Yes most of my clients prefer the master down in Texas. I worked for a very large home builder in Texas for 10 years and I built a master up once, even thought we had the plans available.
I had a community where a home that was built for a client with a master up didn't close, it took us an additional 10 months to sell it after reducing the home several times, the client that bought this home was from out of state where they were use to masters up. I do feel that they take a little longer to sell, and may have a little of a price difference.

I think that you are right in your questioning of the master bedroom down vs upstairs. Most buyers in Texas do prefer the master bedroom down and I have not seen any stats on the value of a home with the master bedroom up that is identical to another home that has the master bedroom downstairs but we agents here in my RE/MAX DFW Associates office have talked about it from time to time and feel that there is a slight price difference between upstairs and downstairs.
With that being said, just be sure to buy correctly and then you can sell correctly too, when the time comes to sell your home.

Absolutely - YES. As we age we don't like stairs.

Kurt,

I used to sell new homes for a builder. We had 17 floor plans and 2 of them had masters up. The majority of TEXANS want their master down, but Northerners and Midwestern folks like it on the 2nd floor. They are used to that because heat rises and it's a good way to keep warm in the winter months for less cost. Most builders here build for the Texas climate. It's what people are used to here. Also as the population starts to get older, it's more convenient and easier on the knees and such to have the master down.

However, I would not advise a client not to get their preference simply for resale value (unless you were talking about 3 bedrooms and 1 bath or something that's going to cause you to realize depreciation). You are going to live in the home and every home has it's buyer. We have far greater in migration in the D/FW area than we have out migration. If you find a 2 story you love with the master up, someone else is going to love it just like you.

In the first community I sold in, our model was a 2 story with master up. The majority of the 2 stories I sold in that subdivision were that floor plan. I closed that community out and moved down the road appx. 1 mile. In that community, the model was a 2 story with the master down. The majority of 2 stories sold were that plan and all kinds of people saying that they couldn't imagine someone buying a 2 story with master up in that area. ;)

Hope that helps,
Terri Hayley
The Hayley Group, Keller Williams
Top 5% of Realtors

GREAT QUESTION;

75% of my buyers prefer master down, due to number of reasons, 10% don't care, 15% prefer upstairs.

There are great builders here in Dallas who have completed survey's prior to construction use their expert experience go with the norm, if were more of demand master 2nd level where majority of bedrooms would be located.

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Hello Kurt,

The first level master bedroom is common construction in the DFW area. There are plenty with other arrangements. Personally I prefer all bedrooms on the second floor. But then that is my Yankee upbringing (Chuckle). I'm not a RE Agent but I would not consider it a resale problem not to have the master bed on the first floor. The DFW area is a wide mix of people from around the country who have seen a different variety of floor plans.

It would definitely be interesting to hear what the local RE Agents say.

Emmanuel J. Scanlan
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