Opinions required on home improvements

leftieM · 14 January 2007 at 12:16PM

I hope this is the right place to post this...
We have an ex-council house. It has 4 beds upstairs and the bathroom is downstairs. It's about 1000sq ft in total (so a FTB house). Having recently tried to sell it twice the feedback was that the current bathroom is too small (it is tiny). Although no-one said explicitly, I think a downstairs bathroom doesn't appeal.
I am thinking of turning the 4th bedroom into a bathroom and leaving the downstairs bathroom as it is useful. We are still looking to move but the market is a bit crazy here and we're not in a big rush.
I am wondering if I would lose out on this - everyone has an idea of what would appeal but would it be strange to have 2 bathrooms in a 3 bed house of this size?
I don't really know the cost of this. I'm guessing up to 5k but I don't know!

Daisies · 14 January 2007 at 2:40PM

How big is the fourth bedroom? If it's tiny it might be worth losing it for a bathroom. Otherwise, I'm not sure as there's a bit of a difference between "3 bed" house and "4 bed"!

I bought a house 6 months ago, and noticed that anything with a downstairs bathroom (and nothing upstairs) was up for significantly less. The house I've ended up with has an upstairs bathroom plus downstairs loo - I paid a bit more for that but it is definitely worth having, especially for a family house! Also, if there is anyone looking to buy who is infirm, elderly etc having a downstairs bathroom is a bonus and a downstairs loo fairly essential.

Have you tried asking an estate agent what would make it more saleable? Or going online and looking at details for similar 3/4 bedroom houses.

Would it be worth having 4th bedroom as bathroom, and downstairs as a shower room with loo and basin (very useful, would have thought it would be a plus point).
Or would putting an en suite in the biggest bedroom be possible? Some of the more modern houses I looked at had a family bathroom, plus en suite to the main bedroom and they only had 3 bedrooms (and if you had an en suite you'd still have 4 bedrooms!

Doozergirl · 14 January 2007 at 4:06PM

If the house is really unbalanced with it's current bathroom then you may not have a choice, but 3 bed will be worth less as a result. You might be better off dropping the price and not bothering to spend the extra.

Otherwise, if you did convert bedroom four, I would rip out the bathroom downstairs. A downstairs loo is of course a benefit but a full three piece suite? There are more people looking for a study than there are an extra bathroom.

I'd ask a couple of estate agents what they think. It's a lot easier when you know the exact sizes

lynzpower · 14 January 2007 at 4:25PM

as you had a buyer & belfast market being what it is, i wouldnt bother

leftieM · 14 January 2007 at 4:39PM

Estate agents have told me to shove it on the market without any changes as the market is so hot here. Both times when we tried to sell we got plenty of offers and the house seemed to get the going rate so we're not trying to re-jig to sell but I don't want to do anything that would lessen its appeal (we got two 'sale agreeds' who didn't get mortgage offers and then our vendor pulled out which is why we're back to square one).
Of the 10 offers we had in total,4 were investors, 5 were childless FTBers and only 1 was a family which is why I thought losing the 4th bedroom might not be such a big deal.
The bedrooms are 12'11'' x 10'4'', 2 10'6''x9'2'' and 8'11'' x 7'4'' if that helps! Current bathroom is about 6' x 5'.
I suppose I want to make the house more suited to our needs without reducing the appeal of the house. We're not sure when we'll move (it's difficult getting anything here at the moment) but I'd imagine it will be inside the next 2 years.

benbenandme · 14 January 2007 at 5:31PM

When we bought our house (2 beds) it had a downstairs bathroom. It was off the lounge which was wierd as you could sit in the bath and watch the tv and was very odd if people came round and then wanted the loo and you had to say "er, its in the corner over there!":o , and you could hear everything:eek:

Anyhow, we moved it back upstairs asap. We were later told that they had had loads of interest in the house but all the viewers said they liked the house but didn't want a downstairs bathroom. I know people will say well they could have moved it upstairs but most people don't want the hassle and expense of doing so.

Personally I would move it even if you do have to sacrifice a bedroom. Like Doozergirl said I would consider using the space for another purpose - we made ours into a toyroom / study and it is invaluable for clearing away all the mountains of plastic stuff ds has!!:rotfl:

leftieM · 14 January 2007 at 5:36PM

Do you remember how much it cost to do?
The current bathroom is such a small room - a study might be a possibility.

Doozergirl · 14 January 2007 at 7:20PM

You've got four good sized bedrooms there; it does sound unbalanced, especially with such a tiny bathroom!

I would move the bathroom upstairs - you'd probably have room for a separate shower up there too

lynzpower · 14 January 2007 at 7:39PM

Leftie,

Personally, I still stand by what I said earlier, but taken by your comments as both your sales fell through as they hadnt got thier mortgage offers.

Surely thats more an issue with your EAs, not checking that the mortgage is in place before accepting offers?

It sounds like youve had shed loads of interest. What if in spending this money you get less interest in the long run, Id have thought 4 bed properties were harder to come accross than 3?

FWIW, you can hear the bathroom noises in my flat, as its got stud walls :eek:

leftieM · 14 January 2007 at 8:43PM

Lovely!
Luckily we're end terrace with bathroom one (and bathroom 2-in-waiting) on the outside wall so we can make as much noise as we like!

We've dropped the EA - something went wrong!
The 4 bed vs 3 bed issue is a tough one. The houses in this estate tend to be the same size but have different lay-outs (some are 3 bed with upstairs bathroom and slighty more living space). Sale prices vary depending on the proximity to the private houses. Our house did as well as any of them because it's at the edge of the estate. It didn't do better because of the extra bedroom - maybe I've just answered my own question there!
Food for thought....

seven-day-weekend · 14 January 2007 at 8:56PM

Our house in the UK is a Victorian 3-bed terrace with a downstairs bathroom at the back (added later).

There is nowhere to put one upstairs without losing a decent size bedroom.

I personally don't know why people don't like downstairs bathrooms. You spend more time downstairs than up, and it's great when you've just come in from the garden to be able to have a shower without traipsing soil all through the house (like kids or husbands often do).

I wish we could have a toilet and basin upstairs, but as I say there is no room.

Our house in Spain has a cloakroom/utility on the ground floor and a shower room on the first floor - luxury! But the room where we sleep is on the second floor so we still have to go downstairs to go to the toilet in the night.

To the OP, with four bedrooms I think you could sacrifice one to make a bathroom and have the downstairs bathroom as either a cloakroom, a study or a utility room.

Opinions required on home improvements

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