Hello,
I’ve heard on infomercial that one way to make money is to convert 2 bedroom house to 3 bedroom house. Does anyone have any experience with that? How much roughly does it cost and is this something you guys would recommend?
Thanks,
Alex79
It is true that a 3 bedroom will generally sell or rent for more money than a 2 bedroom. I’ll tell you that I would not force a third bedroom if the house isn’t big enough. I looked at a house once that was three bedrooms crammed into a two bedroom house. The bedrooms were about 8x8 and it was horrible.
Done right and according to code and with proper permits could be OK.
NOT done right, not to code, no permits, can be disastrous and may result in having to be undone.
I have to agree here. Creating a bad floor plan just to feature a 3rd bedroom can trash your resale value. For example, nothing is worse than having to walk through one bedroom to get to the next. Another consideration that is important here is the number of bathrooms. Typically homes will have 2 bedrooms/1 bath or 3 bedrooms/2 baths. A 3 bedroom/1 bath will get penalized by a real estate appraiser and will lack marketability.
Thank you all for replies.
Seems like the only meaningful way to do this is to convert attached garage if there is one. Else you are right, 2 small bedrooms into 3 even smaller bedrooms is not going to work.
What are you going to do when you local code enforcement man comes along and says this conversion of the garage is illegal here.???
You see hell bent on converting 2 to 3…why?
You simply cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
I would say to review the comps for the house. If a lot of the comps have the garage converted to a third bedroom, or even if the comps have the crammed layout with the third bedroom, then it may make sense to go ahead and do the bedroom conversion. If spacious 2 bedrooms are what’s selling in the neighborhood, then the conversion is probably unnecessary. Find a local real estate agent who is a top seller in that neighborhood and get their opinion.
Also, remember real estate is about numbers. The return on a conversion should be greater than the cost of the conversion (also consider if having the 3rd bedroom will help the house sell significantly faster, as that has monetary value as well).
I would have to agree. You don’t want to make a two bedroom a three unless it will still works with the floor plan.
If you have three bedrooms and one or two of them are very small and don’t function well as a bedroom you won’t get any buyers anyway. They won’t give you the price difference doing the project cost in the first place.
I would suggest looking into other ways to add value to the home. Also keep in mind you don’t want to over do it. Don’t do any upgrades that are “bigger” than the surrounding area as you will never get that money back when you sell. :beer
You should also compare the sale price for a 3rd bedroom vs. a 2 car garage. If the 3rd bedroom (compared to homes w/o garages) will sell for more than the 2 car garage, now figure in the cost of conversion. In my professional opinion, you are going to find that you will not recoup your investment.
If the demand is for 3 bedroom homes, why not just lower the value of the home to make it appeal to the class of buyer that is looking for a 2 bedroom. I bet your discounting will be less than conversion.
I have a couple of two bedroom homes and I have geared them towards retirees. It’s all good. They are gentle on the homes, tend to be long term renters, and the rent is never late.
Yes, usually you’re better off doing the conversion if you’re looking to flip it. Two bedrooms are a hard sell. I don’t know about this huge market of retirees wanting to move into them. I have a lot of retirees move into my apartment buildings because they were tired of maintaining their house or have health reasons and decided they were better off moving into an apartment building or retirement home and sold it.
As for the extra bedroom being too small. Well, think about it. It’s usually going to be a family with two younger children that moves into these economy style houses that don’t have a lot of money. How much room do they need for a crib or children’s bed? The parents might not want their son and daughter living in the same bedroom. And if it’s too small to cut up a bedroom, you turn the dining room into a bedroom and just have a living room and kitchen. Building a room above a garage may be too costly to recover your money, but get a free estimate from a construction company if you like. I have no idea what area of the country you’re doing this in and what the value of land is in that area if a room over a garage is worth the return.
You need a building permit to cut out the doorway and an electrical permit for two new plugs, which is a hundred bucks a piece in my area. You need a permit for a new doorway because it could be a load bearing wall you’re cutting into. As long as you say it’s your personal house, in my area, you can do the work yourself as long as the work is reviewed by the city inspector who reviews the permit work. The inspector will tell you to add another 2x4 or whatever; he’s there to help you. A new wall separating the bedroom may or may not need a permit–just make an inquiry at your city hall. You may need another window and there’s tonnes of companies that sell and install windows. Even Home Depot will sell and install their windows. The prices can vary from city to city depending on what’s required and what’s behind the plaster–you haven’t provided enough details. Generally, you’d get at least your money back and you would sell the house quicker because the market and demand for a three bedroom house is much larger than a two bedroom.
That was interesting. Our family is increasing and really need to add a new bedroom. Thanks for the idea. 