For sellers to sell quickly and for good prices, or, often, to even sell at all, there must be a first-floor bedroom. Baby Boomers view steps as Stairmaster machines and, while they will pay tons of cash to go to facilities and climb Stairmaster machines, they will not climb a true set of stairs.

Jason Dorsey, the “Gen Y Guy” (jasondorsey.com) is a student of cross-generational living and the tendencies that float from generation to generation. He has noted that more children now live with their parents and grandparents than at any other time in the history of the country.

Each generation needs its own floor, with basements now having been euphemistically elevated to “lower levels.” No one has a basement now, only a lower level.

And they better have a bedroom downstairs, preferably the main suite, heretofore often referred to as a master suite.

Jason Dorsey offers that his generation has one major request for the Boomers: “Please don’t ever retire. We need you. And besides, you’re the only generation left that can do long division.”

Second-floor bedrooms are akin to Dorsey’s assessment of the Boomer’s preferred means of communication. Boomers, Gen Yers and Xers will not go up stairs. Traditionalists, in many situations, are not able to ascend. In London, they would require an ascending room, lift or elevator.

But the Boomers and Traditionalists are prone to letter-writing and, to make matters worse for the Gen Y and Gen Xers, they (we) write in cursive. As Dorsey laments: “We can’t read cursive.”

With the Boomers’ knees going, the lower-level laundry, as alliterative as it is, does not work.

If there is one thing worse than climbing stairs, it is performing the feat with a bushel of laundry.

Thankfully, for those with the lower-level washing and dying stations, the stack unit has made it possible to have a utility room virtually anywhere.

And now some washer/dryers have the ability to send text messages when they complete their cycles.

“That is fine for the older people,” Dorsey explains. “As for us, we don’t know how to do laundry.”

Dorsey goes on to explain that his generation is not as “tech savvy” as most would think. It is, instead, “tech dependent,” inasmuch as it needs technology but doesn’t understand how it works.

Sale of the Week

The sale of the week is located at 1807 Ashwood Avenue in Hillsboro Village, on the Belmont side of 21st Avenue South.

The affable Jane Anderson, a longtime veteran of Village Real Estate Services, was the listing agent for the one day the house was on the market and the 33 days that followed the binding contract.

And while that period between contract and closing can be ugly, it is doubtful that was the case in this sale as Jimmy Pilkerton, the king of mindfulness, represented the buyer.

With Anderson’s affability and Pilkerton’s mastery of kindness, harmony rules.

Anderson described this house as an example of “uncompromising craftsmanship” with “the perfect blend of modern amenities and historic charm.”

Pilkerton says Anderson’s remarks hit the mark.

“The house is fantastic,” he says, “as there were multiple offers. My buyers offered over the list price, as everything that they had seen previously that they liked had been snapped up quickly and they didn’t want to miss this one.”

Pilkerton’s clients paid $886,500 – $27,000 more than the list price of $859,000 – in order to secure the property.

With 3,103 square feet, the price reflects a value of $286 per square foot. Imagine looking at a 12-by-12-inch square on the floor and realizing that it cost $286.

While there is no data available to determine how much the owner had invested in the property, it is public record that the owners paid $425,000 for the parcel in March of 2011, a great month for real estate investing. Therefore, it appears that the transaction would have been profitable.

Had there been no first-floor bedroom, the price would have been $15 to $20 per square foot less.

Richard Courtney is a partner with Christianson, Patterson, Courtney and Associates and can be reached at [email protected].