Even if you're family isn't large enough to justify a home with five bedrooms or more, you might find plenty of uses for additional rooms. “We see a lot of demand for larger homes with additional bedrooms,” said Cammie Beckert, the managing director for semi-custom homebuilder Camelot Homes in Scottsdale.
Numerous Usages
Not only are homes with five or more bedrooms ideal for larger families, she said, they offer space for grandparents or nannies or they can provide space for a home office or a home gym. At Camelot’s White Horse community in North Scottsdale, all home plans include a minimum of four bedrooms and can easily be configured for five or six bedrooms, Beckert said.
“Though there isn’t a lot of demand for homes with more than five bedrooms,”said Dennis Webb, vice president of operations for Fulton Homes, “there is enough of an interest that we make it a priority to have those floorplans designed and available in all of the communities where we are currently building new homes.”
Fulton Homes offers 10 models in its four communities in Gilbert, Maricopa and Queen Creek that can accommodate more than five bedrooms, Webb said. “That’s definitely enough to get a feel for the size of those larger homes in each of our communities.” Fulton Homes can add up to nine bedrooms in some homes, Webb said.
Possibly better for resale
Some experts say that more bedrooms in a home may equal higher value so homes with five bedrooms or more might mean that when it’s time to sell your home, you could net a bigger sale.
“People seem to like four to five bedrooms for multiple reasons,” said Holly Lewis-Roberts, a Phoenix real estate agent with Realty ONE Group. “The wife may want a craft room or the husband may like a gaming or computer room. I’ve heard of so many uses that it never surprises me. I think for families with, say, three children, it is nice to have those extra bedrooms. With five people in a family, for example, you can use an extra bedroom for an office, a workout room, a playroom or a computer room for the children. Even for a family with two or fewer children, ideas for the uses for extra rooms are endless.”
Listing prices are set by looking at what comparable homes are selling for in the same market; the number of bedrooms is an important characteristic used to compare two properties according to a May 2016 article on MarketWatch.com.
According to the article: the more bedrooms a home has, the higher the price it can usually command. Conversely, reducing the number of bedrooms can also mean fewer potential buyers will be interested in the home.
The impact of consolidating or removing a bedroom will differ depending on how many bedrooms you start out with, according to the article. If you have a five- or six-bedroom home, you might have a bedroom to spare without too much of a financial impact.
Flexibility is key
"We love giving our buyers options and flexibility,” Webb of Fulton Homes said. “There is quite a bit of flexibility with these five-plus-bedroom floorplans, including adding en-suites.”
“All of our standard bedrooms have an en-suite,” Beckert of Camelot Homes said. When Camelot is adding space for a buyer, there is some flexibility with jack-and-jill bathrooms (those that connect two bedrooms) or directly-connecting bedrooms, she said.
Beckert suggested almost any buyer may want to consider a home with five bedrooms or more. “If a buyer doesn’t need five sleeping rooms,” she said, “there is always a need for home offices and home gyms.”
