thinking of knocking 4bd room down to 3bdroom + media loft/fam room upstairs

[-=phelan=-]

I'm curious about resale here mainly.

I have this great desire to want to turn one of my bedrooms (~2000 sq ft semi) from a 4 bdroom to a 3bdroom but in place of the 4th bedroom i would have this giant size media room/family room which would be hardwooded all the way down the hallway that you can see it from the master bdroom.

I already have a family room/great room in the lower level, but i'm thinking that an upper family room/media room would be great for parents as you'd be able to see your kid from your master bedroom doing whatever in the upper fam room.

So i need to know from fellow RFD house gurus whether knocking a 4th bedroom is going to adversely affect my resale, or actually increase my resale value or do neither? How important is it for 4bdroom?

[GTT1]

We had our last house built as a 3 BR by getting the builder to join 2 BR's.

We spent $5000 having it reconverted prior to selling just to be sure we got the best offer available.

I would do it again or do what you are talking about but try to do it in a way that you maintain both doors and both closets so that you can easily reconvert it by putting back a wall.

[speedyforme]

It really depends on how many bedrooms you need. Personally I find 4 bedroom semi's no matter how big have rooms that are very small. Only the master bedroom is decent size and the rest are like 10x10 or 8x11. So personally, 3 bedrooms is fine.

[-=phelan=-]

hrm seems like the 4th bdroom is the best thing out there.

[sungfra]

It really depends on how many bedrooms you need. Personally I find 4 bedroom semi's no matter how big have rooms that are very small. Only the master bedroom is decent size and the rest are like 10x10 or 8x11. So personally, 3 bedrooms is fine.

+1. I think having 3 decent size bedrooms is better than having 4 small bedrooms.

[MacGyver]

On one of the earliest "Apprentice" episodes, one of the teams who was tasked with flipping a house was lamb-basted by the Donald for converting a 4br to a 3br in exactly the manner you described.

Also while house hunting we found a nice house, but 4brs were converted to 3br. We found the extra large room created quite useless and forgot about putting an offer in.

[kellya]

I really think it depends on who you are selling to. We have three children - when we were looking at houses we would only consider 4+ bedrooms. A lot of my friends only have two children but they too bought 4 bedroom houses because they wanted the extra room for an office or spare bedroom. Having said that there are lots of people out there who would be fine with three bedrooms. I think if you are planning on staying there for a few years and you would like to make the change then you should do it. Everyone looks for different things in a resale. The change will of course turn some people away but it may also draw people in.

Kelly

[Hugh Jass]

I voted for keep it as it is but it totally depends on you.

How long do you plan on staying in the house?
Could you easily afford to convert it back to its present state if you decide to sell?

I personally don't spend too much time in the bedroom, mainly just sleep and change clothes, so looking at the kids playing from my master seems like a waste. But of course you could be completely different. And kids grow fast, they wont need a watchful eye for too long.

[3weddings]

A house we sold 15 years ago is listed right now as a three bedroom (it was 4 when we sold it) and it's been sitting for weeks now. Whereas similar homes with less yard and square footage are going within days in our area.

I'd keep it as is.

[speedyforme]

Quite possibly with the market going where it is, maybe even though a room is smaller, more people might have to cram into a house with the prices so maybe more bedrooms may be more in line with demand regardless of ho small a room is.

[golden]

Huge disadvantage when you sell your house as some people want more bedrooms even if they're smaller. For example, people might want one as guest room, two rooms for kids and one master bedroom. Besides, not sure how many people value another family room upstair when you already have one on the main floor.

[GTT1]

Forgot to mention it but another reason we returned our house to a 4 BR from 3 was that people searching on MLS (very common now) will search for what they want. Also when you compare your value house to others in the area and yours is a 3 and the others are 4 people figure it is overpriced.

[-=phelan=-]

well nearly an 80% thought that 4bdroom is more important than 3 bdroom for a semi.

I suppose i could convert the 4th bedroom into a den type of situation instead, just wouldn't be an "open concept" type of house.

i dont' see the point in tearing it down for my pleasure and rebuilding it up againb efore the sale.