Should you redo/add that bathroom?

by Addison Corbin on Feb. 20 18

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Everyone knows that a bathroom is an essential part of any home, however it is often overlooked. Updating this space or adding a new bathroom is one of the best ways to add value to your home. You want your bathroom to be both functional and stylish. A bathroom remodel or addition is one way to improve the salability of your home or just making your living space practical.

Remodeling your existing bathroom

An outdated bathroom can typically be easily remodeled with the parameters of the current space. First things first you need to consider the practical aspects of remodeling your bathroom. Let’s make sure everything is working properly, no leaks or damaged areas. If you are seeing issues, you’ll need to fix those first before moving onto all the cosmetic changes. Plumbing, structural, and electrical upgrades can be quite costly. Making sure that you are aware of these upfront is very important.

Good news: Fixing the issues first will already increase the value of your home.

Determining what you need

What are you going to need to do with the space you have?

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  New layout

  
  


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  More room

  
  


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  Updating the current design

  
  

Understanding this will start bringing your cost and budget into focus. If you have basic carpentry skills, you’ll most likely be able to handle the small changes on your own and save some money! When it comes to tearing out walls or moving plumbing around you will likely need to hire out that work.

Cost

The average cost of a new bathroom can vary widely, depending on the age of the home and how much plumbing or electrical work is required. Changing fixtures and adding a backsplash is a lot cheaper than replacing everything, however you can expect to spend around $3,000 to $12,000 on a basic remodel.

Return On Investment

A basic remodel is a lot of times well worth the money put into it. According to the Remodeling magazine you will see a 73.5 return on your investment!! Here are some tips to get the largest ROI possible.

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  New tile

  
  


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  Updated cabinets

  
  


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  Updated fixtures

  
  


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  Brighter lighting

  
  


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  More natural lighting

  
  

Master Bath

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  Jacuzzi tub or steam shower

  
  


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  Installing heated floors

  
  


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  Adding double sinks

  
  


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  Installing shower seat

  
  


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  Adding more storage

  
  

COLORS AND DESIGN

When choosing colors you will want to keep in mind your favorite color isn’t everyone else’s. You are going to want to stick with neutrals to allow a potential buyer to imagine themselves in the home. Neutral colors will also make the bathroom brighter and look cleaner.  

The design should be cohesive to the rest of the home. Avoid trendy materials and designs, which could be dated in a few years.

TIPS:

1. If you’re looking for a quick ROI, a re-glaze on your old tube is about $300 to $400 dollars and can make your bathroom look newer!

2. Replace old shower doors or remove them to add the illusion of space

ADDING THE NEW BATHROOM!

If you have unused space  and not enough baths, you may want to add a second or even a nice third bath! Now this is a lot easier said than done, if you don’t already have a bathroom stubbed it can be fairly costly to add one.

What will it require?

Keep in mind that it will always be a good idea to have a second or even third opinion when adding an addition to your home.

You will need :

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  A really good general contractor

  
  


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  Several specialized experts

  
  


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  Possible have an appraisal done

  
  

How to know if it will be worth it

To figure out if adding a bathroom is even reasonable it will be a good idea to hire an appraiser to come out and take a look at your home as well as surrounding homes to see what the return would be on the investment. If hiring an appraiser isn’t something you want to spend money on it is still a good idea to call a realtor and ask them to run comparative market analysis to see if any homes around you have already done this.

If you have equity in your home, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use a home equity loan to pay for the bathroom remodel or addition.  The reason why this isn’t a bad idea because according to the market and the latest NAR report show that bathrooms have a dramatic effect on selling price with each full bath adding about 24 percent

In closing regardless of whether you decide to update a current bathroom or add an extra. Both should enhance your living experience in your home and improve the price when you go to sell your home.

REFERENCE :

http://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2018/south-atlantic/

https://www.nar.realtor/ncrer.nsf/files/rbsirmansmacpherson2.pdf/$FILE/rbsirmansmacpherson2.pdf