Extend or sell

apple_crumble123

I will very quickly set the scene - I have a 3 double bedroom, 1 bathroom property I currently rent out. It is an end terrace with a garden and a large garage. I have already spent £45,000 on the property doing a full rewire, new bathroom, new kitchen, windows, boiler etc.
I rent to a lovely couple who have 3 boys (13, 7 and 3) but she has messaged to say she will need to move out as she is pregnant unless I can help produce another bedroom. She loves my house and said when she moved in 2 years ago that it will be her forever home, but I understand circumstances change!

My thought is, do I:-
1.Spend the extra money (£15,000?) to make the garage into a bedroom with en-suite for them to carry on renting
2. Try and find another family to rent to - the area isn't the best 
3. Sell up and move on

My concern with point 1 is, am I going to end up going over the ceiling price for the house or will the extra bedroom add as much on to the property as I've paid out? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

maman

If there are 3 double bedrooms, is there any chance one could be converted to 2 smaller rooms? 🤔

ButterCheese

As above, I would consider (if there is space) 2 smaller bedrooms with a stud wall inbetween.  My son (aged 13) still sleeps in a 6ftx5ft bedroom when he's at his mums.  You could offer to supply/install a highrise bed for example, one that you can put a desk underneath.  Only trouble is, kids who have become used to a large bedroom often to not take kindly to being downsized, but that will be a conversatin tney need to have.

The garage conversion is quite a popular thing to do, it's what our house is (done before we moved in).  Whilst an extra bedroom is "worth" something to some people, I doubt very much if it will increase the property value.  In our situation, yes we have a 4th bedroom where the garage was, and a utility room, shower and tolet where the side access used to be.  but we don't have a garage, and no side access to the garden.  It's been a huge pain doing any work in our garden as we've had to wheelbarrow tons of hardcore, sand, cement, tiles etc through the house.

The positive for us is that it was about the only 4 bed house (in a decent area) that we could afford.  Any similar properties with 4 beds, garage, side access in the same area where much more expensive

apple_crumble123

I could make one of the rooms smaller, but it would make it 2 massive bedrooms (15ft x 15ft), the 3rd bedroom 6ft x 14ft and 4th 6ft x 6ft. I just feel like that would actually devalue the house more than it would cost to convert the garage ... Especially with it only having 1 bathroom.

It is a massive house and if I could pull everything out I could easily do 4 bedrooms but it's 2 terrace houses made into 1 and built in 1890 so there's only so much I can do with the walls as they're all supporting walls 

Tracet74

From a very practical point of view, I would expect the baby to sleep in their room for the first 12 months plus so no changes would be needed for some time assuming the children already share?

Albermarle

Regarding Options 2 and 3, that is your choice .
Some people are OK being a landlord, some not. Sounds like you have managed OK so far.
If you sold you would have to think about what you would do with the money.

apple_crumble123

Tracet74 said:

From a very practical point of view, I would expect the baby to sleep in their room for the first 12 months plus so no changes would be needed for some time assuming the children already share?

She said she's not looking at moving as soon as possible, but houses to rent in the area are slim to none, especially 3 and 4 bedrooms. Looks like shes put down for the only 4 bed available in the area at the moment.
I know I'll be able to rent it out again quickly, but the first time around I had some very questionable people requesting to rent  

apple_crumble123

Albermarle said:

Regarding Options 2 and 3, that is your choice .
Some people are OK being a landlord, some not. Sounds like you have managed OK so far.
If you sold you would have to think about what you would do with the money.

My partner and I are looking at moving to a bigger house so I could put it on the money he will get for his house, I just don't want to do any of the options without having thought everything through properly! 

sheramber

Will you be increasing the rent if you make the 4 th bedroom? 

Uriziel

I would just sell and move on to be fair especially since the tenants are willing to move anyway. If you cater to them and decide that you want to sell later they will not want to move.

Jemma01

Option 2. If not, option 3.

What if she gets pregnant with the 5th? Where do you draw the line? They've overgrown the house. How long will it be before you get your 15k back? Have you had any returns on the 45k back? Is it even worth renting at this point?