Скачать или смотреть PowerMLS For Sale By Owner Guide, Video 2 of 46, Pricing Your Home Series, House Styles

Hi this is Dottie Melton and welcome to our Pricing Your Home series and in this section we are reviewing House Styles. Just a quick note for those of you who did not watch the series introduction video.

In this series, I am reviewing the factors that affect the price of your home. In all of these sections, you'll learn essential concepts that we'll use in our "Crunching Your Numbers" video where we teach you how to take your Home Pricing Report, indentify the closest comparable sales and determine your homes market value. So let's begin.

House Style is a very generic term and its meaning can vary depending on which region of the country you're located. But for our purposes, when we talk about House Styles, we are describing the number of stories or levels in a home.

Some examples of styles are two story, ranch and tri-level. And like anything else, some styles are more popular than others which I'll explain in a minute. Also, when we talk about the number of levels associated with each style, we mean the number of levels "above grade" or in other words excluding the basement.

There are 6 Basic House Styles:

Ranch/1-story,
2-story,
3-story,
bi-level or split-level,
tri-level, and
multi-level.

You are probably already familiar with many of these styles. A Ranch is a one story house and has all the bedrooms and living area on one level. Very popular with the over 50 crowd. It can have a basement but that doesn't change the style.

A 2-story is a 2-level house with the living area on the main level and the bedrooms on the upper level. By far the Two Story home is the most popular style of single family home. This is because the living and sleeping areas are separated.

Three story homes are just like two-story homes except they have 3 levels above grade. Typically, you find three stories in either larger homes or smaller townhomes and row homes where space is a premium.

In larger homes and mansions, the addition of a 3rd level allows builders to add valuable features such as lofts, vaulted ceilings and dramatic and open entryways. There is also more space to separate private areas such as bedrooms, lofts, and private studies.

In town and row homes where space is at a premium, the addition of a third level is used to maximize basic living space on a minimum amount of land. The stacked floors commonly use the lower level for garage and entryway.

The middle level contains the living room and kitchen, and the third level is used for bedrooms. The three story is not considered an upgrade like in larger homes because the floor plan is chopped up into smaller living areas with multiple stairways . These homes suffer from the same issues found in multi-level homes.

A bi-level or split-level has 2 levels like a two story. However, when you open the front door, you are greeted by two half flights of stairs. One half-flight going up to the Upper Level and one half-flight going down to the Lower Level.

The lower level is halfway below grade with the windows just above ground level just like a garden level basement. Bi-Levels are less popular because every time you want to enter the home or answer the doorbell, you have to travel up and down stairs. It's a convenience issue.

A tri-level is similar to a bi-level...but it has 3 levels ... an upper, main, and lower level. When you open the front door, you enter the home on the main level. The main level usually contains the kitchen, living and dining rooms.