house and number of bedrooms question????

[mtemm]

we bought our current house almost 5 years ago and I never really thought about this before. it was listed as a 4 bedroom/2.5 bath house. originally the house was a 3 bedroom ranch that was built in the 60s, and the owners prior to us added a second floor with 3 bedrooms. they knocked out doors/changed around one of the original bedrooms so it is definitely no longer a bedroom. the original master is still intact and we use it as a guest room, just like the previous owner. the 3rd original bedroom my dh uses as an office, just like the previous owner. but realisticially, that bedroom is the same as the house when it was built, no modifications have been made. it could be a bedrooms, which would make my house a 5 bedroom house.

so I am wondering why would I want to consider my house a 4 bedroom instead of a 5 bedroom house? are there reasons I don't see?

the reason I'm asking is because we are looking into refinancing our house and will need to have an appraisal done. we have lost a bucket of money on this house because we bought at the height of the market around here. am wondering for appraisal purposes, are we better off pushing ourselves as a 5 bedroom instead of a 4 bedroom...or does it even matter, really? we need for our house to appraise for as much as possible.

any thoughts?

 

[malibuconlee]

Not clear from your original post...

If it have a door, a closet, and if it's not in a basement without an egress window then it can be considered a bedroom. Does that help?

 

[Pigeon]

The appraiser is going to come in and measure the house and take down all the relevant details. It varies by state, but typically, if the room has a closet and a window, they're going to count it in the appraisal as a bedroom whether or not you call it an office.

 

[Bren's Mom]

The appraiser is going to come in and measure the house and take down all the relevant details. It varies by state, but typically, if the room has a closet and a window, they're going to count it in the appraisal as a bedroom whether or not you call it an office.

This is what I would think as well.

In some old homes, like our first home (also a ranch), there is no built-in closet. Perhaps the 'office' has no closet which is why it wasn't listed as a bedroom? That's the only thing I can think of.

 

[mtemm]

thanks all.

I just got off the phone with our mortgage guy and he double checked our appraisal when we bought the house and it was appraised as a 4 bedroom/2.5 bath house. the room does have a built in closet and 2 windows and is on the main floor of the house. no clue as to why it wasn't counted.