area, I'd call it a bedroom.

You described a finished area withinterior access, exterior egress, and good ceiling height. I'd call it a bedroom.

I'm an admirer of ANSI standards. The passage you quoted really leaves it up to you to determine.

Local custom determines the definition of a "room."

Then their general description of a room includes lofts with the "not a room" catagory but I take it to mean small lofts that could be compared in size and utility to a landing or a hallway.

IMO a bedroom must afford privacy. Even though a loft does not have the same level of privacy as a walled in room, it still has a higher level of privacy than a landing or a hallway.

 

[Ray Miller]

Please post some interior and exterior pics.

Seen lots of these over the years, makes a good place place for single hands to kick back and watch life go by.

 

[Mike Boyd]

I always call a loft a room......provided that there is ample head clearance, whether or not it is open to the space below. Now, if it was a 3 bedroom or even 2 bedrooms in addition to the loft, I might call it a den. My way of thinking is that there should be a room separate from the rest of the house for sleeping purposes. Certainly, you can sleep in the living room but the majority of us want that separate space. The fact that there is a half bath under construction or consideration likely means that the owner may have originally thought sleeping in the living room would be kool. But, after experiencing the lack of privacy, reconsidered and is now using that loft as a sleeping area.

By the way, in my main market area, the Sonoma County assessor must not think that the kitchen is a room because they call a standard 3/2 a 4 room house.

How about dining "Ls?" Do you call that a room or simply an "area?" How About a family room that is merely an extension of the kitchen....no room dividers?

 

[CANative]

I don't think it makes any difference to value or marketability and I just label it loft bedroom.

The more important issue is my argument with other guitarists. I say Horse With No Name uses 4 chords and that's how I play it while others say it is only 1 chord. This infuriates me.

 

[Farm Gal]

Please remain on-topic!

Gents: I really like that song and don't want to beat a dead Horse- but this one went waaaay off topic... if you are looking for the musical discussion you will find it in the Watercooler...entitled Horse with no name II

Please keep THIS thread on the OP's topic which had a lot more to do with "Loft bedroom or No Bedroom" than how to run a git-ar!

 

[RSW]

Sorry, Lee Ann! We just got carried away going back to the 70's. Thanks for the new thread in the water cooler.