Quote of the Day

In my house is an old laundry/utility room that is 3 feet wide, 6 feet long, and has a window and a closet. So technically when I get ready to sell I guess I can call this a bedroom. Only in NYC are people insane enough to buy into this shit.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 3:30 PM

Quote of the day and its only just past 3 pm?

Lazy...

; )

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 3:35 PM

I need a formal dining room.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 3:36 PM

The legal definition of a "bedroom" is completely irrelevant to whether I consider something a bedroom. When someone tries to pass of a tiny little closetless room as a bedroom I think "hmmm..., nice home office" and reduce the number of bedrooms by one. The "2 bed" in Brownstoner yesterday was a 1 bed with a home office. The 2 bed in the Heights today is a 1 bed with a home office.

Ketchup is not a vegetable. Q.E.D.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 3:54 PM

"Ketchup is not a vegetable. Q.E.D"

Now THAT should have been QOTD.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 4:11 PM

terrible quote

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 4:33 PM

I would of rather seen a quote from George Carlin...that would have been appropriate today.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 4:47 PM

Can anyone provide a source/link for the "applicable code and regulation requirements for what a bedroom is"?

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 4:54 PM

How about George Carlin ~and~ real estate?

http://www.observer.com/2008/building-george-carlin-grew

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 4:54 PM

I don't care what the legal requirements are.

I want a closet in my bedroom.

Period.

End of story.

I also want a pony, but that's a thread for another blog.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 5:10 PM

has to be 100sq ft too

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 5:13 PM

A real bedroom does not have French doors off the living room or kitchen as so many of these faux two-bedrooms have. Now, you can add a real wall, build out a closet and put in a real door but it is still not a well-designed apartment. My apartment has a real bedroom that we converted to a den (knocked out closet and door and opened another wall with pocket doors). Now if I sell, someone could very easily take out the pocket doors and replace the wall, put the door and closet back in and there is a third bedroom off the hall next to a bathroom. It would not open into a livingroom!

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 6:13 PM

i do think that in terms of marketing an apt. it is fair to say that it can be a convertible room or an area can be reconfigured. i do understand what the original poster meant when they said it. this particular place is really more of a one bedroom, but for a couple considering kids or with a baby, maybe this place could work. for someone truly in the market for a bigger apt with 2 bedrooms, well, maybe not. overall, when i looked, i concentrated on sq. footage more than anything because of all the weird layouts and set-ups out there.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 7:43 PM

I wish I could afford a 2 bedroom. My friends keep my locked in their basement.

- bxgrl

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 9:00 PM

This apt is a very standard NY prewar 4: one bedroom with a LR and a DR, one of which is being used as a second BR.

HONEST and helpful brokers will refer to it by its standard term -- a pre-war 1 BR with convertible DR. The standard language has the advantage that is communicates the reality, so buyers can quickly understand what they are looking at and move on if it is not what they want.

Dishonest brokers can call it a 2 br or a 13 BR or a xhocsol if they like. No doubt there is someone who might be willing to put up another wall and use part of the kitchen as a BR too, or it could be divided vertically to make 4 bedrooms. The floorplan is on line, so few people are likely to be deceived and it's probably not fraud.

How many times have I looked at 3 BR ads to discover that one, or two, of the "BR" have no window, or no closet, or no walls, or are entirely imaginary. It wastes my time and makes it clear that nothing else the broker says should be trusted either. "Convertible," on the other hand, or "converted," alerts me to the reality: this apt has a space that could be used as a BR even though that was not the original intention.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 9:08 PM

The sad truth is that this apartment would be far more valuable as an elegant one bedroom with a dining room and living room than it is as a chopped-up 2 bedroom. In nice neighborhoods people pay for quality. The people who botched the renovation of this unit are clueless as to affluent American tastes and preferneces. that is why, agaisnt all odds, they are having trouble selling this apartment.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 10:12 PM

Against all odds?

The mystery goes no deeper than this: a comp recently sold about $60k less.

The sellers should do a $50k price chop and pronto, before this apartment is tarred with the "why hasn't this sold yet?" brush.

Posted by: guest at June 24, 2008 10:38 PM

I don't believe a closet makes a bedroom. 3:44 makes sense when you have a window of certain magnitude as oppossed to just a shaft window w/o light. but whether there are french doors or it's off the living room or converted dining room that just doesn't matter.
It's amazing how many people have become engineers and architects yet probably couldn't afford a ONE bedroom never mind a two.

Posted by: guest at June 25, 2008 8:31 AM

a bedroom must (by law) have: a window, 100SF

a bedroom should (by any standard of decency) have: enough room for a bed AND a place to sit or stand, a view out that required window, a door or doors that provide visual and aural privacy.

The sweeping trend in housing is that the all-powerful consumer is undermined by a lack of competitive options. The supply is so low that quality and reality have suffered. I believe that we will see a flight of natural-born Americans from NYC over the net decade, and an influx of immigrants from developing or oppressive countries. NYC has a long, long history of degrading itself and then re-building. The city is in a down cycle for a while.

Posted by: guest at June 25, 2008 9:08 AM

ok 9:08 i agree w/ what you state in the first 4 lines.what you state in the last paragraph makes NOE sense. there is an abundance of inventory right now which makes for lots of competitve options and high supply, the city is on a total upswing as far as gentrification, renewal, and clean up,and show me where you think the "natural americans" from NYC are going...
when was the last time NYC degraded itself???????????????????????????????????

Posted by: guest at June 25, 2008 9:51 AM

Yep bedroom must have a window and a closet to be considered a bedroom.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 11:46 PM