Poor Floor Plan

[Mike Boyd]

Call these rooms what you like. You are the appraiser; not the building inspector. Just make certain that you tell the client exactly what you have told us.

If you think there is a problem, advise the client to have the rooms inspected by the local building code enforcement agency.

As to the market reaction, if there are no comps, you have to decide and make a professional estimate as to the market reaction to this non-typical floor plan. On the basis of that judgment, you also have to decide if you are going to call these rooms bedrooms or not.

Do not call them bedrooms. Like Richard says, call 'em anything you want except a bathroom. I have great difficulty following what all the initials stand for. Spell them out! Adjust for differences in square footage. A sitting room, for example, is a desirable feature in my market area. They could be studies.... or a media room and a den, or any combination.

 

[Riick]

If the layout is what I envision it, the new rear bedroom spans the width of the former two bedrooms.
So the house has now gone from a 3br (1 front & 2 rear) to a 2br + 2 walk-through "middle rooms" without windows. {{ See Sketch }}

--- You'll need to look to 2br homes in current GLA range - if they exist. ---
Overall, room count and GLA have increased, and you have functional depreciation - which is Curable or Incurable?

I've seen similar layouts in so called "railroad flats" in apartment buildings, and in row homes in low-income neighborhoods. Sometimes TWO pass-thru bedrooms in a row!

Interestingly, for the homes, where the money was really tight, and buyer had maybe 5 kids, the market showed that this was a desirable layout, due to larger bedroom count and GLA.
-- though increase in value may not have been equal to cost to build --

 

[DCSVAL]

How about this...

You say it's a semi-detached dwelling and that the original dwelling had two rear bedrooms. Than one of those original bedrooms would be along an outside wall. You might cost-to-cure the FO of the floorplan by closing off the rear doorway of the bedroom along the outside wall and cutting the siding and installing a window. The resulting room would have privacy, one door and egress through a window. Cost would be minimal, if the owner did it himself/herself--not much more than some drywall, a few studs, a window and a few reciprocating saw blades. Though a licensed home improvement contractor...

Being on the inside wall, the "fourth bedroom" would never be a real bedroom, by fire code as you've researched them. Make it a walk-through closet for the master bedroom. Everyone needs a little more closet space these days.

If you're ina market that prefers 3 bedrooms over 2 bedrooms, this new floor plan would go a long way when it comes time to sell the house.

 

[Farm Gal]

Richard: Here's the deal - aside from potentially adverse legal ramifications...

I go out and appraise one of these properties and put all 'similar' comparables using a 4 bedroom count, but my experience tells me that unless I can FIND another with an exact similar floorplan, I'd best not use a 'true' 4 bedroom sale without bracketing also with a true 2...

And then the UW or someone gigs me up on 'overcounting the bedrooms' - OR someone re-issues the assignemnt (yeah new appraisal) as an FHA...
Now I have a report out there saying 6/4/2F and one saying 6/2/2F. I'd prefer to skip the trip.

Now the same thing CAN happen to you based on the window height and location, let alone absence of windows. I own a 5/3/1.5 house which is per FHA really a 5/2/1.5... but no local appraiser I know would measure that 3rd bedroom window and ding it as unacceptable as a bedroom... For the simple reason that absent the exterior doors which I personally installed in MY house the actual room count on the 80+ homes in the area with the same floor plan is 5/0/1.5!

So a "double set of too high from floor level windows with an 18"vertical opening" isn't really fire escape if you mass over 200lbs.... NO one in this market is gonna call the other rooms 'NOT BEDrooms'.

But a room lacking ventilation and light source entirely? Nah it is an 'other'.

Why argue it?

Fannie and Freddie seem to make loans on Berm homes with counts of zero bedrooms... you will NEVER get me to call a room at the back of a berm lacking afire escape a BEDroom... too many of those have woodstoves that never get the chimneys swept! :Eyecrazy:

 

[Richard Carlsen]

Lee Ann

I did not say to call it a 4 bedroom or count those rooms as bedrooms. I said for the appraiser raising the question to make that decision.

I personally would not call an interior room with only a door exit a bedroom. Having run into two that I can remember, I just called them storage rooms because that was about all that they were good for. I did, as I remember, note in the report that the then present HO was using them as bedrooms.

However, my other point was that we as appraisers are not obligated to list or correct any code violations. An "as is" appraisal is just that. If there are items that are of concern or might need correcting, the certifications says that we disclose them but they do not say that we have to seek correction or make a judgment as to the legality of adherence to any codes.