4 bed two bath or 3 bed three bath?

[Jonathan Sher]

Hey BP fans, I wanted to get your opinion on something. I might make an offer on a 2,000 sq ft house that has 4 bedrooms on the second floor with a cramped hallway bathroom upstairs that has a shower, toilet and vanity (no tub). The house also has a large bathroom downstairs that has a bathtub, tiolet and vanity. I was thinking about taking the fourth bedroom that shares a wall with the already large master and make it into a master bathroom and extra closet space, essentially make the house a 3 bed 3 bath with a master suite. What would you do? This is a flip so im looking for the best value creator to a homebuyer.

Would you rather have 4 beds upstairs with a cramped hallway bathroom, or a 3 bed 3 bath with a hallway bathroom and a master suite bath.

I'm leaning towards the 3/3 conversion.

Thanks!

[J Scott]

Exactly what Steve (and others) said above...you need to do the analysis in both situations, and see which one has the better numbers...

In general, I would never have considered trading a bedroom to make a larger master bath, but I made the decision to do this on my most recent property. Removing the 4th bedroom upstairs to expand the master bedroom into a large suite worked out numbers-wise when we looked at the construction costs and the comps -- had the numbers not worked, we wouldn't have done it.

The answer has nothing to do with your personal preference (or our personal preference)...it has to do with the numbers...