Home office

[Greenman]

Prepping my house to put it on the market and I have a dilemma. I've converted my living room into a very nice home office. 20' of granite desk top in an "L" configuration, recessed lighting, walnut cabinets. Enough room for three work stations and space for a printer, scanner, whatever one might need room for. But I'm not sure if that will be popular. So the question is, which would you rather have, a very nice home office or a living room?

 

[lxskllr]

Neither, but I could work with either. Depends on the details.

 

[highland145]

Ask a realtor but WFH is a bigger thing since covid.

 

[MrSquished]

Depends on the size and how well layed out your family room is, and how many BR. If it's for a bigger family, they may want the extra living space. If it's not a many BR house, probably the office is fine.

 

[nakedfrog]

I'd rather my home office and my living room be separate areas. I do want a living room, but I can deal with my home office being in some form of shared space (so my current home office is also my music room where the guitars and stuff are).

 

[nakedfrog]

Depends on the size and how well layed out your family room is, and how many BR. If it's for a bigger family, they may want the extra living space. If it's not a many BR house, probably the office is fine.

Maybe there's a terminology difference? A living room isn't interchangeable with a family room to me, and typically in listings I only saw a family room if there was an additional larger space in addition to a living room.

 

[BoomerD]

Do you have a separate living room and family room? Not an uncommon thing in CA.

If not and you're marketing the house towards families, then the living room would be the more popular option...if you're aiming for the young single professionals that are so common in the Bay area...then either will work.

Can you craigslist the desk set-up and recoup some of the costs?

 

[IronWing]

I'm not a fan of modifying a house to prep for sale. The buyers are going to do their own thing anyway so it strikes me as a waste of time and money.

 

[MrSquished]

Maybe there's a terminology difference? A living room isn't interchangeable with a family room to me, and typically in listings I only saw a family room if there was an additional larger space in addition to a living room.

He's an old fashioned person, not hip, and photos he posted of his place once it was kinda country, so I figured has an old school house. So I am guessing he has both rooms. Or he'd have to be an idiot to have no family room/living space and just turn it into a home office. Usually a family room is considered less formal, so it would make sense to convert the more formal living room if you have both.

Around here in the urban markets it's pretty much just a living room which is open into a kitchen/dining area. You don't often see family rooms, though a lot of the new construction the bottom floor unit is a duplex with a decent sized bonus space on the ground floor behind the garage. But in the burbs some places do have a kitchen, dining, family and living areas.

 

[Greenman]

Do you have a separate living room and family room? Not an uncommon thing in CA.

If not and you're marketing the house towards families, then the living room would be the more popular option...if you're aiming for the young single professionals that are so common in the Bay area...then either will work.

Can you craigslist the desk set-up and recoup some of the costs?

The cost was minor. The cabinets I used for a base started out as Ikea products, a few mods turned them into something useable. The granite tops I picked up wholesale and did the install myself. Total for the cabinets and tops was under a thousand bucks.
The lighting is good feature no matter what the room is used for, but the floating shelves with hidden LED lighting would be off center for furniture.

Clearly it all depends on the buyer. The good news is that I did it all so it could be removed with minimal repairs.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I personally prefer office to be separate in a room with a door that closes but if I was buying and saw that it would not turn me off from buying it if I like the rest of the house and location.

Depending on the setup it may even be usable as an extension of the kitchen too. So some people may find ways to make use of it, if it's not for an office.

 

[NutBucket]

20ft of desk space seems like a lot. Would need pics and/or a floor plan to provide a proper opinion.

 

[snoopy7548]

Need pics...

 

[Captante]

Personally I like the idea of the big "front & center" home office.

Having said that I'm a total nerd... more of a function over form guy if you follow me and that granite desk/counter sounds great for gaming!

Yeah.... I'm most likely not the best bet for advice on home-decor.

 

[Captante]

I'm not a fan of modifying a house to prep for sale. The buyers are going to do their own thing anyway so it strikes me as a waste of time and money.

I agree.... per my my friend the Real Estate Agent the key is moving like two thirds of the crap and clutter most folks have sitting around to a storage unit, then cleaning the dickens out of the place.

It's extremely rare to get back any money you put into modifications shortly before a sale. (an exception might be something like a fresh coat of paint)

 

[Brainonska511]

I don't know... I'd rather there just be a living room. Office setups seem like one of those things that would be kind of personal. Plus, separate desk furniture allows someone to arrange a room how they want: maybe they don't need a whole office; maybe a small corner of the living room would suffice for them. Maybe they want to convert a bedroom to an office, etc...

At the same time, I'm not sure how much time and money I'd put into changing something back though. You're in California. People overpay for total garbage because there is such a dearth of housing across the state. You'll probably be fine not doing any work to revert the space.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Arrange a few bottles and glasses. Call it a bar.

 

[Greenman]

Arrange a few bottles and glasses. Call it a bar.

That might be going in another room.
The problem is that having lived here for near 40 years, and being a contractor, I've always done what I wanted to the house without a lot of thought to selling it. Some of it is extremely cool and adds a lot of value, some of it is making the place work for me and maybe not for someone else.
A lot of things that most people view as being expensive and difficult I see as cheap and easy.

 

[purbeast0]

A living room. Especially at my home.

"Offices" in general are overrated. I've worked in a corner office with windows galore and worked in cubicles. I was more productive in the cubicle but it was only because I was later on in my career and just smarter and a better employee by then. Having the big corner office did nothing special.

My "office" at home now is a 4ft desk with a monitor and laptop on it in my basement in my man cave. Nothing more. Been working perfectly fine for me since covid started.

 

[iRONic]

I'm not a fan of modifying a house to prep for sale. The buyers are going to do their own thing anyway so it strikes me as a waste of time and money.

^^This.

Plus it’s Cali, the house should sell above asking. Before the listing hits the MLS!

 

[JM Aggie08]

I personally wouldn't mess with anything prior to sale. As mentioned above, buyers are going to do what buyers are going to do. You also POTENTIALLY run the risk of fucking something up, unintentionally.

Paint and flooring are the extent of what I'd be willing to do.

 

[MrSquished]

as others have mentioned the most important is decluttering the hell out of everything. Way more than people think. And keeping it that way for showings. Take down all family photos, this personalizes it too much to you and potential buyers have a harder time picturing themselves in the home.

The only thing worth doing usually is a bit of paint and refinishing floors is what we usually tell clients.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

IMO if you're in the bay area your house could be stripped down to the studs and you could literally take a massive steaming shit in the middle of whatever room and your house will go for minimum 100K over asking price, cash, no nothing disclosures, site unseen.

Don't sweat it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Heck, strip half the studs too, sell the 2x4s for profit!

"32 inch on centre stud spacing aught to be enough for anybody"
-Bill Holmes

 

[Greenman]

IMO if you're in the bay area your house could be stripped down to the studs and you could literally take a massive steaming shit in the middle of whatever room and your house will go for minimum 100K over asking price, cash, no nothing disclosures, site unseen.

Don't sweat it.

That isn't far off base.
My goal is to get every cent I can out of this place, and minor improvements aren't a problem. If I can spend a day making my office back into a living room and net another $2k, I'll do it. It actually looks like that's the plan at this point. The cabinets and tops are going to get recycled into another small (5X8) area off my family room that's been my wife's guinea pig room (had 10 of the little buggers). It will make a perfect small office at near zero cost.