Ranch With A Bonus Room

[Tom McDowell]

If you have a home that is a ranch style home with a bonus room above the garage do you name it a 1 1/2 story or ranch with a bonus room. I do reviews and I see it both ways. I prefer ranch with bonus room.

Not a critical point but just wanted to know what the general thinking is.

 

[Stone]

I have said ranch with bonus room before.

 

[Rob Bodkin]

I would do what sounded best to you, that your market would recognize best. I don't think either description is "better" than the other.

 

[GeorgiaBoy]

On the "No. of Stories" line I enter "1+ Bonus". On the "Design(Style)" line I enter "Ranch".

 

[Don Clark]

B) I am state certified in Virginia and North Carolina. I don't know what they call it where you are but here in Virginia Beach and in Currituck County, NC it is a ranch. You could put wings on it and it would still be a ranch, not an airplane. Here we call that room a FROG(Finnished Room Over Garage). I usually will not consider it living area. Reason is that I have no idea what size the FROG's on all the comps are, and the head room may not be adequate(minimum of 7' for at least 1/2 the area of the FROG), and it is easier to adjust if it is treated as an amenity.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Here we go again....it is a ranch style home with a bonus room. How does the assessor and MLS describe it? I probably would do the same.

 

[Tom McDowell]

That is what I call it is a ranch with a bonus room. The problem comes in when you review a file. We get the response "I've been doing this 30 years and I have always called it a 1 1/2 story."

This response usually comes from appraiser with initials after their name.

 

[Randy Beigh]

Sometimes, answers surprise me. Everybody jumped to conclusions.

No one asked the obvious questions. Is the bonus room finished? Is the bonus room accessed from the main part of the house or the garage? Are bonus rooms common in this market? Do you have sales for such things?

The answers to these questions would, for me, determine which way to go.

I can, easily, see a scenario where I would put the bonus room on a separate line item.

 

[Farm Gal]

I have heard that in some areas of the country it is called a "FROG" (Finished room Over Garage)...

In most areas where it is a common style, it seems that while considered in value... it is counted differently by the market than main level finish... I understand that most folks value it on one of the lower lines of the URAR in that case.

I think it comes down to 'peer practice'.... what do MOST of your local peers do with this type of finish.

Nevermind the alphabet-soup crowd <_< , survey your peers as 'majority of local competition'.... cause some of the alpha bunch have streudel in their noodle and are too chicken to come out and play on a level playing ground!

Rarified air can cause lightheadedness :blink: unless they come down off the mountain once in a while :twisted:

 

[GeorgiaBoy]

Randy,

I think that everyone jumped to conclusions because the question is pretty cut and dry. None of the additional questions you ask in your post are relavent to how the property's style is named.