You Call THAT A Bedroom??

You Call THAT A Bedroom??

When trying to sell a home, everyone wants to make the home as appealing as possible.  Capturing all the features and changes to attract the buyers is critical.  But one feature we've often seen stretched is the number of bedrooms a home has.

When you check the legal records and see one less bedroom than the MLS is reporting, you immediately have to wonder exactly where that extra bedroom materialized.  More often than not, that extra "bedroom" is in the basement.  By itself, that's not a bad thing.  It's probably quieter, probably cooler, probably more private.  But is it safe & is it really a bedroom?

We're not building code experts by any means, but the definition we've always heard is two means of exit and a closet.  Now frankly we're not overly concerned about the closet part.  Put in a big armoire and you're probably good to go.  Chances are this extra bedroom is just a guest room.

But it's the two safe means of egress that we see routinely violated.  Let's play worst case here.  Is it a bedroom or a deathtrap?  Say you have a fire in the gas furnace.....which just happens to be a few feet away from the bedroom door.  Where are you going to go?  Out the window of course!  Oh....<insert appropriate comic cursing here>, that window is 6 feet off the floor, and 1 foot by two wide....and in a recessed window well outside.  And did we mention it's glass block, solid as a wall?  That "bedroom" is now a human BBQ pit.

To legitimately call this room a bedroom, you need a true egress window.  Maybe it's possible to have a professional cut the foundation walls and install an egress capable window, but if not, DON'T call that room a bedroom!  You know how to make a potential buyer mad?  Bring them to your home under false pretenses.  Works every time!  And we're not even touching those 5 foot by 8 foot spaces we've seen called a bedroom that you'd be lucky to fit a twin bed into.

So before you call that extra room a bedroom, make sure you can actually call it a bedroom!  Truth in advertising really counts!

Serving Warren County's residential real estate needs,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz