"Trent©" wrote:

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 15:52:08 GMT, C G
wrote:

All the banks pretty much care about is if the building really
exists...and if you have insurance on it for the amount of your loan.
They don't care what the inside looks like. Many homes, of course,
are sold for cash.

This is a bit inaccurate. The banks want to be sure that the house can
be sold for at least the amount of the mortgate in case you default.
This is part of why they insist on an appraisal, which includes an
assessment of the inside and outside of the house.

What I said was 'for the amount of the loan'. We're way beyond the
point already that you bring up here. The loan has already been
approved...yer credit has been checked, etc. Now they go out and see
if there's a building there...and if that building is worth 120%
(roughly) of what you want to borrow...assuming their gonna give you
an 80-20 loan.

What you said is the banks only care that you have insurance for the
amount of the loan. Now you are changing what you said to confirm my
clarification.


And, in my area, the appraisers NEVER come inside the house...nor do
the insurance companies. Its a waste of time for them. All the
insurance companies hafta do is ask questions about the house over the
phone. Most will come out later and take a picture of the
place...again, to verify that the building exists.

In this area, and many other areas in the country, the appraisers come
inside the house. The finish and condition of the interior is a
significant factor in coming up with an accurate estimate.


And, unless you have a newly built home, they have a database to do
any necessary comparison checking.

They still do an appraisal which includes a walk through.



And very few rooms inside the house have any designated purpose.
Special-purpose fixtures...like a toilet, sink, lack of window,
etc...can sometimes designate the purpose. But other rooms can simply
be designated as whatever the present owner wants to do with it.

Maybe in your mind, but not necessarily in the minds of the appraiser or
the tax authority. Generally, if a room has a closet it is considered a
bedroom. Many people get around a bedroom limitation on their septic
permit by adding rooms which do not contain a closet.

I've seen a lot of hallways with closets...and a lot of other rooms
that were not bedrooms with closets, also. And there are a LOT of
bedrooms WITHOUT closets. My house has 2 of them. Many of the older
houses were built without closets in the bedroom.

The room I'm sitting in now has a closet. I use it as a computer room
for some of my computers. Its not on the tax assessment as a
bedroom...simply because I don't USE it as a bedroom. But it was
listed as a bedroom before.

The tax assesor does not care how you use the room. They care if it
could function as a bedroom. Are you sure it is not listed as a
bedroom?



My house is over 100 years old...and has gone from 2 bedroom to 4
bedroom to 2 bedroom about a half-dozen times...depending on how the
current owner uses the various rooms. I now have a 2 bedroom...with a
computer room and a large storage room.

You are talking about how you are using the rooms, not how it would be
classified on an appraisal or tax evaluation.

They are classified as how you use them. Why would you think
otherwise?

You are simply wrong on this. No matter how many times you say it you
will still be wrong. I cannot reduce the number of bedrooms in my house
by merely not using a room as a bedroom. You can continue to delude
yourself, but you will not delude the tax assesor. Perhaps an older
house which has bedrooms without closets could have this happen, but not
a typical house built in the last 30 or 40 years.


My house will be advertised as a 4 bedroom when and if I sell it. It
was listed as a 4 bedroom when I bought it...and it had 2 beds in the
house when I took the tour.

Counting beds to evaluate the actual number of bedrooms is meaningless.
I have a 4 bedroom beach house, which contains 5 beds. Should I have it
reclassified as a 5 bedrrom because of the bed count? Of course not.

Of course not. If you have a bed in your bathroom...that doesn't make
that room a bedroom. And you can also have 2 beds in the same room.
I don't know where that 5th bed is located.

But if you have a full-size bed in a room, its pretty much an
indication that you expect someone to sleep in it...ergo, its a
bedroom.

And a lack of a bed does not magically make it not a bedroom.


The BEGINNING test for a bedroom is...is the primary purpose of that
room to have someone sleep in it. Then more logical testing is done.

Talk to a tax assessor or appraiser some time. I think you will find
that your test is misguided.