We have a 10x13 foot storage room in our basement. We are looking to sell our home within the next year. Is it worth renovating this room into a 4th bedroom for re-sale purposes? The house is about 1900 sq. ft.currently. We would need to add an egress window but the rest of the renovation could be done fairly cheaply as the walls are set and most of the drop ceiling is already set. What would it add to the value of the house? Thanks
It would depend on location but another bedroom would add value. You could also just refurb it so it is a usable room and let the buyer decide what they can use it for such as gym, home office, play room etc.
It probably won't return your investment unless you do the work that youself and are willing to trade on sweat-equity. I just installed an egress window through about 7 inches of concrete wall - messy job, and with the cutting tool rental and excavator rental, I spent about $4,500 to do the job. Drainage is always an issue, as is the retaining wall material. I also installed a flush egress ladder system that blended in with the retaining wall. One other consideration - while you'll increase legal square footage because of the egress... a buyer would logically want a bath in that space. Now you have really 'upped' the cost because of more electrical and plumbing. You might be better off just installing the egress window, and stubbing out plumbing for a bath. Build the interior walls, run wiring without sheetrock to define the bath and bedroom. This will show the buyer the potential, it will increase the legal square footage, but you won't be hit with the big expense of finishing the rooms. You can probably do this for 1/3 of he cost of a finished room. You may already have a finished bath in the space... if that's the case, just install the egress window and run electrical. Good luck!
