Buyer's Realtors....Can You Please Explain this to Me?

[neguy99]

We've tried to avoid looking at homes that clearly don't meet an important criteria for us, but it has happened, and sometimes around the 1.5 bath issue. We'd prefer 2, but could live with 1.5 depending on setup:

-- is there room to expand? Despite our preference we're buying a 1.5, we hope, because it was great on our other wants, and the .5 bath is next to a huge and non-essential closet with non-load bearing wall between, and easy access from underneath, so not too hard to expand with a shower stall. Other 1.5 houses have been at the opposite extreme with no possibility to expand w/o major work.

-- is the bathroom tiny or comfortable? We can live with a half-bath with enough room for someone to comfortably shave and get ready for work at the sink. Other halfs are so tight that getting around the sink and onto the toilet is like strapping in to a Mercury space capsule.

-- fan or otherwise ventilated? sound issues? placement in house? We saw one add-on .5 bath where basically someone built a small closet sticking out into the living room with a toilet in it, thin walls, no window or fan. Other than the running water, was like having a porta-pottie in your LR, yuck.

When photos are detailed, we try to catch stuff like that. But still you can feel like, "we're low on options, it *might* work, let's look".

That said, we are sure a 1 bath is right out, and we did not look at one single house that was 1.0 bath, not wanting to waste anyone's time.

[charmed59]

Just bought a 3 bed 1.5 bath home that is now a 2 bath home, so I can see why people would look.

Perhaps adding a floor plan to the listing would show folks where there might be room for expansion, and where there is not. A floor plan would have certainly cut back on the number of homes I looked at.

There seems to be only one bathroom picture, and it doesn't show much of the bathroom. Perhaps pictures of both bathrooms that show how big they are would help.

Also, the pictures show the non-updated kitchen the OP mentioned, but the description mentions the kitchen is updated. That would also mislead some potential buyers.

[Sassygirl18]

Just want to check in and update everyone. Our house was on the market about 6 weeks with 32 showings and then we got an offer we were happy with and went under contract. The buyers are a young couple who just fell in love with the house instantly, the same way we did. It was the third house they looked at and they were instantly smitten.

Settlement was today and it couldn't have been more pleasant. We handed the keys over and said farewell to our pretty old house. Now we are renting a 2 bedroom condo that we just love, and what we love most is NO MAINTENANCE AND UPKEEP! If anything goes wrong, the most effort we will expend is picking up the phone to call the landlord.

Thanks for all the replies to this post and I am just happy to put this whole chapter behind us!