Real estate investing isn’t easy, and if you’ve ever been to an open house, there’s only so much an excellent real estate agent can do if the house doesn’t meet most people’s standards. Since you’re purchasing homes, whether house flipping or turning them into rental properties, you often deal with places that have seen better days and are decades old. And if you fail to invest the time, money, and effort into making them feel and look brand new, the age will show, and your potential clients and tenants will notice.
As a result, forced appreciation of real estate property is a long process. It’s a necessary step forward for anyone who wants their listing to catch attention and get multiple offers. However, one of the biggest deal-breakers in a home is the bathroom, an average person’s place of privacy, and a real estate investor’s potential nightmare.
Everyone Needs A Good Bathroom
Granted, it’s only natural that anyone would want a good bathroom. Nobody wants to have bath time in anything substandard or sub-optimal; that makes you feel less clean. Consequently, because more eyes gravitate toward the bathroom, the level of critique increases, and it becomes apparent that they need to impress.
Sadly, a full bathroom remodeling can cost upwards of $5,000 at the minimum if you want quality, and that’s only recognizing the essentials. And, if you take it up a notch and want to remodel a larger master bathroom, the prices doubles, and you’re left with nothing in your pocket to spare. So, to help address these drastic upsell on bathroom fixes, here’s a list of budget methods you can try to save on remodeling.
#1 Reglaze Instead of Replacing the Bathtub
Bathtubs are a great selling point, and you’ll be surprised as to how many eyes light up when they open the bathroom door to see such a beautiful throne for getting clean. On the downside, getting a brand new bathtub and paying for installation will cost you $1,000 at the minimum, which is a punch to the gut for anyone on a budget. So, instead of replacing the bathtub entirely, we suggest you opt for a reglazing service, which is a process of refinishing and re-enameling a bathtub to make it like-new condition.
- Huge Savings: On average, refinishing a bathtub will only cost you around $400 with labor, give or take, which is already half of the minimum for a brand new one. As such, you’ll be saving a lot of your budget going this route, increasing your profit potential, or allocating those savings elsewhere in the home like the kitchen.
- Bathtub Tile Backsplash: As a bonus, you can also have the tile backsplash reglazed if the color and appearance doesn’t hold up with the bathroom style. The process is identical, and you’ll end up with a matching tile enclosure to make the bathroom more modern.
#2 Matching Fittings and New Fixtures
While fixtures and fittings may seem small compared to larger furniture, flooring, and plumbing inside the bathroom, they add tone, style and never go unnoticed. Plus, if they start to show their age, they can hurt a bathroom’s appeal and can be a complete let-down. An easy and inexpensive fix would be installing matching fittings and new fixtures to complete the bathroom’s look and identity.
- Looks Great: From stainless steel to matte black and even experimenting with gold trimmings, matching fittings for your showerheads and faucets will look great. This simple upgrade can make a bathroom go from simple to luxury, so don’t leave this out.
- Discard Problematic Toilets: You wouldn’t want a tenant constantly complaining about the toilet, and neither do you want to deal with the issue much later when you thought everything was ready. So, do yourself a favor and discard problematic toilets. Get yourself a new one for around the price range of $300 with the installation.
#3 Improve Bathroom Vanity
We won’t deny that bathroom vanity can elevate the look and feel of a bathroom in an instant, but these things go for top dollar prices and aren’t the slightest bit budget-friendly. You’ll be looking to spend around $1,500 for anything decent and upwards of $3,000 for custom-built vanity to make the room pop. So, rather than throwing away the current bathroom vanity available, we suggest that you keep and improve them to save money.
- Match Room Style: While you won’t expect top-end luxury from retouching and repainting, simply matching the room’s style and aesthetics can go a long way to convincing potential clients and tenants. It’s a lot better than having a mismatch of Miami pink and modern looks all over the place.
- Different Storage Spaces: You can also make vanity more functional by installing different storage spaces. Opt for retractable racks for ease of organization and maybe even retrofit additional features into a vanity cabinet storage to make it more efficient.
#4 Consult a Professional
Last but not least, before you double-down and commit to anything, don’t forget to consult a professional on the soundness and fidelity of the bathroom. Their input and advice can help save you thousands of dollars from simple oversight and small problems turning dire.
Denting Your Bank Account Isn’t Necessary
Overall, we want to emphasize that bathroom fixes for rental properties or any real estate investment don’t have to empty your pockets. With a bit of creative problem-solving and hard work, any expense can be cut down to help save more of your budget.
