Winter house guests – are we done yet?
Do you yearn for the days when the only person in your kitchen is you? Do you lust after laundry baskets that are devoid of your best towels and does walking around in a torn T-shirt and not much else becomes your greatest dream? Then get ready because the end of winter house guest season is just around the corner.
On Anna Maria, the number of bedrooms in single family homes have become not only a big selling point but also a big debate. Since there are so many investor properties that are turned into rentals, bedrooms are a key selling point, but in other parts of the country homeowners are starting to take somewhat of a dim view of buying luxury homes with a lot of extra bedrooms.
It’s not unusual for homeowners to get fed up with walking past unused bedrooms at the expense of usable space and feeling obligated to host multiple house guests just because they have the space. The answer is to convert some of the dusty underused bedrooms into home offices, hobby rooms, music rooms, artist studios and an entire range of uses that will make you happy if not your Aunt Mary.
The National Association of Home Builders said in 2016 that 97 percent of all new homes for sale that were asking $1 million or more had at least four bedrooms per their review of the census data. True homes with fewer bedroom will always be subject to a smaller pool of buyers when it’s time to sell. Some of this negativity can be offset by creating a larger entertaining space, or by making a simple conversion for your personal use that can be quickly repurposed as a bedroom. In fact, according to realtor.com, higher end homes with more living space and fewer bedrooms sell for higher prices, although they took longer to sell since they are drawing from a specialized group of buyers.
That said, if you own a home on Anna Maria, and even of you have no intention of using it for a future rental property, eliminating bedrooms could be a big negative to a potential buyer who may want to use it for that very purpose. Home renovations should always be done with an eye toward a future sale and are always tough decisions to make.
One easy decision to make, however, is buying property in Manatee County. The end of year sales statistics per the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee points to the average sale price for single family homes increasing 6 percent over last year to an average of $341,281. The median sale price, half above and half below, increased 5.8 percent to a median of $275,146. Active listings were up 12.5 percent, resulting in an increase of 13.9 percent in the month’s supply of inventory to 4.1 months, still well below the accepted norm of 6 months.
Average condo sales were also up 7.7 percent to $222,003 with the median at 6.3 percent to $170,000. Active listings were way up by 17.2 percent, and month’s supply was up 10 percent to 4.4 months, again below normal. Basically, 2016 was a good year county-wide, and a quick look at the January numbers, which I’ll report on a little later, shows that the trend is continuing.
Some years ago, my husband and I considered buying a one bedroom house. In the end, we didn’t, but it was one of those special places that I still think about. Finding the right balance between lifestyle and resale value can create a lot of stress, but if you throw in the torn T-shirt factor, it might make it easier.