What counts as a bedroom in real estate, and do more bedrooms add value?

A bedroom in general is just a room where people sleep. For a room to count as a bedroom for real estate purposes, there are several requirements:

(1)  FLOOR SIZE.  According to the standards used by appraisers, a habitable room must have a floor of at least 70 square feet in area and be at least 7 feet in any direction.  So a 7’x10’ room is okay, but a 6’x12’ space, even though it’s 72 square feet, wouldn’t be counted as a room (or a bedroom) on an appraisal.

(2)  CEILING HEIGHT. At least 50% of the ceiling must be at least 7 feet high.

(3)  ENTRANCE. There should be a door to the bedroom from the interior of the house.

(4)  EGRESS.  There also needs to be an exit from the bedroom to the exterior. This can be a door to the outside, or it can be an exterior window.  If it’s a window, it should be 24 to 44 inches from the floor, have an opening of at least 5.7 square feet, and it must be no less than 24 inches in vertical size and no less than 20 inches wide. (The point is to make it usable if someone needs to climb in or out in an emergency.)

Note that if you have an older home, built before these requirements were put in place and without the proper egress windows, the city is not going to knock on your door and require that you make the window openings larger.  However, if you are doing a project that modifies the rough openings, you will be required to comply. And if you sell that home, it’s advisable to disclose that one or more “bedrooms” does not have an egress window.

Many people think that a bedroom has to have a closet.  In California, that is not a requirement, although some local jurisdictions may have other requirements. Most buyers though do want to have a closet in or at least near each bedroom.

Do additional bedrooms always add value in a sale? Not necessarily. The first few bedrooms do add value to a typical Berkeley house, but only if the bedrooms are of reasonable size, and the remaining living space is of reasonable size for the number of bedrooms. Consider a 1000 square foot home with 5 bedrooms, for example. The bedrooms would have to be quite small, and there won’t be much living or storage space, which will make the property appealing to far fewer buyers. Even for a larger home, a 5-bedroom house doesn’t necessarily have more value (everything else being equal) than one with 4 bedrooms, as there are fewer buyers who need the 5^th bedroom.

Bottom line: Bedroom count does matter for value, but only as part of the overall picture of a home and its function.