Do you rinse off in a glass-enclosed shower amid soothing rainforest sounds? Or would you rather lounge languidly in a porcelain clawfoot tub? Choose wisely. Your preference could affect your property value.
According to The New York Times, real estate agents and designers are debating the value of tub over shower when it comes time to list a home.
There isn’t any definitive data on how removing a tub affects resale value, but Jonathan J. Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, says not having a tub poses an issue for young families, “so the risk of impacting the value rises as the apartment size rises.” In other words, if your home gives off more Full House than bachelor pad vibes, keep the tub.
On the flip side, Katherine Salyi, a broker at Sotheby’s International Realty, says removing the tub from a studio or one-bedroom often increases the home’s value by as much as 10%.
For a two-bedroom or two-bathroom apartment though, Salyi says “if you were to take away all the tubs, it would have a negative impact.”
The end takeaway: invest in your bathroom in some form. Put money into your bathroom and “watch it go up every year,” advises James Mansfield, chief executive of West Village General Contracting. “Your house gets more valuable because of the alterations.”
[h/t: New York Times via The Real Deal]
