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> In the United States, a room must have a closet to be considered a bedroom. Source? I can't find any that confirm that using actual codes (at least on a nati

> In the United States, a room must have a closet to be considered a bedroom. Source? I can't find any that confirm that using actual codes (at least on a national scale), and many (from sellers and lenders, no less) that rebut it [0][1], nor do I see it in the FHA housing policy handbook [2, PDF]. It's possible that real estate businesses customarily don't let you market bedrooms without closets, but that's not regulation. [0] https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/what-qualifies-as-a-bedroom https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/what-qualifies-as-a-bed... [1] https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/what-is-a-bedroom-features/ https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/what-is-a-bedroom-featur... [2] https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/SFH_POLI_APPR_PROP.PDF https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/SFH_POLI_APPR_PROP.PDF

yostrovs 4y ago
I may be wrong about the regulation of this, but in effect that's the case. Maybe it's what realtors consider bedrooms, but that's how our house was listed when we bought it and three different unrelated realtors told us the same. If my example doesn't count, how about from the first link you provided: "A bedroom must be accessible from at least one common point in the house such as a hallway or living room. In most cases, a room cannot be considered a bedroom if it is only accessible through another bedroom in the home." This doesn't seem like a safety regulation, but a matter of what is considered appropriate these days - people shouldn't be walking through a bedroom on the way somewhere else.
- InitialLastName 4y ago
  > in effect that's the case. When it's private organizations agreeing to rules about what they will or will not advertise as a bedroom for the purposes of commercial communication, that's called "capitalism" not regulation. To your other point, not all regulations have to be about safety to be valid. Preventing what is effectively false advertising ("bedroom" has a presumption of privacy for the inhabitant that is belied by having to traverse another person's private space) seems like a valid use of regulation. You can still sell the house, and a buyer can still observe that the room is usable as a bedroom, but you can't advertise the house as having a bedroom that a reasonable person wouldn't consider such.

yostrovs 4y ago

I may be wrong about the regulation of this, but in effect that's the case. Maybe it's what realtors consider bedrooms, but that's how our house was listed when we bought it and three different unrelated realtors told us the same. If my example doesn't count, how about from the first link you provided: "A bedroom must be accessible from at least one common point in the house such as a hallway or living room. In most cases, a room cannot be considered a bedroom if it is only accessible through another bedroom in the home." This doesn't seem like a safety regulation, but a matter of what is considered appropriate these days - people shouldn't be walking through a bedroom on the way somewhere else.

InitialLastName 4y ago
> in effect that's the case. When it's private organizations agreeing to rules about what they will or will not advertise as a bedroom for the purposes of commercial communication, that's called "capitalism" not regulation. To your other point, not all regulations have to be about safety to be valid. Preventing what is effectively false advertising ("bedroom" has a presumption of privacy for the inhabitant that is belied by having to traverse another person's private space) seems like a valid use of regulation. You can still sell the house, and a buyer can still observe that the room is usable as a bedroom, but you can't advertise the house as having a bedroom that a reasonable person wouldn't consider such.