Finding a house – affordable – with four, five or six bedrooms is a huge challenge. Talk to parents of lots of kids, blended families, and buyers who want an extra room for a telecommuting office.

Mother of six Caroline Brennan has been struggling with a shortage of bedrooms for years. In his old house, his offspring had to live with two people per room. When the three oldest left, she and her partner wanted to offer a single room to the other three. “We looked for four years in the Mirabel area,” she remembers. As we couldn’t find anything, we got tired. We needed a change in life, so we sold everything and went on the road for 18 months living a nomadic life. »

On the way back, providence intervened, she says, laughing. “One morning, we visited a house, we made a purchase offer at 3 p.m., it was accepted two hours later and we were moving 25 days later! »

Direction: Bas-Saint-Laurent, where an old presbytery awaited them with seven bedrooms, six bathrooms and three powder rooms. “We found much more than we wanted, after broadening the scope of our research: we decided to search across the whole of Quebec. »

Six years ago, Ann-Julie Huard and her family lived in a property that lacked space. “When I met my boyfriend, he already had two children and we had another together,” she explains. I sold my condo to move into a small semi-detached apartment which had three bedrooms. »

They then demonstrated resourcefulness and flexibility. “We sacrificed the living room in the basement to set up our bedroom and so that the children would each have their own,” adds the mother. And we only had one bathroom for five. We knew it wouldn’t hold up. »

At the end of 2018, they went looking for a house with five bedrooms (including an office) and two bathrooms in the Terrebonne area to stay close to the mother of the two girls in shared custody.

Marylène Côté-Gaudreault, real estate broker at RE/MAX, points out that three-bedroom houses have been the norm for decades. “And even in older buildings, when there were more rooms, they weren’t always compliant. Today, if you find a house with at least four bedrooms, the price is generally higher than what an average buyer can afford. It’s almost a luxury. »

His colleague Corrine Fortin agrees. “Four, five or six bedroom homes have always been rare, but with the increase in property prices in recent years, they are extremely expensive… if they are in good condition,” emphasizes the broker with Royal LePage for 27 years. .

The two brokers refuse to believe that these are impossible missions. “We always end up finding something, but it takes time, and when a product presents itself, you have to act quickly! “, exclaims Ms. Fortin.

Ms. Côté-Gaudreault sometimes has to suggest to her clients that they reassess their needs.

Or be manual enough to finish a basement and divide a large bedroom, even if it means reducing the dimensions of the family room. Some families also make the compromise of putting two children in one room, while others, like that of Caroline Brennan, do everything to avoid the situation. “In addition to the number of rooms, we wanted a large garden, no longer having close neighbors and a taste of holy peace. We found it in Bas-Saint-Laurent. »

Their immense presbytery met all their needs… or almost. “We wanted a house with few renovations, but the one we bought needs a lot of love to restore its character. Ultimately, our biggest compromise was moving away from the three oldest children and our family. »

For her part, Ann-Julie Huard could leave with all her kids, but she simply couldn’t find the property she wanted. “When we sold our old house, possession was on July 1st and we still hadn’t found anything on May 25th,” she recalls. It’s amazing how hard it is to find a house with more than three bedrooms! »

You should know that the stress of not finding something accentuated an already very specific life situation. “We had a young baby, I was going back to school and my father-in-law was in palliative care,” says Ms. Huard. For all these reasons, we wanted a house with no renovations to do. »

They, too, have been forced to change their expectations. “We bought a five-bedroom house that needed a new roof, plus the front of the house was made of aggregate, which increased the risk of water infiltration. Now that we have it, we won’t leave until our children leave home.”