Is that property functionally obsolete? Mind your head!

In public English buildings, constructed in the days of yore when people were a foot or so shorter than modern folks, there are often signs over truncated doorways that read, "Mind Your Head." The sign itself forces the eye upward and the message immediately signals - DUCK!!!

The semi-detached house we lived in for two years in London, just about a decade ago, had a doorway just like that. My husband at first refused to even consider the property since he whacked his head hard during our walk-through. I fought to lease the house, even with that doorway, since it was the best of the bunch. One of the other contenders had a great garden (yard) but required even very thin people to enter the upstairs bathroom sideways. I knew that wouldn't work. Some had so much built-in furniture that we couldn't have brought our own. I thought that was key to letting our young children and pets settle in without too much disorientation. After drawing floorplans and furniture arrangements, my husband came to see that the head-banger was the right one in the end too. He never hit his head again; some lessons are learned immediately.

Once we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast with a drawbridge across a turn in the staircase leading to the second floor - that was the access to the full bath. The kids had a blast with it but there were bound to be desperate days when the time and effort to secure the drawbridge would result in one catastrophe or another on the landing. Puzzling spaces, cubbyhole rooms, steeply slanted ceilings, no closets (and never, never any window screens) - these were the results of antique buildings being enlarged and modified to fit the whim or need of the day.

Guess what? "America" has all of those oddities and more in buildings right now. I showed a property once that was advertised in the MLS as having 1.5 baths. Sure enough, there was a full bath on the second floor but where the heck was the .5 bath? As I opened the door to the basement, my potential buyer broke out in laughter. Right there on the landing was a toilet and sink. She said, "I think I'll go into the basement and while I'm on my way down there, I might as well take a ****!" Finesse was not her strong suit but it was a good laugh, and not even an MLS overstatement if you get right down to it. There was a shower in the basement so really it was a 2.0 abode....

I showed a property today and thoroughly enjoyed the banter while my party of buyers and builders debated the changes that could be made to eliminate the functionally obsolete features. The property had been a ranch at one time and a second floor had been added many years ago. One idea was to turn the awkard staircase by spiralling the lower few steps to one side but I noted the "mind your head" dilemma and the group aha'd in unison. There was lively discourse on the second floor when the 3 bedrooms were discovered to have bathroom access by only two of the three, jack and jill style. Yes, there was a full bath on the main floor but how inconvenient would that be for the second floor inhabitant of the third bedroom? Someone floated the idea that the bath's attached walk-through closet was large enough to become its own bathroom, with a door to the hallway. By sealing that entrance to the existing bath, a master bath was created pronto, and the two smaller bedrooms had a new hall-entry bath to share. Oh, how I wish I could draw a floorplan here!

This is the part of my job as a realtor that I particularly love. The challenge of taking these quirky spaces, working with builders and (mostly) investors, to turn misfortune into profit is an exciting opportunity. I have the market knowledge to know what buyers will prefer and the investors & company have the dollars and sense to do it. If this deal goes through, I'll be sure there are before-and-after photos, with before-and-after numbers to underscore the point. Good design pays, at any price point. I'm only too happy to help.