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What can be considered a bedroom varies depending upon location. In my area it DOES not have to have a closet. To be considered a bedroom it MUST have a window or door to the outside that meets fire codes for ingress and egress.
How a person uses a room that they live in is entirely up to them. The bedroom police won't be swooping in telling home owners their teenage son isn't allowed to use the dark corner of the basement as a bedroom.
Sometimes it's better not to call something a bedroom. My house has 4 bedrooms on the floor plan. There are two additional rooms which could easily be used as a bedroom. A large room in the walkout basement and a study on the first floor. Both have direct access to full baths. D used the large room as her bedroom during her teen years. When we built the house we didn't call either a bedroom because our septic permit only allowed for 4 bedrooms. The plan named those rooms the "study" and the "playroom."
The house we are under contract for in Texas is listed as 3 bedroom and an office. The office doesn't have a closet, but does have a window, and we like this house because we can easily make that into a bedroom for our youngest, so each child has their own room. So I would definitely list it as an office/possible bedroom because there are definitely people out there that may choose the house because of this.
As far as basement square feet are concerned, here in PA (or at least my local area), in order for the basement area to be considered in the total square feet of the home, you need to be able to have a walk out on at least 3 of the four sides of the home. You don't HAVE to have a door, but the ability to put one. My parent's home, for example, is a bi-level on a hill. The front of the home's basement is just slightly about ground, enough room for decent but not full sized windows. One side of the basement is completely dug out with the garage under the home, so there's one walk out. The back of the home is completely above ground with two walk outs. The other side of the home is mostly underground, but there is just enough room on the corner to put another door if needed, so their finished basement is able to be included in the square footage of the home!
In my area, I believe you have to have an egress window and a closet. We are on city sewer, so no limits there. We have 2 huge rooms in the basement, on the same hallway as a full bath, one of them has window and closet, the other has window only. When I bought the house, the seller had the non-closeted room staged up with a few pieces of exercise equipment and mentioned that it couldn't be considered a bedroom because no closet.
So...given that this room is GI-NORMOUS (the size of a living room or big master bedroom)...couldn't one simply frame in a closet along a wall and bingo! instant bedroom? I'm just wondering if I should consider that eventually when the kids move out and I contemplate selling the house. This is years away. But I'm curious.
My teenage son currently uses it as a bedroom. He does not need a closet, we have a dresser and a rolling rack for his clothes.
I would say advertise the place as having a finished basement. Let people decide what use they would put it to, laws or no laws. Closet or no closet.
My son broke up with his girl friend and needed a place to live for a few months. A finished room (there were 2) in the basement served this purpose quite well.
Granted my basement had two exits (stairs to first floor and a bulkhead) so safety was not a concern.
Regardless of what the building code says, and unless it's disruptive to your work, I would stage the room as a bedroom when you do showings. All you need is an inflatable mattress, bed linens, a side table and a lamp. I doubt you're breaking the law by staging it this way. Don't advertise it as another bedroom, but let the agent highlight the space during any walk-throughs and let the buyers come to their own conclusions.
So many buyers simply can't envision how they will use the rooms in a home, so you have to help them. Of course, if it's more beneficial in your area to show the space as a home office, then leave it as it is.
I have a finished basement with a bedroom. It has a walk in closet but as others mentioned, its in the basement. I use it my as office as I work from home. It was one of my favorite things about the house as I could keep the our 3rd bedroom as a guest room for out of town relatives. I feel like I have a 4 bedroom house when in appraisal land, it really isn't.
To be considered a true bedroom for appraisal purposes, it must be fully above grade.
Not necessarily true.
I live in a bi-level (split-entry) house and my two bedrooms on the lower level are both considered bedrooms. The entire lower level is finished, has 8-foot ceilings, and all of the windows are above grade and large enough to be egress windows. Only the bottom 3 feet of the lower level is below grade. The county also considers the lower level to be living area and counts it in the total square footage.
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