shower vs. tub

Bloomingdale resident and 10 Square Team Associated Broker Suzanne Des Marais made this comment yesterday at the Bloomingdale DC list at Google Groups:

I frequently receive e-mail questions from neighbors about how changes to their home could affect eventual market value.  A few weeks ago I shared about how removing a parking space in favor of more usable outdoor space affects value.  Here was a question I received last week from an owner of a Bloomingdale interior bay front Victorian:             

I need your professional advice on our future Master Bath. We will hopefully be working on our basement this fall and have a new bathroom with shower not a tub in the basement. It should be awesome!
          
Adding that shower will allow us to redo our only full bath in the house (it currently is a 3bed/1.5 bath). For the current hall bathroom we plan to gut it and keep it in the same footprint. The tub is tiny (52" x 28") and expanding the bath isn't really an option.
           
So if you have been counting, we will have one full bathroom with tub, Once full bathroom with shower stall only, and one half bathroom. We plan to convert a walk in closet into an en suite. My husband wants a walk in shower and I think a tub is better for resale (not that we are selling). If we put it a human size tub (60") then it can have a shower head and jets and all that business but we will most likely never bathe in it only shower.  If we do a walk-in shower it will be awesome and have a steam function to add from what a tub would allow, relaxation.                

My response:  If I understand correctly, you already have a small tub in your hall bath and would like to know whether it is important for re-sale to have a tub or whether a really nice shower with no tub is okay in the master bath.

When I started selling real estate in the neighborhood in 2001, and for several years after, people did not seem to expect more than one bathroom, let alone worry about the shower/tub conundrum.  As the values have risen, so have the expectations of the buyers.  Especially for renovated houses (those that command the highest prices), there is generally a preference for at least two bathrooms on the bedroom floor.

  

I have seen the lack of a tub be a deal breaker on an otherwise nice house, so I think it's a good idea to have at least one tub, if there's an option.  As long as there is one tub, I think it's fine to have a really nice shower in the second or master bath from a valuation perspective.  That said, if you plan on being in the house for a few more years, I think the most important thing is to do what is most desirable and functional for you.
                    

See this response from a 2nd Street NW resident:
                                

In answer to the lady who asked Suzanne Des Marias regarding whether to install a bath or shower in their being renovated home - I am a senior citizen, and the majority of my guests are also.  When renovating the house several years ago, I installed a spa bath in the "guest" bathroom.  One weekend a friend of similar age came to stay for the weekend - she did not have a shower the whole time she was with me - she kept telling me she would have one when she got home (Nth Carolina). 
                
After she left, I went to inspect what problems there may have been with the bath, and I found several -

1.  The sides of the bath were high

2.  There were sliding glass shower doors

3.  There was very little room to get into the shower, between the glass door & faucets, unless the sloping back of the bath was used.

4.  Even if one could get over the sides of the bath, getting out was almost impossible - if one slipped in the bath they could cut themselves in 2 by getting caught on the glass rail slides.

     

I immediately took out the bath & installed a very large shower.  If & when my place is ever sold, and there is a requirement from the new owner for a bath, then there is enough space to install one.

    

Since I intend to be here a long time - when the time for replacing the shower for bath comes, many changes in baths may be available.  In the meantime, my guests can shower at leisure.