How do you determine if it pays to remodel a master bathroom?

[Phyllis E.]

How do you determine how much (if at all) master bathroom remodeling to do in order to make money on the investment?

Flippers and remodelers typically remodel the bathrooms in their rehabs, correct? Then how come those "costs vs value" charts typically show a bathroom remodel as averaging only 58-65% return on investment? (as shown on this chart: http://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2016/middle-atlantic/) I know these are just averages, but they would have to be low by over 35% for anyone to make any money by remodeling the bathrooms, according to these figures! Just wondering if you all have any insight into this. Are those ROI charts way off? How dated or "broken" does a bathroom have to be before you should invest in improving it?

(Sorry about the large type and mixed up formatting---I can't figure out how to shrink it back to normal size and not sure how it got so big in the first place!)

Here is why I am asking: I am trying to fix up my own home, of 23 years, to sell it this summer and am trying to think about it as a  business investment or "flip". ( I would love to eventually try some house flipping, so I am sort of thinking about this like practice, LOL! ) I am trying to determine if it would pay to do a more major remodel of our master bathroom (The house was built in 1987, btw.)  The vanities were in bad shape, so we have already bought some upgraded vanities with real marble* tops and new faucets, but not sure if we should also do a major remodel to replace the dated 1980's floor and wall tile, "Roman" whirlpool tub ("bone" colored), "bone" colored toilet, and acrylic shower stall. The current layout is  very awkward and is a poor use of space, but could be tremendously improved by just swapping the tub and shower locations/orientations, which I imagine would drive potential costs up a lot. We had several realtors through the house to give us some pre-sale, fix-up suggestions, and one realtor thought we should also replace the floor tile, along with the vanities, but, without improving the other things, I'm afraid it would be just throwing good money after bad.  So how do you determine when, and how much, master bathroom remodeling to do in order to make money?

(Btw, fwiw, I do have an architecture background from years ago (back before kids) and have already managed about 5 various home improvement projects on my own home here over the years!)

( * Just FYI, Home Depot now has real marble vanity tops in stock for unbelievably great prices--not carrara, but a type of marble called Arabescato Venato, which has both gray and beige and/or brown veining, so it can work with older beige and almond/bone colored tile, (like mine) too! If you buy one, though, make sure to take off the top and check it out before you take it home--being natural, the veining patterns vary considerably from box to box! HTH someone! )

[Russell Brazil]

Thanks for the tag @Mindy Jensen. Dunkirk is outside my coverage area, but close enough that I can shed some light on some of the questions asked. @Phyllis E. the reason that something like a bathroom might bring back 65% of the money put into as an average is because of how varied the real estate market is, even in small geographical areas. I dont know Dunkirk very well, but I can give you some good examples from the metro area.  Let's take as a good example the east side of Rockville in zip code 20851. Redoing a bathroom there would cost you about $8,000.  The increase in your sales price on the property would be very close to ZERO.  A house in the northern part of that zip code, in say Burgundy Estates subdivision....a 3/2.5 split level is going to sell for $400-$410 if its in good condition whether it is fully redone or completely dated.  Then lets shoot down to some neighborhoods in DC, take Petworth in 20011.  A bathroom remodel there would probably cost you the same $8,000, maybe $10,000 since you might be using some nicer materials....and will probably return $20,000-$25,000 in increase sales price. So a 200-$250% return on your money. The price different between a 3/2 rowhouse non rehabbed in Petworth will be about $450k, and a fully rehabbed version will be $650-$775k.

Both of these are examples within the same metro area and can show you how these things can have huge swings in just a 10 mile difference.  This is why flipping can be very easy in some places (Gentrifying neighborhoods in DC, PG County along the DC Border) and near impossible in other places (Much of Montgomery County)

I find that the areas that are very very desireable to live in, where you have the top schools in the area, like Rockville, lower Silver Spring, Fairfax, Herndon...basically the wealthy suburbs, the prices in a particular neighborhood will not have a huge variance based on condition...and this is because people buy the house regardless simply for the school district, location, county amenities.  While the areas with bad schools and perhaps some crime issues like the gentryfying neighborhoods in DC...Petworth, Brightwood, Ivy City, Brentwood....will have huge price variations based on the condition of the property.

Now do flips happen in Fairfax and Montgomery County...sure, but in nowhere the same types of numbers that they happen in DC and PG County.

It doesnt really speak to Dunkirk exactly, but I hope it sheds some light on how doing X, like rehabbing a bathroom could have a huge impact in location Y, but no impact in location Z, and thus why you can not really have a rule of thumb that spending A will return B.