Expert: Richard Taylor, AIA - 3/21/2006

Question
The house I own is in Lakewood ohio.  It was built in 1890.  The house has been completely gutted and updated with an exception of the walk out basement(rare in this city) and the tandom bedroom on the second floor. The tandom rooms are quite small, about 7ft by 10 feet  Including the tandom as two it is three bedrooms.  Should I remove the wall and make it one large room?  The reason I ask is I planb to sell the house in a year.  My real estate agent says to make it one large room and since the walk out basement can be considered a bedroom, we can still list it as three BR.  I would like to keep it a tandom and finish the basement, which has a full bath, into a rec room/bar.  What are your suggestions?

Answer
Hi Dan - thanks for your question.

If your goal is to maximize resale, you should go with the advice of your real estate agent.  I'm assuming the agent is very familiar with the area.  I have relatives in Lakewood, but I don't know what is best for that market - that takes local knowledge.

Be sure to check with the building department, however, on whether the walkout can be legally used as a bedroom.  There are specific egress requirements that have to be met.  That would also apply to a remodeling of the upstairs bedrooms - you might be required to replace the existing windows with larger units.  The building department may also ask you to install hard-wired smoke detectors.

Also compare the cost of the remodeling to the increase in the value of the home - will it be worth significantly more after the remodel?  If not it might not be worth the trouble.

Finally, if your goal is the best price possible, take a broader look at the house.  Generally, houses gain the most value at resale through good "staging"; cleaning up, painting, trimming the landscaping, maybe some minor redecorating, that sort of thing.  The house that gets the highest price on the block is usually the cleanest one.

Hope this helps!

Richard Taylor, AIA
Richard Taylor Architects, LLC
www.rtastudio.com
www.betterhomedesign.blogspot.com