Hello everyone and Welcome once again to
another episode of Selling Greenville I
am your host as always Stan McCune realter
here in the upstate of South Carolina
and just a reminder as always you can
find all of my contact information in
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subscribed all right today we are going
to be talking about flexible spaces or
undefined spaces in your house and how
to handle them should you take a
flexible space and limit the flexibility
of the space or should you keep it
maximally
flexible what to say it another way
what function does a space need or does
a space need function or should it stay
as flexible as possible and really at
the end of the day it depends on the
space and so this is what we're going to
be talking about today and so I'm going
to be going through several different
examples several things that I've dealt
with and we can discuss what
exactly determines whether a space needs
more function needs more defined
function versus needing to stay flexible
let's start with this example let's say
that you have an unfinished room in your
house that you've used for storage would
you increase the value of your house
more by finishing it and adding it to
your finished square feet in the house
or would it be better just to let the
buyer decide what to do with it all
right that's a
question another example would be let's
say that you're updating your house and
you have multiple rooms that could be
used in different ways should you leave
them open for interpretation or do
something to more clearly Define what
those rooms should be used for now I
pose those as open-ended questions
because it really depends on each
situation there's context that matters
and often times when I have a seller
client that is asking me these types of
questions I I always tell them listen I
really have to come and look at it and I
have to see the whole home this is not a
question that you can answer in a vacuum
it's not like every time it's good to
keep a space open or every time it's
good to define a space and to give it
more function it really depends on a lot
of things the entire house you have
to look at the entire house what does
the entire house have is the entire
house lacking something that it needs
you want to look at the neighborhood you
don't necessarily want to give a house
something that would be really unusual
for the
neighborhood sometimes you might but
often times you
don't and so you're looking at all of
these
questions and that's the way that you
start and so the first question that I
ask ultimately is does this house and I
already alluded to it but does this
house lack something that a lot of
people would expect or want an easy
example would be like a second bathroom
right everyone wants a second bathroom
that way way you know when your
guests come over they can have their own
bathroom the family can have their own
bathroom it just makes things easier or
perhaps you have a master bathroom and
you just need another one for the guests
and for the you know for the children
and whatnot so let's say that you
have an unfinished part of your house
that is in a spot that's logical for
a bathroom and you need a second
bathroom or or you don't have a second
bathroom I should say yeah absolutely
right now you're currently using that
unfinished space for just storage or
whatever the case may be you would add
so much more value to your house by
converting that storage into a second
bathroom now it's going to cost a lot to
do that potentially but most likely
it depend it does depend on the market
that you're in and what area the
house is in and all of that but most
likely you will add more value to your
house than what you'll end end up
spending in order to add that second
bathroom so defining that unfinished
space defining it and making it a second
bathroom adds a lot of value whereas
just having that as unfinished storage
space it's helpful but usually people
can get creative when it comes to
storage and so that's not
necessarily option number one when
you have a a
bigger problem of not having a second
bathroom
another example that would be a
little bit of a trickier one would be
with a house that hopefully I will be
flipping pretty soon and it's a house
that it's Unique it's in it's in a
neighborhood that predominantly has
garages but this house doesn't the
garage was was completed was finished
and and converted into actual square
footage of of the house which isn't
that uncommon but in this neighborhood
it is a bit uncommon it was actually
done by the original Builder the the
convinced the original Builder to
actually take the space designated for a
garage and turn it into basically like a
bonus room or a flex room that is in the
spot where the garage would normally
be now all of that said we've got
that room there and then we don't have a
garage so then in the back of the house
there is an unfinished room that goes
out into the
backyard and So currently that room has
been used for like yard storage you know
the lawnmower and whatnot and I could
keep it that way or I could go in a
different direction altogether and you
know turn that into an office or maybe
another bedroom whatever the case may be
so I'm looking at these options and I'm
thinking what do people need we already
have three bedrooms we already have two
bathrooms so we're fine there we've
got that Flex bonus room we've got a
laundry room we've got all we check off
all those boxes what we don't have again
to think about what the normal person
would need is we don't have any storage
for the yard work stuff and there is
enough yard that that's important you do
need a place to to put a lawn mower you
you do need a place to put your your
clippers and you know weed whacker
whatever the case may be and so what
I have decided with that space I'm it I
I should mention it's actually partially
finished it actually has drywall and
it's heated and cooled so it actually
could very easily be converted into a
room or an office or whatever the case
may be but I'm actually going to keep it
partially finished and turn it into a
storageworkshop area so I'm actually
going to currently it has like no
shelves or anything my plan is to add
shelving
pegboard a little workshop area desk
area Etc and and make it to where when
the person when a person walks in they
will immediately see oh okay I know
exactly what this is for this is a a
workshop this is a store this is where
I'm going to be able to store some of my
stuff and that's a much better scenario
than me leaving just leaving it
unfinished or or partially finished
not putting the shelves the shelves
aren't going to cost me that much you
know putting some shelves and pegboard
and whatnot that'll won't cost hardly
anything but it defines the space in
the minds of those that that look at
in the minds of of a buyer of a
potential buyer versus if I leave it the
way it is you walk in in there and
you're like okay so there's no flooring
in here there is drywall it's heated and
cooled what is this space is this a is
this an office is this a
room what exactly is going on now I'm
defining it and making it much clearer
for the seller and in this case I think
that that will really benefit the house
and add value to the house even though
it's not really changing a whole lot and
also I'm I'm not making such a dramatic
change that let's say you get a a buyer
that comes in and they do want to turn
that into an office it' be very easy for
them to do that I'm just adding a few
shelves and whatnot it's a small room so
you know they could take the shelves
down and repaint or whatever the case
may be it wouldn't be that big of a deal
but it will for most people I
think that the vast majority of buyers
will want that space in order to store
their yard equipment to be able to have
a little workshop I think that'll be a
big value add to a lot of
people that house is also an example of
the opposite type of choice so we've got
that flex room bonus room which is
really unusual in there and it's a
really you know it could be used for
so many different things right it could
be used as a Homeschool Room a man cave
a playroom a a large guest
bedroom all sorts of things
and my thinking on on this room is
currently there's no other room in the
house like that it does have a a big
open living room but otherwise it just
has bedrooms that Workshop the
laundry room and then you've got that
big flex room because there aren't any
other rooms like that I want to leave
that space flexible people might choose
to to go a whole lot of different
directions with it as I just indicated
there's a lot of ways you could go with
it and it will be it it will serve
different uses in the minds of different
people like I said a person might come
in there and be like this is the perfect
Homeschool Room or this is the perfect
man cave whatever the case may be if I
go in there and and stick a you know
a projector and convert that into a
theater room yeah that would be sweet
that would be really cool but it might
be unnecessary because they might be
like you know what at the end of the day
we want just want this to be a kids
playroom we don't necessarily intend to
use this as a theater room or or they
might actually be disappointed they
might think oh man this is a theater
room I was really hoping this could be a
playroom for the kids and so you can
actually over Define a space and in this
case if if it's a space that is flexible
and you don't have a lot of other
clearly defined spaces in the room then
it's best to leave it flexible and
that kind of brings me to my next point
which is that if a home has multiple
flexible spaces in it
already then that's the point at which
defining one of those spaces may help
for instance let's say you have a
house with a living room a den and a
bonus room U that's a lot of common
areas all right and and these common
areas are the ones that tend to need
definition of some sort so you've got
basically three main common areas most
people at the end of the day only use
two of of their main common areas in
terms of like entertaining people you've
got your living room and you might have
like one other space where you where
you
entertain and so what are you going to
do with that third space well defining
that third space can be really
helpful and really add value so let's
say that you know the most
logical parts of the house to
entertain are the living room and the
bonus room which is right off the living
room right that's where you're going to
spend a lot of time you know with your
guests just the way the house is laid
out why don't you take that den and go
ahead and convert that Den into a guest
Suite or convert that Den into a quote
unquote man cave then what's going to
happen is let's say you have a a seller
let's say you you list your home for
sale
seller comes along they're going to see
the living room be like okay this is
great they're going to go to the bonus
room be like oh this is perfect we've
got a bonus room and then they're going
to go down to the den and be like wow
this is this guest Suite this is exactly
what I've been looking for or or may
maybe they haven't even been looking for
it maybe they're just
like you know they see that and they're
just like man what an added bonus I mean
I didn't even we weren't even looking
for this but this is awesome you know
when you have your parents over or you
know when we have company over it's
going to be awesome for them to be to be
able to be down here or you have it as a
man cave and you go down there and it's
like oh man look at this you know sweet
wet bar and and projector and all
these things this is a really awesome
room down here that we're really going
to love whereas if if it's just an open
den and they've already looked at the
living room the bonus room just going to
be like okay this is a third place to
entertain people and it's not going to
be that impressive so defining the space
because you already have enough flexible
spaces in the house giving one of those
flexible spaces more definition more
function more clearly defined function
actually adds value because it does
the work for the buyer that their
imagination can't do because people when
they're looking at a home their
imaginations are going wild they're
thinking about what to do with all these
spaces and if you have a lot of flexible
spaces yeah their imagination is going
wild which can be a good thing but often
times it's a bad thing because they'll
be thinking about too many options and
they might be overwhelmed by that they
might attach a price tag to it that
is too high they might be like okay for
us to convert this into a man cave it's
going to be $25,000 I have I run into
this all the time where I have clients
that are like man this Landscaping is
going to be $155,000 and I'm just like
man what landscaper are you using but
obviously I have to be
careful if if my client already has
that idea in their mind I'm not going
to be like nope you're totally wrong
you know what I prefer is if my clients
ask me hey what do you think that this
would cost and then I'll I'll give my
opinion but some people they already
have their opinions made up and that's
fine
but you have to be you have to be
aware of that with your house that
having spaces that are not clearly
defined if you have a lot of those then
you can run into that situation where
the buyer ends up not really knowing
what to do with the space and maybe
attaching a price tag to converting that
space into something that they would
want it to to be putting a price tag
that's just way too high and in that
case then you're actually taking away
value from from your home in the mind of
the buyer another thing to consider
and this will be our last one and and
this will be a quicker episode you can
add value to a defin to an already
defined space by making it more defined
so take a closet for instance a closet
is a defined space it has a
function a lot of closets are pretty
simple they just have a pole and you
know a shelf above the
pole and so that's already a defined
space right and you could say well
you know what I want to leave that as as
open for whatever you know future buyer
wants to do with it I don't want to to
close it off you know it's not a very
big closet I don't want to do a ton
to it that might be off-putting I
would actually say that in that case
it's actually best to Def find the
closet even more if you can go ahead put
in one of those organizational systems
that cost a few hundred bucks even if
it's not the perfect way of using the
space right you might not know exactly
how to to optimize and maximize the
space and you know the the
organizational system might not be the
best you know professionally done
organizational system but having that
organizational system will help the
buyer to at the end of the day visualize
the the closet space and in their mind
that would be a major value ad it's like
oh but you know before it was like okay
so we can hang hang some clothes and
then put some stuff on the on the top
shelf okay now they're looking at and
they're like oh man we've got all these
shelves drawers multiple different
places to hang our clothes this is
really nice really nice organizational
system it's something that most people
after they buy a home they don't do and
so because it cost a few hundred
bucks which a lot of people don't have
and so at the end of the day if if they
walk into a home that has that it's
going to feel really nice it's going to
feel like an upgrade in a lot of homes
and of course if you're in a
neighborhood where all the other homes
have that you need to to bring your home
up to that level as well because that
that's more than just defining a space
that is also upgrading the space but
it's upgrading the space it's making a
Space Le less flexible and giving it
more
definition and more function and that's
something that you need to be on the
lookout for there are ways to to add
more definition to already defined
spaces that can give more value to
your house and at the end of the day you
need a good Agent to help you work
through that and here's where I'm going
to pitch myself myself because this is
something I do for a lot of my clients
I've flipped houses multiple times I
know what I'm looking for I know what
buyers are looking for and if you're
looking to sell a house you have
questions about this listen I'll come
and I'll look at your house and give you
free advice even if you you're not
guaranteed you're not promising that
you're going to use me I don't ask for
commitment upfront I meet with people
all the time to give them advice as far
as what they should do with their home
and then you know maybe after they do
all the work they decide you know what I
like this house now I like this house a
lot more than I did few weeks ago or
a few months ago I'm going to stay here
now and then I end up not getting a
listing out of it that's totally fine
this is the nature of the job but I'm
more than happy to meet with any of you
in order to to give you advice and to
help you with that and hopefully at the
end of the day at some point I will
have you as a client either listing a
home or buying or both and then it just
works out for all of us right but that's
the end of our episode for today if you
have any questions you can always find
my contact information in the show notes
I hope you guys have a great week and
we'll talk next time
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