Will updating your bathroom increase home value?

Let me give you a few examples when it will make since to update your bathroom and when it just won’t be worth the money.

I looked at a home the other day. The market area consists of newer homes. Many of the homes conform to the market, which means that they are pretty much similar homes dotted throughout this market area, so comparable sales are easy to find.

The home that I was appraising was a 4-level home. For those of you that are not familiar with a 4 –level home, it’s a home with 4 levels. The living room, dining and kitchen are on the main level. You go up a fight of stairs to get to the upper level which is the second level. Back on the main level you can go to a level that is slight below ground level or at ground level, but this level is usually separated by three to six steps that lead to the family room and sometimes a bathroom or a ½ bathroom. This is the third level. From the family room there are some stairs that go all the way to the basement, which is the fourth level. The basement area is usually, only a ½ basement.

So anyway, back to my story. The home owner had three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the upper level. Here’s what they did. They spent $15,000 moving one of the bathrooms on the upper level into a walk in closet. The purpose of this was to open up the bathroom and make it larger. In order to do this, they had to remove the plumbing to the new location. Needless to say, this is not an easy task. They had to bump out the walls and the ceiling to make this new bathroom and remove the old bathroom.

So, what’s the home look like now? The upper bedroom still offers a newer home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. You see absolutely no real difference in bedroom or bathroom count or square footage. Sure, the bathroom is nicer and larger, but do you see the dilemma?

New homes will differ in bathroom sizes and locations all of the time. So will a buyer pay $15,000 more for the bathroom to be moved from one side of the bedroom to the other side of the bedroom? Can the appraiser really increase the value of a home just by moving the bathroom from one side to another? The answer is no, unless they can prove it. And almost ten times out of ten, they will not be able to prove it.

So the moral of the story is if you have a newer home and you’re thinking of things that may increase the value, don’t do this. You’re simply fixing the builders mistake and paying for it. So unless you are sure you don’t need your money back and you’ll live in the home for a while and enjoy the updated bathroom, you’re wasting your money.

Now, should you update your bathroom if you have an older home? Here’s the rule that I’d go by. If you’ve properly maintained the rest of your home and you’re ready to update the bathroom, then by all means, update the bathroom. Most of the time, you’ll get most of your money back out when you sell and you’ll enjoy an updated bathroom while you live in your home. But if the roof is falling off of your home, the paint is peeling and the carpet is stains and stinks, don’t bother. I run into some homes that try to update the bathrooms and kitchens while the rest of the home is falling apart. You won’t fool anyone when you do this.

Do you think it’s a good idea to move a bathroom in an older home? No, the only reason that I’d think about moving the bathroom is if it created a functional issue. Let me give you an example. If you have to go through one bedroom to get to the bathroom and you only have one bathroom, this is a functional issue. This is because your guest will have to walk through one of the bedrooms to get to the bathroom. In this case, you may want to move your bathroom or build a hallway between the bedrooms. But in some cases, this may make your bedroom too small and this may cause another issue, so each decision must be weighed to your benefit. In this case, don’t do anything until you talk to a professional. They may be able to give you some feedback. In most cases, like this, though, I’d let the market decide. In other words, list the home and find out what buyers are telling you and be willing to work with them.

So the rules of updating the bathrooms are:

1. Keep the bathrooms maintained with no leaks, broken tiles, missing flooring and in good working order. This is most important. In other word, just make sure everything looks good, smells good and works good.

2. If you would like to update the bathroom, do not move the plumbing around if you don’t have to. This is expensive and you will not get your money back. If you create a new bathroom, make sure it serves a purpose. For example, if you have an older home with three bedrooms on the second level, but no bathroom, adding a bathroom will create a more functional floor plan and will give you a good probability of getting a good return on your improvements if you decide the sell.

3. Moving bathrooms around in a new home or old homes is usually a waste of money, unless there is some sort of functional issue. But if it’s a new home, a functional issue is rare. I’m sure that there might be someone that could prove me wrong, but the probability is on the high side that you’ll lose money. So if you plan on doing this, make sure you are going to stay in the home for a while so you can at least enjoy your improvements.