AIBU to market this as a 4 bedroom house?

[MommaDuck]

Keeping this really simple, with an awful diagram…sorry!
I originally moved in to a 3 bed house, decent size living room and dining room. Very small kitchen.

I have now done some Reno work.

I have my 4 boys who are all upstairs- all bedrooms have had double beds, computers, wardrobes etc- good sizes. One room now has bunk beds instead of a double for little ones.

My room is now what was the old living room. Big room 3.5x3.5 fits my super king bed and fitted wardrobes etc. Has a double window that faces front garden (blinds and bushes for privacy).

Extension… old kitchen now utility area and downstairs shower and toilet (this is for me as boys have upstairs bathroom).

End of hallway is a large L shape kitchen/diner with living area (this is the old dining room).

So new kitchen diner is 6x6m has a large island 3x1.8m and a dining table that seats 8, plus room for a sofa down at bifold doors. So definitely big enough to be a kitchen/diner in its own right without being a squeeze.

The new living area- knocked the wall through so all open plan into kitchen/diner. A large sofa sits all 6 of us comfortably. Log burner, TV etc. a living room in its own right as well.

Now, I know how much mumsnetters have had to say when it comes to 3 bed houses marketed as a 4 bed when the fourth bedroom is tiny, or no window, or small skylight or is downstairs etc. Whilst the bedroom is downstairs, it is plenty big where it was the old living room, so surely size wouldn’t play a factor?

Husband says can absolutely market as 4 bed, as now has downstairs bathroom and the living area and new front room is all a completely separate space- I am unsure.

I know estate agent will market as 4 bed as they want to maximise their sale etc.

My floorplan drawing is shit… apologies. However, would you be pissed off if you came to view this marketed as a four bed- presumably you’d have seen the floor plan first? I don’t want to waste peoples time or drag it out.

You are not being unreasonable - Market as 4 bed.
You are being unreasonable- market as a 3 bed don’t waste people’s valuable time.

The problem with a should be dining area is: if that were a dining area it would leave a space of about 3x6m in the kitchen area with nothing in it. It would be like a bare room if that makes sense.
The dining table was lost in the kitchen so much so we added an extra sofa in there to fill the space.

I would market as 3/4 bed, and describe it as a flexible living space which is currently a bedroom but could equally be a second reception room. Emphasise the downstairs shower room that makes it workable as a bedroom.

I think this is what we will go for, it sounds realistic and transparent.
Honestly, time is one of the most precious things to me; I value people not wasting my time and I don’t like doing it to other people. So this seems like a fair and honest way to market it, then people can make their own mind up!

You could have a formal drawing room/music room/library in addition to the large communal room. And 3 bedrooms. That's what I'd see.

I only have one downstairs space for 4 bedrooms. It would definitely be marketed as 4 bedroom, and with just one room downstairs.
Of course that layout isn't for everyone, but it works for us, and would do for others too.

I was shown around a house like this. It annoyed me because I only wanted to look at 4-5 bedroom houses, with the rooms upstairs.

To me, because that fourth bedroom was downstairs it was just a study really. Others might feel differently - all the estate agents marketed that house as a four bed

Sorry but it's a 3 bed, you have no separate living room downstairs because you choose to use it as a bedroom.
Maybe market it as 3/4 bed or call downstairs room living room/bedroom 4.
This wouldn't put me off the house because we would just use the 3 upstairs bedrooms as bedrooms and have the front room as a lounge/office.
But I can imagine people who actually need 4 bedrooms would be put off by lack of downstairs space.

If the downstairs room had an en suite then I think you could call it a 4 bed. In your case, calling it a 3 is probably better.

I'm not against having a bedroom downstairs, but for me I wouldn't count that as 4 bedrooms really as I would absolutely want a separate downstairs room. When it's all open plan it's hard if someone is working from home, there's nowhere you can shut a door too. Or if the kids are watching TV and I want to listen to the radio while cooking dinner.

I wouldn't be massively pissed off that you'd described it as a 4 bed, it's just not a 4 bed that would work for me. In terms of a downstairs bedroom, the fact it's at the front and the shower room is on the other side of the hallway might put me off. Something about having to walk past the front door in my towel gives me the ick so it would depend how that looks in reality!

Yes I get you about the walk across the hallway.
You can’t see into the front door and my drawing is a bit rubbish, so doesn’t reflect it the way it is, but it’s actually closer to step out the shower into my bedroom downstairs then it is from the bathroom upstairs to get into the two back bedrooms.

It takes me around 5 steps to get into my bedroom.

I think you’d be better off marketing it as a spacious 3 bed. Maybe a casual mention in the blurb that the front room is currently used as a 4th bedroom, to sow that seed of thought. But anyone open to using a downstairs reception room as an extra bedroom will already be looking at 3 bedroom properties. Rather than calling that room a bedroom, it opens it up to other possibilities such as a second living room, play room, office, treatment room etc. I don’t think calling the house a 3 bed would devalue it at all, as that extra room is still very desirable.

If you call it a 4 bed, you have no reception room/living room downstairs. I know you have a sofa in the kitchen but that area seems to have no windows of its own so couldn't be screened off as a room.

I'd call it a 3/4 bed. Anyway, everyone I know carefully examine floor plans before viewing a house and know exactly what they'll be seeing.

There is a sofa and footstool in the kitchen area by the back doors, but there also then a separate area which is the old dining room which is off of the kitchen area with another sofa and TV etc. They are definitely two distinctive living spaces even though it’s open plan.

I think people might have different ideas on what constitutes a separate “living space”. As I mentioned our kitchen, dining room, living room is now all open plan and I think of it as one living space that has “zones” but definitely all one space.

I think you have distinctive zones in a spacious open plan but would regard it as one living space.

It isn't about the physical size for me. It is the necessity of having a separate space. So to me your downstairs bedroom is definitely a reception room and it is 3 bed.

When people say separate living area I would always take that to mean something separated by doors. It's not separate if you can hear the kids' violin practice, or the TV, as you try to dial into meetings at the dining table.

Btw I think the separate downstairs shower room is 100% preferable to an en suite. Much more flexible. And I totally agree with you on the value of time. Get it done, try to attract a similarly straightforward buyer, your time and sanity matter.

I agree with those saying marketing as a 3 / 4 bed.

However, would you be pissed off if you came to view this marketed as a four bed- presumably you’d have seen the floor plan first? I don’t want to waste peoples time or drag it out.

I'd not really have much sympathy for someone who hadn't looked at the floorplan first.
If it were marketed as a 4 bed, I'd be mildly irritated when I opened it, and there is no separate living room, which is important to me, so that wouldn't be the house for me, but I wouldn't get so far as booking a viewing, as I would pick that up from looking on-line.
Unless you are one of those really annoying vendors who don't have a floorplan.

It's a 3 bed house. Just because you sleep in what most people would call the living room doesn't make it have 4 bedrooms.

Someone looking for a 4 bedroom house will be looking for a house with 4 bedrooms upstairs. Imo it should be marketed as 3 bedrooms with a reception room/4th bedroom and open-plan kitchen and dining with a nook/seating area. That seating area is not a living room.

By marketing the house as a 4 bed you are telling people there are no reception rooms. People won't like that because it means there is no privacy and no escape from the noise of the TV or kitchen.

Ok so we when recently sold our house with what looks like a similar downstairs apart from we had an office to which could be used as a bedroom but we needed an odd ice

so
downstairs
we had an open plan kitchen - island, with a dining room table and sofa in the middle area and then followed on through to a living room area which was smaller with sliding doors to either have it open plan or closed off.

we then had a “ double sized “ bedroom with a bathroom
separate toilet and shower room
and then our office which again was bedroom sized own window etc

upstairs - 3 double bedrooms.

we sold it as a 4 bedroom as we only accounted one of the rooms downstairs as a bedroom.

so it ended up being
4 bedrooms

if I was comparing yours with ours I would say 3 bedroom.

Do not underestimate the pull of flexibility. I agree with a PP who suggested marketing as a 3 but listing detail with 3/4 bed. Play on the fact it's got the potential to have either excellent sized living space or a 4th large double bedroom downstairs

Put it this way - if the house was completely empty of all furniture and belongings, would someone viewing it think it is a bedroom or living room?

You cabe listening to music in the kitchen and watching tv in the living room though. So it really is not a living space in it's own right.

My house was marketed as a 5 bed, but really the 5th bedroom was a narrow single vs the 4 big doubles. We turned it into a bathroom. The seller wanted it marketed as a 4 bed with an upstairs office. The EA wanted to market it as a 6 bed because there are 2 living rooms downstairs, one which could be a bedroom 🙄

I'd call ours a 4 bed now, with a downstairs office.

It is subjective though and as long as the listing is clear and the floor plan is excellent the viewers will know what to expect.

I would also do 4 bed, as I think with the fitted wardrobes etc it is absolutely so. Whether that’s desirable or not will depend on the person. For example some people have elderly relatives who live with them, or want seperate guest room, or adult kids, and your downstairs bedroom would be advantageous.

for others, like myself, I’d not consider it,I’d rip the wardrobes out. And make it a reception room

on a seperate note are you sure of your sizing? You say it’s 6m wide and the image you posted isn’t about half that, 6m is nearly twenty feet, and your sofa basically is the width of it.