Context: when I bought my home (130+ years old) it was listed as a 4-bedroom / 2.5bath. The waste plumbing fed into a cesspool. So one of the first things we did was replace that with a modern septic. In the course of doing that, we found that the half bath did not tie in to the main sewage line, but had its own little mini-cesspool. We opted to just remove that system and fill in the pool, with the idea that we could just figure out how to tie it in and reinstall it later.
Question is, if I leave it as a 4/2, would that affect my home value and in what way? Would the upgraded septic system make a difference?
Does removing a half-bath affect home value?
byu/saltytac0 inRealEstate
Posted by saltytac0
5 Comments
Appraiser here. While I don’t know your market, the most likely answer is yes, it will have a negative impact on the value. It really depends on if similarly sized comps in the area have half baths.
Yeah. I would keep it.
Most likely. What is sqft of the home and how many floors? If you remove a 1/2 bath from the first floor and there are no more toilets on that floor, you will not only lose value, but potential buyers. If there is an en-suite master bath, then you only have one full bathroom for three bedrooms. That could also be an issue, but this may depend on the total sqft of the home.
It will have an effect, but if this is an old tired bathroom, it added little value anyway. Do what you need to do, to make the home work for you.
Well it depends. Like if both bathrooms are upstairs and the half downstairs was the only option without going upstairs, that will have a “pain in the neck” penalty. But otherwise, maybe a little, maybe not. Eh