House with downstairs bathroom

Southernman

A friend is viewing a house with a downstairs bathroom tonight and i'm coming along.

Is there any questions we should be asking the vendor regarding this- potential complications? There is also an upstairs toilet with dressing area. How easy would it be to convert if necessary?

Could it cause issues when applying for a mortgage?

I hope someone can help.

Annie1960

Depends if it's typical for the area. Around here, many if not most of the houses in the conservation area have downstairs bathrooms. They are very desirable, very expensive, and do not cause problems with getting a mortgage.

jc808

You dont need an upstairs bathroom IMO, as long as youve got an upstairs toilet and even thats not essential

Southernman

It's a semi that looks like an elderly person lived there for years before they passed away.

I think it may be not unusual for the area, was just curious about the best question to ask surrounding potential renovation. Not sure if something like that requires special permission

duchy

Maybe it would be better to find out how typical it is for the area first.
As for conversion - a lot will depend on house layout .
Personally with a "half bath" (loo and wash basin ) up stairs too if it wasn't a house for a family it probably wouldn't be a deal breaker for me but for others it might be. There would be other things that would feature higher up my list though.

TBagpuss

Conversion will depend a lot on the layout of the house - not necessarily questions to aks the vendor, but things to consider when looking round:
- where would you put a bathroom if you moved it upstairs - how much useable space would you lose?
- where are the drains compared with where you'd be thinking of putting the bathroom? moving it upstairs and putting it over the existing bathroom is likely to involve less in the way of new drainage etc than moving it upstairs and to the back of the house if the existing one is t the front, for instance.

It should not affect whether you can get a mortgage, but may affect value and how easy it will be to sell, depending how common it is. In my area, it is very common for older houses to have downstairs bathrooms. I personally don't like it and would not consider buying a property which did not have a proper bathroom upstairs, if I could possibly avoid it.

Round here, it is hard to judge the effect on price, as the houses with downstairs bathrooms tend to be common so you can't tell whether the difference in price is due to the downstairs bathroom, or to the area the houses are in. However, from what I could tell, a house with an upstairs bathroom but fewer bedrooms (i.e where a bedroom hasd been sacrificed to put in the bathroom) were cheaper than ones with more bedrooms but a downstairs bathroom, so it wouldn't seem that the conversion would be financially sound move.

Kazza_Monkey

Hi there, A friend of mine has got their semi house up for sale with a downstairs bathroom and no upstairs bathroom and It has been up for sale for 2 years. so If you are thinking of buying it as an investment I would think very carefully about it as they are extremely difficult to sell where I am in the SE.

it might be easier in areas where its more common place!!

Annie1960

Kazza_Monkey wrote: »

Hi there, A friend of mine has got their semi house up for sale with a downstairs bathroom and no upstairs bathroom and It has been up for sale for 2 years. so If you are thinking of buying it as an investment I would think very carefully about it as they are extremely difficult to sell where I am in the SE.

it might be easier in areas where its more common place!!

Exactly. It depends on what is usual for the area you are in.

SG27

Kazza_Monkey wrote: »

Hi there, A friend of mine has got their semi house up for sale with a downstairs bathroom and no upstairs bathroom and It has been up for sale for 2 years. so If you are thinking of buying it as an investment I would think very carefully about it as they are extremely difficult to sell where I am in the SE.

it might be easier in areas where its more common place!!

Over priced then.

The house next door but one from sold for over the asking price last year. Before the market even picked up. It has a downstairs bathroom.

Pandilex

Can someone explain what the big deal is about the bathroom location? The property I am buying has a downstairs bathroom, at the back of the house in an extension, and nothing upstairs.

SG27

Pandilex wrote: »

Can someone explain what the big deal is about the bathroom location? The property I am buying has a downstairs bathroom, at the back of the house in an extension, and nothing upstairs.

It's purely matter of opinion. Some people like it some don't.