We use all 5 of our bedrooms as bedrooms. We have a bonus room and family room and a living room (currently used as a piano room) so plenty of other space.
I actually look at sq ft more if I don't want to clean. Why would I want a 4 bedroom 6000 sq ft house? I think anything over about 4000-4500 is overkill and just too big.
Our house was advertised as a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home with a bonus room. The bonus room, used as my H's home office, does not have a closet and I guess since the room does not have this it can not be listed as a "bedroom" according to our real estate agent when we looked at the house. I consider our house to be a 5 bedroom house, but according to the actual records, it is 4 bedrooms and a bonus room. Stupid I thought...
I would hate it, mostly because it would be totally extraneous in my situation. I have a 4 BDR house now and one of those is entirely unused. I hesitated a lot on even buying a 4BDR, since we didn't need it, but the rest of the house was too perfect to pass up. A 5th bedroom or an IL suite would probably have pushed me to "no" on my house, though.
Post by peachdragon on Feb 13, 2013 15:32:32 GMT -5
Hmmm. This is a tough question to answer. I don't think I would want a house that's bigger than my current house, so I would try to limit square footage in my searches. I would rather pay more per square foot to get excellent quality than pay the same amount for less character and more space. That being said, I would think that a 5th bedroom could either add too much space, or take away from living space that we would actually use.
But really, my decision would depend on the rest of the house and other factors such as total size and quality.
I've actually looked for ideally 5 bedroom houses. When we search, we search for 4 or more, because 5 is hard to come by. Listing your house at 5BR would bump it up on my list!
It sounds like I would love your house. My parents and in-laws both live 6 hours away, so I'd love a fully appointed guest room/area. Add on 3 family bedrooms (master, 2 kids), plus an extra to use as a home office/den/playroom or whatever (my husband and I have jobs where we need some kind of home office space), and we're in business.
Realtors often put something like "optional fifth bedroom" in the listing.
ETA: I would especially love the ability to put guests on the first floor as my parents age and might not be as good with stairs in a few decades.
Post by heliocentric on Feb 13, 2013 15:41:06 GMT -5
I always find responses to real estate stuff interesting. I have no idea why 5 BR would be a turnoff, but 4+ bonus (or inlaw suite) wouldn't. It's basically the same thing.
We have a 5 BR and only use 2 of the 5 as BR. The others are: TV room, office, yoga/exercise room. Just because it's called a BEDroom doesn't mean you need to put a bed in it.
I see why your realtor would want to list it as a 4-bedroom. A lot of people will just search for 3+ bedrooms or 4+ bedrooms. You would get a larger pool of people if you listed it as a 4-bedroom.
This doesn't follow.
Their house would be included in the searches for people who are looking for 4-bedroom houses in a certain price range. If the house is listed as a 4-bedroom but they get there and see that it's actually 5 and still in their price range, they may be more inclined to think they are getting a better deal.
Their house would be included in the searches for people who are looking for 4-bedroom houses in a certain price range. If the house is listed as a 4-bedroom but they get there and see that it's actually 5 and still in their price range, they may be more inclined to think they are getting a better deal.
Or something.
But the listing would be excluded for people searching for 5+ bedrooms.
I was just thinking that the number of people who would search for a 4-bedroom house might be greater than the number of people who would search for a 5-bedroom house. Maybe I'm mistaken.
I wanted a 4+ bedroom house. In this area they are pretty rare for under$750k...especially 5bds. (All he houses are either 100yrs old or very updated/added onto so expensive). So I didn't think we'd even be able to get one with more than 3, maybe 4 if we were lucky. But we lucked out & got a great deal on a 5bedroom with an in-law suite (full apartment). My BIL lives in it. Now we use 3 beds, have an office in another & my BIL. It's been fantastic, basically my out of reach dream house that we lucked out in getting for a bargain.
I was just thinking that the number of people who would search for a 4-bedroom house might be greater than the number of people who would search for a 5-bedroom house. Maybe I'm mistaken.
Do people typically search only for one particular number of bedrooms? I've always searched with a lower limit, but no upper limit.
Post by DarcyLongfellow on Feb 13, 2013 16:57:35 GMT -5
It's interesting how market-specific this is.
In my area, you can't have basements, and most houses don't have attics (except for a small space above the garage). Lots of bedrooms are desireable because you just don't have much storage space without basements.
The way your house would be listed in my area is that on the area on the MLS where you check how many bedrooms you have, it would say 5 bedrooms. Then, under the description, it would say "Four bedrooms plus spacious first-floor in law suite."
If you say four bedrooms, then you talk about the in law suite, some people will think it is actually THREE bedrooms, with the in law suite being the fourth bedroom.
When we were looking, we actually ran into the opposite problem. People were claiming a house was 5 bedrooms, but the fifth bedroom was an office right next to the front door with no closet and folding doors or glass french doors that were totally see through. So not a five bedroom house at all. I think this is probably pretty common, so I'd definitely err on the side of listing as a 5 bedroom house, not a four bedroom house.
I'm also not following RandZB's logic at all. If I'm looking for a four bedroom house, on most search engines I'm familiar with, I select "four bedrooms" and it returns everything with at LEAST four bedrooms. So a five (or 6, 7, etc.) bedroom house would be returned in that search. If I search for "five bedrooms," I'm not going to see any houses with only four bedrooms.
I was just thinking that the number of people who would search for a 4-bedroom house might be greater than the number of people who would search for a 5-bedroom house. Maybe I'm mistaken.
Do people typically search only for one particular number of bedrooms? I've always searched with a lower limit, but no upper limit.
I always search for 4+, which includes 5-bedroom and up houses. If I only search for 5-bedroom houses, all the 4-bedroom houses are excluded. We don't need 5 bedrooms, but if a 5br house is in the defined price range I would be more inclined to take a look.
I feel like Dennis the Menace's mom when she is trying to explain why the toy store should move to the top level of the mall. Potential tenants would have to go through all the other levels to get to the toy store, and they might be enticed to take up space on the lower levels.
I gave up coffee for Lent, so I may not be making much sense right now.
A 5 bedroom house would not have deterred me (we have a contract on a 4bd, but looked at some 5bd). Who doesn't want extra bedrooms? Now 5 bathrooms...that would be a different story! :-)
I was just thinking that the number of people who would search for a 4-bedroom house might be greater than the number of people who would search for a 5-bedroom house. Maybe I'm mistaken.
Do people typically search only for one particular number of bedrooms? I've always searched with a lower limit, but no upper limit.
Some do. It's the same reason some agents think you should list a home at 300k instead of 299k and some buyers might not think to look lower.
I would think 5 bedrooms would be ideal for a family with 2+ kids. Right now I have 3 bedrooms and no kids, and all bedrooms get used - one is an office and one is a guest room. Ideally if I had 2 kids I'd want what I have now, plus a bedroom for each kid.
As long as the square footage is listed, IDK why someone would think a 3000 sf house with 5 bedrooms is bigger than a 3000 sf house with 4 bedrooms. I also think you're fine if you list in the same price range as a 4 bedroom house.
That said, I would listen to your real estate agent. It doesn't sound like you trust them on much of anything - why are you paying this person? I would hope they know best in the market they work in.
Most people don't put it an upper limit on the bedroom or bathroom search, just the minimum. I think you'd miss more people that would put 5+, than would put 3 only or 4 only.
Post by crazycakes on Feb 13, 2013 20:15:59 GMT -5
We were looking at houses with 4+ bedrooms (we would have even settled for 3 + a bonus room of some sort) and we're currently negotiating on a 5 bedroom house. The layout is perfect and there doesn't feel like a lot of wasted space, even though there are 5 bedrooms.
We already have plans for all 5: master bedroom, baby's room, guest room, my office, and DH's office (I work from home frequently, so it's actually ideal for me to have a separate office space to myself rather than sharing with DH).
I would think listing it at 5 bedrooms would give you a larger pool of buyers, as you would get people searching for 3+, 4+, and 5+ bedrooms.