5 Portland Bathroom Remodel Ideas – Increase Home Value

Did you know? Portland home buyers love a remodeled bathroom!

It’s true — according to Remodeling’s Magazine’s 2020 Cost vs. Value Report, Portland home owners received 10% more return on investment for a midrange bathroom remodel than the national average. 

Bathrooms offer great homeowner value because they’re a room in the house that we use every day. (Especially in the COVID 19 days right!) We go there to relax, rejuvenate and sometimes just to get away. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at just how much value a remodeled bathroom can contribute to your typical Portland home, and provide some Realtor approved improvement ideas!

The Value of Bathroom Remodels

The first thing to keep in mind about bathroom remodels (or any Portland home renovation) is that spending a lot of money on an upscale remodel is not the best way to get a healthy return on investment. 

Remember, Return on Investment, or ROI, is simply the amount of money you get back out of a remodel when you sell the home, compared to how much that project cost up front. For example, if you spend $100 on a project, and it causes a home buyer to pay $100 more for your home, that’s an ROI of 100%. If that project is only valued at $50 in the buyers’ eyes, however, it will have a much lower ROI of 50%. 

Most remodeling projects come in at between 60-70% ROI, meaning the home seller is always going to “eat” some portion of the cost. Is this true for bathrooms?

Every home is different, and it depends on the age of the home and its base value. However, there are some numbers out there that should make a bathroom remodel very attractive for Portland home sellers, especially those in market segments that are not moving very quickly right now.

• Remodeling Magazine estimates a 75% ROI for Portland home sellers who spend less than $20K on their bathroom remodel. That’s better than doing a major kitchen remodel or adding a master suite!
• Zillow, crunching the numbers for bathrooms at least 25 years old, found that a “midrange” bathroom remodel can get up to 171% ROI. (Midrange remodel: Replacing the toilet, tub and light fixtures, adding a double sink, tiling the floor and hanging some wallpaper.)

Other reasons to remodel the bathroom…

At the end of the day, ROI is not the most important factor in deciding whether to remodel your bathroom. Why?

• Having a remodeled bathroom is worth the cost, especially for those homeowners not selling right away. 
• It will help the home sell. A remodeled home typically spends fewer days on the market. It will see more buyer activity, and a nice picture of a cute bathroom will go a long way toward generating buzz online! All of these factors contribute to better sales price on the home at the end of the day, even if they’re not directly measurable as ROI. 

Bathroom Remodel Ideas for Portland 

Bathrooms are a place where soft lighting and a calm, neutral color palette provide some relief from the chaos of the world. A great bathroom should be easy to clean, pleasant to look at, and highly functional.

Portland, like any city, has its own trends and styles, and bathrooms here are as unique as the overall home in which they are found. Whether you own a classic craftsman home or a modern condo, we have bathroom remodel ideas to amaze and win over buyers!

1. Walk-in shower. A Zillow study found that 11% of Portland baby boomers will be selling their homes in the next few years — and many of them will be looking for new homes where they can age in place. They will be looking for showers that you can not only walk-in, but you can roll in (no curb showers). More design features are needed that can work for people of all abilities. Eliminate the threshold in your shower, add grab bars and fixtures that can be operated one-handed, and you have a huge selling point for 11% of future buyers. Plus — walk-in showers look great and create a perfect excuse to add a claw-foot tub if there’s space elsewhere in the bathroom!
2. Dual-flush toilets and motion activated sinks. There’s all kinds of bathroom tech on the market, and while we’ll stop short of recommending an Alexa-enabled toilet, some of the new fixture features are truly helpful. Homeowners can save money on their water bill by investing in dual-flush toilets, which allow better control of how much water goes down the drain when you flush. Residential-grade “touchless” sink fixtures also can help save water, and, just as important in this day and age, they are much more sanitary. Some of these automatic taps rely only on motion sensors; others can be turned on by touching the faucet itself — but shutoff is always automatic.
3. Precision lighting. Nothing’s worse than a bathroom with intense, harsh lighting — unless it’s a bathroom with light that barely suffices! One affordable bathroom improvement you can make over a single weekend is to upgrade light fixtures and bulbs. Portland interior designer Mosaik recommends an “unexpected lighting feature” such as a small chandelier or elegant table lamp on a long vanity. And, of course, dimmer switches will ensure anyone can get the level of light that they desire. 
4. Heated floors. Ahh, the cozy feeling of stepping out of the bath or shower onto a heated floor. Most bathroom remodels involve replacing the flooring, so why not run some floor heat while you’re at it? It’s efficient and offers that extra level of luxury Portland buyers will swoon over. 
5. Tile or advanced flooring. For bathrooms, you can’t beat the look and feel of real tile. Check out this fun Portland bathroom remodel with a tile job any buyer would fall in love with! However, tiling is hard work for a DIY project, and it can be expensive to hire a pro. Luxury vinyl tiles, which can mimic stone, wood or ceramic tile, are another option. They are 100% waterproof, making them ideal for the bathroom setting. They can also be installed as a DIY project — but may not add to your home value the way that real tile would. 

Have more questions about home value and the Portland real estate market? Contact our top 1% Portland selling agents for a free, no-obligation Comparative Market Analysis.