Recently we purchased a home that had a problem: functional obsolescence. If you’ve never heard of that term, you’re not alone. It’s a strange sounding term that most people never hear and don’t understand. But if you have an older home, you may be living in a home that is functionally obsolete, and this can affect your ability to sell your home for a good price or even sell your home at all.
What is functional obsolescence? Homes that no longer meet current standards and that would be difficult and cost-prohibitive to update are functionally obsolete. For example, if you have a house that has four bedrooms but only has a single bathroom, that house is almost certainly functionally obsolete. At one time, having just one bathroom for a house with three or four bedrooms may have been acceptable to buyers. But today, home buyers will almost certainly demand at least two bathrooms and probably more, in a house with three+ bedrooms.
Correcting this type of obsolescence can be costly and impractical. Selling a house like this to prospective buyers will be difficult. Buyers who need a move-in ready house would not even consider the house, but instead would move on to the next option.
Owners of a house like this would need to overcome this obsolescence by adding bathrooms.
If you have what you think may be a functionally obsolete home, don’t give up hope! If you have tried to sell your home, but haven’t had any luck, contact us. We would love to discuss your home and provide you with a free, no-obligation cash offer to purchase your home.
In the video below, Greg and Brent take a look at this house, which is in the Collier Hills area of Atlanta. It’s a lovely house, but it is a two bedroom, one bath house. Other homes in the area tend to be three+ bedrooms, with two or more baths.
So, we are going to be adding a bedroom and a bathroom to bring this house more in line with the area.
Now, in the video below, watch as Greg and Brent discuss the house and what they need to do to correct the functional obsolescence.
If you have a house that needs work, but you just don’t want to do the work yourself, we buy houses in Atlanta in any condition. Complete this form and we will provide a free, no-obligation cash offer for your house.
Video Transcript:
Greg Kurzner:
Hey, guys, this is Greg
Brent Bagley:
And this is Brent
Greg:
With Resideum, and we are at our newest purchase, 2062 Golfview in Collier Hills, this is the Buckhead area of Atlanta. It is a fantastic house. Right down there, if you can see, is the Beltline and Bobby Jones golf course. And this house that we bought is a two bedroom, one bath. Now, the thing about a two bedroom, one bath house is that these days nobody wants a two one right?
Brent:
No.
Greg:
So the opportunity for us is we’re going to make this a three bedroom, two bath house and we’re going to add some square footage and add some value along so that these young professionals want to work in town, work at Piedmont Hospital right across the street, or others want to be able to take advantage of all the intown stuff, and the Beltline and the golf course be able to have a house that is functionally appropriate for 2021. So come on in. Let’s take a look around.
Brent:
All right, so this is the living room. Basically, what we’re going to be doing in here is refinishing the floors, paint, we’re replacing the windows, possibly going to be adding some lighting in this room. Currently, there’s no lights at all.
Greg:
Yeah. Kind of dark.
Brent:
It is. It is a little dark. So that’s the plan for the living room.
Greg:
Yep.
Brent:
And now we’ll walk.
Greg:
One of the things to tell you about this house. This is what we would consider to be workforce housing back in the 1940s when it was built. All these houses are all about the same. They’re all kind of rectangular boxes, 12, 14 hundred square feet. And they have just appreciated in value because of where they are. Right? And a lot of people have remodeled and come up with them, but a lot of them are like this where they are still, you know, still 2/1s. Come on in.
Greg:
So we’re here in one of the two bedrooms in the home. It’s a pretty good sized bedroom. What you’ll notice is that all of these houses that were built have a lot of these sort of closet storage areas, not in closets. They just really didn’t have a lot of need for closet space. And so the closets didn’t exist. Or if they did, they were very small. Yeah. So that’s one of the problems that a lot of people in today’s market have is they need more closet space right?
Brent:
Yep.
Greg:
So let’s take a look over here and see the rest of the house. OK, so Brent so far, so good. So what’s wrong with this house? Why? What do we need to do here?
Brent:
I mean, the biggest problem, like you discussed outside. This is a 2/1. So you’ll see there’s two bedrooms basically right here and the bathroom’s right there.
Greg:
Yeah. So we got two bedrooms, one bath. What family can live in a house with two bedrooms and one bath? Not me. I need two baths just for myself. Right?
Brent:
Yep.
Greg:
So how do you fix that? I mean, a lot of these houses were built back in the 40s. You know, space wasn’t important. Height wasn’t important. Number of bedrooms and baths–families were smaller. Now they’re bigger. So what are we going to do to fix this?
Brent:
So the thing we’re doing at this house, and we’ll show you here later in the video, we’re going to be converting the carport into a master suite. So that will now make this house a three bedroom, two bath.
Greg:
Brilliant. Let’s see the kitchen. All right. We’re in the kitchen. And as a lot of these houses were built, kitchens were kind of a place to prep food, not where people live and do their thing. But this one actually opens up kind of nicely. Got a nice breakfast area in the back and a lot of light towards the back. But it’s a galley kitchen and it’s pretty nice. What do you think we’re going to do in here?
Brent:
It really, I mean, basically the thing we’re looking to do in here is only to refinish the cabinets. We’re going to paint them a different color. We’re probably going to stick with the countertops the way they are and the floors are going to stay the way they are. And that’s basically it.
Greg:
Yeah, the appliances are nice, right?
The appliances are nice. We don’t have to replace any of those. And I guess a fresh coat of paint will be, you know, on the ceiling and the walls as well, so.
Greg:
And we’re going to change these cabinets. They look terrible. They look like garage cabinets. So we’re going to try and improve that.
Brent:
Yes.
Greg:
All right, on to the dining room. OK, so here we are in the dining room, Brent, what are we going to do here?
Brent:
So basically very simple, refinishing the floors in here. Fresh coat of paint. I’ve already said we’re replacing all the windows in the house. So that’s what we’re doing there. You’ll spin around the room. This doorway is going to be widened. We’re going to have a bigger cased opening doorway that leads into what we’re calling the vestibule.
Greg:
OK. And that’s again, part of the problem with a house like this is, you know, everything was really compartmentalized back then. People were smaller, families were smaller. Things were really kind of compartmentalized. So it’s open somewhat. But to be able to open this then makes this room feel bigger and it gives us much more flow, especially if you’re having parties where people can come in and circle there way through here, go out towards the deck, and then it is a nice transition to the master suite that we’re adding.
Brent:
Yes.
Greg:
So we’re in the vestibule. And again, this was actually not part of the original house. If you can sweep around and see, you can see what was the original exterior siding. And I think it’s really kind of a cool feature. It’s almost like the hip shiplap type stuff these days that people are doing. So we’re going to leave that because I think that gives it a neat feel and a different feel than what we’ve got in the rest of the house.
Brent:
Yeah.
Greg:
And then here where you’ve got these two sidelight window panes, this is going to go and we’re going to essentially put in two solid doors that will be the lead into the master suite.
Brent:
Yeah.
Greg:
What’s cool is, again, if you want this to be part of the suite, you’ll leave the doors open. If you want to use and have it for parties and access to the back and out to that beautiful backyard. It flows beautifully.
Brent:
Yes.
Greg:
Right?
Brent:
Right.
Greg:
So last part, and definitely the most important part. So here we are in the master suite. Actually, the master suite is going to be brought up.
Brent:
Yes.
Greg:
To the level where the rest of the house is. So we’re going to essentially build a crawlspace on top of this garage slab and we’re going to end up with a 21 x 21 master suite, vaulted ceilings. And this will be aligned essentially with the front of the house.
Greg:
So it’ll look just like it’s always been there.
Brent:
Yep.
Greg:
And this will make it, don’t you think? I mean, this is going to be huge value add master suite in a home in this age and price point and location to have a four hundred square foot master suite is really going to be a great deal seller.
Brent:
Oh yeah. And I think the coolest thing too about what we’re doing with this is there’s going to be double doors that lead out from the master suite to this kind of private sitting area. So they can put their own chairs out here in this, you know, come out here and have their coffee in the morning. You know, sky’s open. It’s really, I think it’s a cool feature that we’re going to have coming off the master, their own little private sitting area.
Greg:
Yeah. And then this will seal in master bath and master closet over here.
Brent:
Yes. The bed will actually kind of be where we’re standing now.
Greg:
Yeah. We feel like we’re putting the master in this area so that it’s not on any external wall.
Brent:
Yeah.
Greg:
And we’ve got plenty of space and we’re going to actually just take some of the section of driveway out and build a nice bed and plants so that the front exterior of the house looks fantastic.
Brent:
Yes.
Greg:
We are real excited about this project. It’s going to be one that comes out and transitions this house from being kind of functionally obsolete that no family wants to buy because it doesn’t have enough space and definitely doesn’t have enough bedrooms and baths…
Brent:
No.
Greg:
..into a home that’s not only current, but is probably on the top end of of the homes in this particular neighborhood by adding this.
Brent:
Yep.
Greg:
So, yeah, we’re excited to see how it’s going to come out. Stay tuned.
Greg:
All right. Well, last but not least, here we are out on the deck.
Brent:
Oh, well, we got some else we gotta fix, so.
Great. Put that down. I can’t take you anywhere.
Brent:
I know. I just break everything.
Greg:
OK, regroup. So we’re on the deck right here and it’s a nice deck. You know, it might make sense to look at painting it to whatever the skirt looks up underneath it or.
Brent:
Yeah.
Greg:
Maybe we do that, but it’s really nice and it really flows beautifully into this backyard. Show ’em the she shed. We’ve got a shed out here…
Brent:
Yes.
Greg:
…that, you know, people love in this area. Used to be that kind of garage. Nobody could even fit a car into it these days. But now it’s a great exercise place. Place to put your college student when they come home and you don’t want them to stay very long. But it’s, it’s a great backyard. Really, really wonderful. So can we walk down there and take a look at what it looks like?
Brent:
Yeah, and we’ll show ’em the inside of the shed.
Greg:
All right. All right. Those are Blackberries. They got thorns.
Brent:
Yeah. Gotta watch out for those.
Greg:
Oh, blueberries, though.
Brent:
Yes, so the cool thing is the owner, actually this is a raspberry bush as well, it looks like.
Greg:
Oh my goodness, I’m…oh, those are so good.
Brent:
Yep.
Greg:
All right. Brent you talk. I’m going to keep eating.
Brent:
All right. When I pick this BlackBerry right here.
Greg:
All right.
Brent:
All right. So she shed we were talking about up top is right over here. So we’re going to be doing a few things here. This door is going away and there’s no reason to have a door behind the tree right here. So that’s going to go. We’ll probably put in a window or we might just close it off and we’re going to move the double doors here to where you actually have functionality to close this off.
Brent:
And so you wanna step inside, it’s very open. It’s got a nice roof. We’re going to finish that out. Do some stuff, put the, you know, finish the rafters across the top. But that’s basically what we’re doing in here.
Greg:
OK, I’m going to eat the BlackBerry that Brent found for me. But we’re in the backyard. And one of the things that we really love about this house is the yard. Intown neighborhoods, typically, you have to kind of get what you get and this one doesn’t have any problems with it. It’s quiet. It’s deep. And so I think it’s a huge seller, especially for young families. Got plenty of places. You’ve got a nice level area here.
Greg:
And then down here you’ve got a real circular area. You could put a swing set, firepit, you name it. And then it even goes beyond that, beyond that arch. And there’s additional area in the back. So nice, big lot.
Brent:
You even got to find you’ve even got a fire pit spot right behind you there too if they wanted to.
Greg:
Yeah. So there’s a lot of places to enjoy the backyard. So to wrap it up, what I would say is, is that this is a really good opportunity for a homeowner who has a functionally obsolete home, maybe it’s missing a bed or a bath that it needs for a typical home buyer to want to buy it and a great opportunity for them if they can’t afford or just don’t want to fix it up and add that value themselves is to sell it to Resideum. We’ll come in. We’ll take the house as it is. Will envision how to make it 2021 from 1940 and the homeowner can move and be happy to know that their home is going to be brought up to its best value and still keep everything about what they loved about it in place. Right?
Brent:
Yes.
Greg:
All right. So wait to see how this comes out and we’ll see you next time.
Brent:
See you.
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