Value of Bonus Room

[E3AO1]

I own a Colonial in north-central Connecticut. The square footage is about 2000, including the bonus room over the garage. I'm in the process of finishing the bonus room now. We will be listing this this house for sale within 6 months.

I understand that many will not consider this room to be a bedroom if it does not include a closet.

My question...is a 2000 sq. ft. house that has 4 bedrooms going to be worth more than the same 2000 sq. ft. house with 3 bedrooms and a bonus room?

I'm curious if making the bonus room into a room that can be considered a bedroom will allow us a higher asking price.

Thank you for any thoughts!

 

[xm39hnu]

Well, I'll defer to CT appraisers for the definitive answer. But you can do a little research yourself to get an idea about the answer to your question.

Look around your immediate neighborhood. How many houses 1800-2200sf have four bedrooms? If not many of them do, then there's not much of a market for them. They usually won't command a premium price in such an environment. Talk to your Realtor; the more experienced agents can tell you about the saleability of a house, and generally won't charge you for it.

Now, I hope you've got two or more baths in that house, because bathrooms count for more in most markets.

 

[Renee Healion]

The closet-makes-it-a-bedroom is more rumor than fact. If that were true, a closet is easily added to a space the size of a typical bonus room.

My question is: do you have a septic? The permit to discharge to your septic is limited by number of bedrooms. If you have a septic and it is approved for three bedrooms (max.), you cannot ethically market it as a four bedroom.

 

[xmrdfghap]

The bonus room problem......the ceiling height. anything under 5' is not considered GLA, even if it is finished the same as the rest of the room.

A closet is irrelevant for a bedroom. You have to have two things: Privacy and egress.

A more important question is the number and location of baths.

You sound like you have done the bonus room yourself.....did you pull the required permits? Is there sufficient electrical outlets? Were they installed legally? Did you compromise the ceiling/floor structure of the garage? How is the ceiling of the garage supported? What kind of heating and A/C do you have in there? Are you depending on a system that was designed for a 1600 foot house to maintain a 2000 ft house?

Answers to these issues will go a long way to determining value. They will be more important than the number of sf listed on the listing.

 

[sunnycal]

In California, it would require minimum size of 10' x 10', a closet, equal in function and quality and most important finished ingress/egress? Would someone really want to go up and down the stairs to use the bathroom? An extra bedroom in a 3 bedroom house or a bonus room would have minimal value in my opinion. I wouldn't spend extra money just to try and up the sales price of my house. Cosmetic updates throughout the house to improve the visual appeal would be much more productive in my opinion. In some markets we actually see lower sales prices when going from a 3 to 4 bedroom but that's usually a function of room size vs room count.

 

[E3AO1]

Thank you to all for your thoughts.

The house has 2.5 bathrooms, including a master bath.

The house does not employ a septic system, so the bedroom count is not an issue.

All permits have been pulled and all wiring, insulation, heat and AC have been installed to code. I'm a professional firefighter so I fully understand egress requirements as well as quality utility work. Egress requirements are met with a door to the central hallway on the 2nd floor and a large window on the gable end.

The house was built 6 years ago with this space engineered to be finished as an extra room. Because of that, the heating and AC systems were engineered for this space's future completion. We chose not to finish the room when we built the house to save some money.

The reason I asked about the inclusion of a closet is because I had an appraiser visit for a refinance and she emphatically told me it would not be considered a bedroom unless it has a closet. After doing some reading here, I guess that was just her personal opinion.

I guess if the closet would not do much for the value of the house, I will skip adding it.

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Put it in for enhanced current utility and future appeal as a guest room when you wish to resell. as part of current construction costs extra is minimal.

 

[Renee Healion]

It sounds like you have done everything right. I understand what you mean by bonus room. It is common in developments for builders to add them and offer then fully finished or minimally finished. (GP these are not typically little attic spaces, often they end up finished as a good-sized master suite, away from the rest of the BRs.)

Regarding the closet makes it a bedroom mantra, appraisers repeat this, but cannot cite a source when pushed. Sorry for your trouble.

I have to agree with Jim. Call a respected real estate broker and ask-in your area- what, if any, difference there is between 3 and a bonus or a 4. If you are in a town that has their tax revaluation done through Vision Appraisal, you can look up properties that you know sold on their site, for your own info at http://www.visionappraisal.com/databases/ or your town may have its own site.

It's good you are on sewers for the bedroom count. You wouldn't believe how people build a 3 bedroom house but keep the third bedroom opening at 5 feet and call it anything but a bedroom. So it looks and sells with a wink like a 3BR but it is only rated for 2BR discharge. The buyers move in and have trouble, and they find they are in violation of their permit.

You can always use closet building, if desired not required, as a negotiating matter since you are capable. Good luck to you.

 

[Wayne Tomlinson]

If you are doing the work yourself, then consider that even if it is a kids play room, a closet (store room) would enhance it's appeal. With this rather isolated spot, it would be good to have a place to put the "stuff" rather than have to pile it in the corner when guests ( if it is a guest room) when showing the house when propects come around.

Not necessary, but definitely not worthless.

Wayne Tomlinson

 

[E3AO1]

Thanks again to everybody!

Since it is so simple to frame a closet into the room, I think I'll head in that direction. We'll be using it for a kid's playroom until we sell - so the extra storage space will certainly help get some of the 30,000 toys organized!

This board is a very nice community of educated professionals willing to help. once again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.