One thing potential buyers pay close attention to when looking to purchase a home is the bathroom. Some look at the number of bathrooms in the home. Does it offer a full bath for the family, a posh master bath for the parents, and a half bath or powder room for guests? Or does it just have one bathroom that everyone is forced to use at varying times?
If the latter describes your family’s situation, then you might be looking to remodel your bathroom in order to sell your home faster, sell your home for a higher price, or both of these reasons. Knowing how much to spend on the remodel is key. If you spend too much, then you have basically balanced out any resale value that you hoped to add to the overall worth of your home to a potential buyer.
So the key is to find that happy medium where you have not wiped out all your savings, but where you have buyers imagining themselves getting ready for work, preparing for bedtime, or just taking a long, hot bubble bath in the completed space. Finding this happy medium means setting priorities based on what makes a bathroom desirable, such as the vanity cabinet, sink, and faucets.
Focus on the bathroom’s visual elements, such as the colors that you use, materials such as paint and tile, and the fixtures and other accessories. Most of today’s homeowners have no idea how to tell the difference between high-end utilities and basic ones that exhibit minimal eco-friendly features. Here are some things you can do to help get the most out of remodeling your family’s bath to sell.
Talk to the professionals. Do you know a local real estate agent? They can help you compare homes that are comparable to yours within your neighborhood or the surrounding areas, if necessary. They can compare how many bathrooms these homes have, for example, and tell you what you need to do to compete with them in the real estate market.
Choose timeless elements and features. Your local home improvement center might have a great bargain on a teal sink or a vanity cabinet covered in yellow gold laminate. These elements will not appeal to most home buyers. Instead choose neutral colors and timeless elements that buyers can imagine themselves personalizing with their own towels and other accessories.
Add a little extra luxury if you can. If you are planning to replace the bathroom floors during your remodel to sell your home, then spend a little extra for the luxury of radiant heat floor mats. Heated floors add an emotional tie for potential buyers, and they will remember that feature of your home over the same cold tile floors in other homes on the market at the same time as yours.
Update the accessories in your family’s bathroom. Why would you spend money on a bathroom renovation and then stick your same dowdy towels back in the room? Add nice towels in neutral colors, for instance such as white which implies cleanliness. Take some time to declutter your family’s vanity countertops. Keep out just the necessities and then arrange them in a neat and tiny way.
Staging Your Bathroom for an Open House
When you have an open house, make sure all signs of a remodel are finished. Potential buyers should feel like the bathroom fits your house so well that it has always been that way. Stage the bathroom with things like a plush bath mat that complements the color of the floor. Instead of a painting which could warp, find a place to display a glass vase that will hold up to the moisture and humidity in a bathroom.
Speaking of moisture and humidity, you might consider taking steps to waterproof your new bathroom. A marble countertop, glass tile walls and floor, and waterproof paint on the ceiling protect all the hard work and the amount of money that you just invested in your bathroom remodel to sell your home. Also make sure there is some way to vent the moist air so that it is ushered out of the bathroom.
And finally, make sure you have strategically placed lighting so that the room is well lit but still relaxing. Ultimately you want potential buyers to feel like they’re at a luxurious spa, even if they just step into the powder room tucked into a hallway that is convenient for guests to use while visiting the home.
Looking for a specific design? Check out these hippie bathrooms.
