We are in the process of putting in an offer on a house and there is a sunroom that looks very much like its included in the house. It is fully finished and one of the nicer parts of this house. We have been debating on this house since December as we love it but it is overpriced and the sellers won't budge.
Ultimately, we submitted our offer for full asking price (Its a buyers market here). After discussing back and forth between our agents on finalizing, we submitted our signed offer and then shortly after they called to tell us they would be installed a wall heater in the sunroom to count as square footage. We were unaware it was not heated or cooled. We are in the SE where summers get above 90F and the sunroom is 2 stories of all windows thus it will heat up significantly.
1st, we think its sleazy to count it as square footage in the floor plan and it not be official and then install a wall heater to technically make it heated.
2nd. While technically to be considered square footage it needs to be finished in similar fashion to the rest of the house(It is) and heated. However it also says it must act in similar utility. If the entire house has A/C, would this room not need A/C as well?
We love the house and are very frustrated to find this out at this point but we also think it seems strange to just put in a wall heater when a mini-split seems like the real option. They are refusing to pay for the mini-split but we also feel like its unreasonable to ask us to pay for it.
Thoughts? Thanks in advance!
Sellers counted unconditioned sunroom as square footage. Is adding heating enough?
byu/T2LV inRealEstate
Posted by T2LV
6 Comments
They make units that go in the wall that will heat and cool. Two stories of windows sounds like you’re going to be sitting in a sauna, though.
Put in a ductless mini-split system, heating and cooling, quiet and efficient. That sunroom will be where you spend all your time so it will be a great investment.
Technically it only needs to be permitted and be heated to be counted in square footage. Same goes for rentals – only recently have some cities started mandating a functioning air conditioning to be a legal rental.
The requirements everywhere in the US for something to be considered livable is heat. Nowhere, not even Florida, requires A/C.
The best bet for spaces like this is a mini split, if it isn’t viable to host continue the central duct work into the room, which both heats and cools. A wall heater is the easiest and least expensive thing a homeowner can do to have it considered liveable.
They are under no obligation to do something better for you. And you are under no obligation to buy the house if you don’t like it.
Also actual square footage matters much less in most places than people think. It’s great for approximate sizing, but it’s never like if a house is $300/sqft then a house with 100 more square feet is worth $30k more.
How is that considered living space since it’s a sunroom? Isn’t that the same as a Florida or Arizona room? Seems to me like people who try to add a garage to the square footage.
>Is adding heating enough?
Not typically, no. That room should be connected to the home’s main HVAC or an appraiser isn’t likely to count it as GLA.
However, sometimes rooms like this that are finished nicely and have either a mini split or a window unit, can add value.
You just have to decide how badly you want this house, at whatever price you can negotiate. Unfortunately there’s no mechanism that says they have to reduce the price because they counted that space incorrectly. You just have to decide if you still want it or not.