Tub or shower in rental property?

[Jeff Bisgier]

Hi Folks!

My wife and I are in the process of rehabbing our first investment property. The house is a 2bd / 1bth single family. We are having a slight disagreement about the bathroom. Right now, it has a corner shower stall only. My wife says that we need to redo the bathroom and but in a bath tub because any perspective tenants with young kids will not rent our property without a tub. I'm looking at the cost to do this and I think it will be pretty expensive. The bathroom is above a finished basement, so a contractor would have to tear open the basement ceiling to move around plumbing. We'd have to move the toilet and the sink and the baseboard heater as well.

I'm hoping to get a few opinions from you folks as to what you think would be our best move. As a side note, the house is 100 years old. Would the weight of the tub be an issue as far as the floor joists go?

Thanks!!