Selling house, study vs bedroom

[LoveAHotChocolate]

Putting our house on the market this week, 50 yards from outstanding school - main market will be families. It’s a standard 1950s 3 bed semi which has totally been refurbished including a downstairs extension with a utility and toilet.

The third bedroom is currently an office (we put the bed in storage at the beginning of lockdown to WFH). Would you leave it as a study or put the bed back to “stage” as a third bedroom? We can obviously say there was a bed in the room before but do you think it would be better to show a third bedroom or does it not matter too much. For us a study is more important at the moment but if it will help sell quicker will manage with the inconvenience.

Show it as a bedroom gets my vote.

Stage it as a bedroom. If it's a small room people need to be able to see that a bed will fit in there.

Just leave it as it is if you're still using it as a study. It wouldn't make any difference to me when viewing.

I'd leave as a study but make sure listing clearly states bedroom/study. Can you fit s sofa bed or similar in there too? To show it has the room?

Can’t fit a sofa bed and the desk as there is a built in wardrobe but it can definitely take a single bed. We could leave a photo of the room off the listing as a lot don’t show the third bedroom and then explain to viewers about the office/bedroom - that way it could be listed as 3 bedrooms.

Put a bed in there. Some people find it hard to visualise or even believe a bed would fit.

I doubt it matters, any half intelligent person will realise they can simply put a bed in the room to make it a bedroom

It would depend how big it is. If it's blindingly obvious it's big enough for a bed and bedroom furniture, then don't bother. If it's more of a box room people like to see it as a bedroom to make sure that it doesn't look too cramped, and to be able to visualise where everything will fit

Bedroom, definitely. Lots of families with 2-3 kids (or those planning to have them) will only look if they see it as a 3 bed. Much easier to imagine a bedroom being used as a study than the other way round, I'd assume a small room set up without a bed was that way because it wasn't big enough to have a bed in.

@CoronaIsWatching

I doubt it matters, any half intelligent person will realise they can simply put a bed in the room to make it a bedroom

I’ve read enough threads here to discover that the vast majority of people have absolutely no imagination. When it comes to property everything has to be spelt out.

Aarrrgh DH wants to leave the bed in storage and I think we should put it in the room but am torn as it will be a big inconvenience. We only have a very small car so would need to hire a van to get the bed.

If you're selling it as a bedroom, dress it as a bedroom.

Unless buyers are serious and want the house whatever, they will just glance in the room, see a desk and think 2 bed plus study. If they look at several houses in a day it needs to be obvious that it is a bed room.

I would certainly market is as a 3 bedroomed house, but I would continue to use it as a study, because you will actually be living there for months. You can't "stage" a room as something completely different from what you need, if you need an office at the moment.

As someone who looks at a lot of houses on-line, I would cope perfectly well with seeing a room used for a different purpose from what I might use it for but I would be suspicious of a set of photos that don't include all the rooms. So I wouldn't leave it off the photos.

Do you have any photos of the room with a bed in?

We were the weird couple with a tape measure measuring rooms, esp if no bed in a room (or ensuring the bed was full length!). It's not just size of room, it was location of radiators, wardrobes, stair overhead, door swing etc.

Hmm if your bed is in storage and you need to pay to get it back....look on Facebook for a second hand cheap bed with delivery....it might be as cheap to do that as to get your own.

Or ask a friend with an estate car to help you.

However, if you are currently WFH and need the study then just leave it as is.

Get the bed out of storage for photos? Then put it back and re-dress as a study - might be your best compromise

If it's a very small box room then definite dress as bedroom as it will help families envisage living there

Could you fake a bed with boxes? Boxes, air mattress and a big quilt draped to the floor. I agree it’s best to stage it as a bedroom as a lot of people cannot imagine anything that’s not in front of them.

You can buy a cardboard box "bed" for staging, might be cheaper than the van and certainly easier to move when you want the office back when you aren't having viewings.

Ask your estate agent when they come rebound to value. I have my small bedroom as a dressing room and was going to change it back but they said to leave, viewers will see past it, I did and it didn’t make any difference, I sold within a week. I’d say leave if it’s easier, just keep it tidy and declutter

Go to the storage locker and get the mattress for a day. Stage the bed for photos with a mattress on crates or boxes or suitcases with a balance to hide the base.

Then the listing will show a bedroom but you can transfer it back into an office for wfh.

Best of both worlds?

Put a bed in it. People will not be able to visualise it fitting a bed unless there's one in it.

I think bed for photos but office for viewings.

@CoronaIsWatching

I doubt it matters, any half intelligent person will realise they can simply put a bed in the room to make it a bedroom

Some people can't do it. I found it astonishing. We made our study into a bedroom and moved a teenager into it and then borrowed a toddler bed and made the smallest bedroom into a small child's room. Then when people looked around I said 'of course, you could have this a study' and people, seem to be able to manage that but not the other way.

I’m a bit torn, I think we will leave it as a study, and if we need to, we can put the bed in and retake the photos.

I don’t know any 3 bed semis where the third bedroom can’t fit a single bed (especially the 50s ones round here). The room is small but it did fit a built in wardrobe, bookcase, bed and bedside cabinet when it was a bedroom.

It currently has a desk, pedestal (with printer on top), the same bookcase and the built in wardrobe.