Problems with Adding Rooms

[Sage Balakrishnan]

Hey Guys & Gals of Bigger Pockets,

I am from Vancouver, Canada, am brand new to REI and am in the beginning stages of the process (getting a pre-approval, getting an agent, etc). My mom just recently bought a new house and is doing a complete reno with her boyfriend. He has built houses before and knows a lot. They are adding a new room and I have been over their helping to learn as much as possible for my own investments. I built the walls for the room and started to think that I could buy up 2-3 bedroom houses and add another bedroom in if it fits. I talked to some contractors and they said that building a room would cost around 6k minimum but I could build it myself or with my moms boyfriend and it would cost very little (the one we built costed $205). I know I need a window in the room to make it legitimate and have thought of a few other possible issues (maybe I need a closet, an electric outlet, lights) but besides these things I am not sure what other issues building a room brings up. Any thoughts?

[P.J. Bremner]

@Sage Balakrishnan

The room specs will be a little different depending on your local building codes, but I can tell you from personal experience that you should read up on the code for what makes a legit room before you do anything else.  Some general things to keep in mind:

- Rooms need 2 forms of ingress and egress (doorway and a window are pretty typical, but a sliding balcony door will work or a door to the outside, etc.)

- You will need enough window square footage depending on the square footage of the room.  If I recall, my local code was 8% of the square footage of the room had to be the square footage of the window - example: 200 sqft of room you would need 16 sqft of window or a 4x4 window.  I could be off on that percentage, maybe it was 10% but it was around there.  They also had minimum requirements for the size of the windows.

- Had to have at least 1 outlet per wall at least every 4' or 8', something like that.  The logic was that you should be able to plug something in from anywhere in the room with a 4' electric cord...  Again something you want to check with local building codes.  It's easy to get these numbers mixed up if you don't build rooms frequently.

- Had to have a light switch near the doorway that worked with an overhead light or an outlet somewhere in the room so that light can be turned on easily upon entry.

Most things they require are legit and things you would want in the room anyways.  Some things are really tacky and a waste of time/money.  Just part of dealing with government I guess.

Quick question - Are you trying to add more rooms so that the house will rent for more?  Are you trying to rent rooms out individually and get more rent?

If you're trying to add more rooms so that they are legal additions, you can often sell the house for more and legally advertise it as a bigger house, but keep in mind that MOST places will levy a higher property tax assessment as soon as you finish the addition.  If you plan to sell it soon after, might not be a big deal, but if you plan to keep the property long term, that tax increase might offset a good chunk of the benefits so keep that in mind.

If you're just trying to add another room to rent out in your house-hack, you might want to look at other ways of getting more bedrooms in there.  You can easily convert a spare room into a bedroom by simply adding a wardrobe ($100 or so at Ikea) and a keyed door for privacy.  Just know the risk you run when doing this.  I've converted a dining room and a den in a property I lived in for a few years and rented extra bedrooms out, never had any issues and also didn't have to ruin the house with a senseless rehab to add a "legal bedroom".  However, if someone were to get injured on the property and they find your janky bedroom to be at fault, you open yourself to extra liability.  Just something to consider!