Use the "Huh?" Factor

Testing the important "Functionality" value variable.

Here's a real world example for the Appraisal Institute's definition of "functional obsolescence" cited in the graphic. When millennial buyers exit an eat-in kitchen and walk into a formal dining room that was lovingly wallpapered and chandeliered circa 1975, they wonder how they can use this appendage room. Styles change.

"Functional utility", a companion concept, is meant to capture how well space is designed and used. This "qualitative" characteristic is not measured in dollars and cents, but by common sense and sensibility. We know it when we experience it:

• In a favorite scene from a house-flipping show I enjoy, the team walks into a "before" house to find a washer and dryer in the living room. 
• I've parked in the rear parking lot of a small office building, then wandered around the perimeter, looking for its indistinct entrance door. 

• Enclosing a porch is an economical way to expand a home, but if the new room has a long/narrow shape or uses an adjoining room as its entrance hallway, the addition has inferior functional utility.  

Poor functionality triggers an inner reaction that I call the "Huh?" factor. We know that something is out of sync. When you feel that reaction, understand that properties with functionality deficits may be the same age and size as properties that are well designed and utilized plus updated to reflect current tastes, but will not be worth as much.