"Furnished Rooms" on a C of O?
Does anyone know what exactly the terminology “furnished room” means on a C of O? We are in the processing of buying a brownstone that has one floor currently being used as SRO housing (3 apartments that share a common bathroom). The other floors are regular apartments (3 1-family units). I know banks won’t generally…
Does anyone know what exactly the terminology “furnished room” means on a C of O? We are in the processing of buying a brownstone that has one floor currently being used as SRO housing (3 apartments that share a common bathroom). The other floors are regular apartments (3 1-family units). I know banks won’t generally lend to SRO houses, but I don’t understand exactly what this “3 furnished rooms” on the 3rd floor would mean to an apppraiser. Two of these “furnished room” units have small kitchenette (burner/sink), but they could easily be removed (someone suggested this to avoid the appearance of being used as an SRO).
It total, it says the property is: “3 families and 3 furnished rooms; Class A multiple dwelling – converted.”
If anyone could help me decipher what this means, especially in terms of getting a mortgage, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.
I had this issue 25 years ago. Most banks avoided my building like the plague. I ended up paying about 3 points less than a credit card. The c of o was cleaned up and the banks became talkative. I don’t know if PM mortagaes are on the table these days, but that helps as well.
A furnished room is an SRO. You’ve provided your own definition. In the good old days, a furnished room was rented by the week or the month, with furniture, like a hotel room. The bathroom was shared by one or more tenants, and if they were lucky there was a sink and a hot plate.
I can’t comment on the mortgage issue, but you can’t just get rid of the tenants, you’ll need to file a certificate of ‘non-harrassment’
The key, which you didn’t mention, is whether the SRO units are vacant, and for how long.