Buying house - what will be more desirable when selling?

Nkoma7

Hi, hope I'm in the right place to ask this question. I'd really value your thoughts and expertise.

We're in the (slow) process of buying our first house (a 3 bed end of terrace) and are thinking about what work we will need to do to it.

It's a relatively new build (12 years old) so it's in good condition but the previous owners converted the integral garage into a wheelchair access bathroom/wet room and small utility room to meet their needs.

We don't really want to keep it in the current layout as there is a toilet on the first floor as well as a bathroom and an ensuite on the second floor. I feel four toilets for two people is excessive and feel like I could end up spending my whole life cleaning loos!

My question is, when we come to sell the house, what would be more desirable:
- to leave it as a downstairs shower room
- to convert the space back to an integral garage (there is also one parking space in front of the garage and plenty of street parking on a very quiet road at the front)
- to turn the space into a very good sized utility room

We asked the estate agent selling the property what he thinks and he thought it wouldn't make much difference either way.

Do you agree? Or do you think one option sounds more desirable for when we come to sell?

Any advice gratefully welcomed as I feel quite clueless!

Thanks so much.

agrinnall

You may find that one of the options is more desirable than the others, so could make selling easier, but it's unlikely that you would recover the cost of conversion from the existing layout.

Mind_the_Gap

Would it be easier to convert the downstairs cloakroom (rather than the garage area) into a utility room or study? Presumably it already has the necessary utilities.

If it's too small for that, then I would think about converting the wet room into a utility room (if you think you need one), but not at ridiculous cost.

Other option is to keep it as a wet room and get make the downstairs cloakroom into (walk-in?) storage space. Always useful in newish houses which never have enough!

Jenniefour

Whatever changes you make think about keeping a downstairs loo. It's a good selling point for the future. People's expectations are changing and downstairs loo are becoming the norm. All new build houses must have a downstairs cloakroom. Since yours is relatively new and compliant with that requirement then I think future buyers will expect it. It's convenient for you and keeps your bedroom spaces private when you have visitors. Makes it easier for older visitors and those with mobility problems.

cattie

I don't think it's wise to buy a house with a view to changing it to what you hope will be more attractive to future buyers. Buy the house you want & alter it to suit you if you want, but it's a waste of effort & money to try to 2nd guess what somebody in the future might prefer.

You rarely make back any money you spend out on improvements & refurbishments, so pointless spending on them unless it's suits your way of living in the property.

Whatever the layout is, there will always be a buyer for it if the price is right & not ridiculously high for the area & the market.

Jenniefour

OP, daft as it seems, you might want to check with your local building regs department if you want to remove downstairs loo, assuming your house was built prior to the time that new build houses had to have downstairs loo to comply with new building regs concerning disabled access. I seem to recall seeing a post on here about that a couple of years ago about building regs being needed to remove downstairs loos in that situation! Worth checking, might help you decide what to do.

I_have_spoken

When I was buying in 2012, I found a house that was ideal...except they'd converted the attached garage into a TV room. No deal!

Can you not get the best of both by extending the 'box' of the garage as far forward as PP allows and re-instating the garage with a 'lootility' at the rear?