Our 3 bedroom; 2 bath home is currently on the market. One of the bedrooms is just off our kitchen and we actually use it as a formal dining room (it was also set-up as a dining room when we bought the house in 2004). Right now, we will have it as a dining room, so there is technically 2 bedrooms, the formal dining room (the other bedroom) and an eat-in kitchen. We have had some showings and one very, very low offer that fell through (long story). Should we convert the dining room back to its original use-a bedroom in order to showcase the true 3-bedrooms the house really has or does this not really have an advantage?

Depends on the floor plan.......

If that dining room is coverted back into a bedroom where would you put the table?

Does it have a closet? It can't technically becalled a bedroom if it doesn't have a window and a closet.

If it is an eat in kitchen and it has a closet, that would proably be more attractive to buyers than a 2 bedroom house.

The dining room has a closet and window. The dining room table could be moved into our eat-in kitchen where we currently have a smaller table and chairs for dining or just put into storage b/c we already have a table and chairs in the kitchen.

The floor plan of our home is a one-story rambler/ranch style. In the front of the house is the living room, a bathroom and a bedroom. In the back of the house is the family room, kitchen, dining room (third bedroom) and master bedroom.

The third bedroom/dining room has two entrances/doors: one goes to a hallway in the back of the house by the kitchen; the other goes towards the front of the house near the bathroom and other bedrooms. I hope this all makes sense. Thanks for replying to my post.

If possible, I would close one of the doorways from the bedroom.

Show it as a bedroom which is what it is. The dining room table may confuse the buyer plus having 3 bedrooms opens you up to more buyers than a 2 bedroom would. Since you have a table in the kitchen you still having a eating area for the house. justmy2cents

I agree with the above poster. If it is only showing as a 2 bedroom - you might be losing people that are fine with a smaller house, but just can't get past the lack of a third bedroom since it is presented as a dining room.

I was readng in one of my staging books that, when a house is for sale, rooms should be utilized the way the builder of the house built them to be used.

In our house, we had a contractor come to build a wall with a double french door in what the builder had originally designated as the living room. (We needed another bedroom.) Then the builder-designated dining room became the formal living room. It worked fine for us but one of the realtors said they were confused about that room (the dining room turned formal living room). After then reading my staging book, I thought it made more sense to restore the original dining room to its original purpose so it is now a dining room and looks much better than it did when it was a formal living room. The original living room is partially a formal living room and partially a nursery with a crib and dresser. We need that room as a bedroom for our son so people will just have to look past the crib and dresser and realize it is a formal living room that happens to have a crib in it. (That's the room behind the double french doors for anyone who looked at the house pictures in another thread.)

So, that's a long-winded vote for you to turn your area back to the bedroom the builder intended it to be.

Thanks everyone for answering my question. I am pretty sure we will change it back to a bedroom to showcase what the room is truly for. I also heard that rooms should be put back to their original state/purpose prior to selling. Thanks again!