What is the best way to add room to my house?

Question

I bought a house to fix up and sell, but it is very small. I was wondering what the best approach is to add room and add value to it. It has 2 medium size bedrooms, a fairly large attic that seems to have been made into a bedroom since there are bookshelves installed in the walls. There is also an unfinished basement. There is also an odd "bedroom" next to the other two. I believe it was a nursey as it had disney wallpaper. It is way too small to be a normal bedroom and possibly too small for a decent sized desk to make it into an office. What is my best option here? Take out the walls of the tiny bedroom and add space to the bathroom? Take out the wall to the small bedroom and make a master suite with a private bath? Make it a huge walk-in closet for the master suite? What would give me more cash? And does adding a bedroom in the attic really count as a 3rd bedroom? Would an open floor-plan downstairs create the illusion of more space?

Answer 1

Add a room

Answer 2

Without seeing the house and the lot is really hard to say.

If you can know out walls and add square footage that will help a lot. Also, you need to have 3 bedrooms, there isn't a big market for 2 bedrooom other then investers (they rent easily).

The attic is not legally a bedroom, it may even cause you trouble the fire department.

Openplans aremodern and desirable. New flooring, all the same, is a cheap way to spruce things up.

I am not sure about that small room. Making it a closet is good, or maybe an inside laundry. Again, w/o the house and the plans it is hard to know what is best.

Have some contractors give you bids on additions. OK, this is a little cheesy....but even if you wont do that they will tell you which are your support walls, etc.

Answer 3

It depends on what people in your market want.

Regarding the nursery, first I'd paint it white to create a blank space. Then I'd add a connecting door to the one bedroom. That way, you can promote it as a nursery, a home office OR a walk-in closet. I think homeowners value flexibility, and you can point out that it would be easy to convert the nursery into a walk-in closet after the baby grows up.

Bedroom in the attic *does* count as a third bedroom; and again, it could also be office space or a rumpus room, depending on the needs of the new owner.

I like open floor plans, but some people don't like the idea of kitchen smells and grease going all over the place. It would make the place seem bigger, though. Depends on your bearing walls.

Good luck, and I hope you make a bundle!

Answer 4

generally when flipping ,
room additions are a no go
here's why
you do not add value to the amount of money you will spend for this endeavor..why is why season flipper NEVER do room additions, it basically paint and replace easy stuff to make quick money, hence why you choose your flips carefully, just because it was a bargain 2 bedrooms doesn't mean you pick it up for a flip

you will hang on to the property for far too long until the project is complete you need to get plans made by an architech 4 to 6 grand , then have them sent to a structual engineer another 4 grand or so, then send into plan check, where they usally are kicked back for corrections .. and yes you pay for those correction to both the architech and structual engineer.. then resubmitted back to plan check, the process for each plan check typically takes about 3 to 4 weeks .. once you get you stamped approved set you make a few copies for bid and construction... then you get bids... then you sign contracts and pray you genral knows how to build add on in a quick fashion, over all you generally lose 6 months on the entire process and in flipping circles, that's 5 months 2 weeks too long.

Answer 5

A screened in porch with a warm bath, so i'd have an section to loosen up and look on the barren area and enable the clean breeze in without each of the dirt and dirt at the same time as the wind blows! A warm may be fantastic back, I particular do bypass over our old one, sturdy for the aching back!