Selling your Home, What counts as a Room?

You’ve asked a real estate agent to help sell your property. She goes around your house, interviews you, makes you sign a contract, and later on, places an advertisement for your home in the local daily. You browse through your ad and you notice that apart from it stating a different number of rooms from what you have counted, it also states that your house has ½ bathroom. What on earth? Is it physically possible to have half a bathroom?

Before you cause a stir, sit down and relax. There has to be a reason why your agent noted it down as such, and there is. You see, the real estate profession has a technical jargon all of its own. The definition they have of rooms, generally differ from what laymen consider as such. For example, to real estate agents, kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms, the office / den are classified as rooms, whereas bathrooms, laundry rooms, lofts, closets and storage areas (even if these are large enough to accommodate your car) are not. Maybe when you did your own count, you considered these auxiliary rooms as main rooms, thus the discrepancy.

As for the issue concerning the half a bathroom, be aware that in some parts of the country, the completeness of a bathroom is dependent on the amenities found within it. Traditionally, a full bathroom has a toilet, a sink, a bathtub and a shower, and a combination of these represents the fraction in the advertisement. For example, a bathroom with only a toilet and a sink will be noted as ½ a bath; and a bathroom that has a toilet, a sink and a shower will be advertised as ¾ a bath.
If you want to be completely sure, contact your real estate agent and request that they explain to you why the advertisement came out as such. Being a client, they would be glad to discuss your concerns in detail, until you are satisfied with the explanation.