I'm not a real estate professional, but I'd say don't do it. The popularity of the Food Channel and the increasing number of foodie shows on other networks shows that making and serving food has become hot with a lot of people. Even though busy professionals may buy more prepared foods now, they are looking at more interesting choice and presentations. Even non-cooks have parties, have the boss to dinner, etc., etc., and that really requires a formal dining room. No matter how nice an eat-in kitchen may be, it's not a formal dining room.
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Review This Artice About Home Improvements by: Lanard
Tim - I stumbled upon the following article after answering your question about whether converting a formal dining room into a bedroom could hurt your resale value.
Essentially, it reflects that owners are recouping less than 68% of dollars spent on remodeling projects. So, if you spent say $10,000.00 on the conversion you could only expect to receive approximately $6,800.00 of it.
Here's the link. Please copy and paste it into your browser to read it.
Tim - there's no pat response for whether converting your formal dining room into a bedroom is a good idea, or not; or whether it will effect your resale value. However, generally speaking I'd say it is a bad idea and would not do it if it were my property.
What's missing here is how cramped you are for space, how long you'll live in the house after the conversion, how much the conversion is going to cost, whether formal dining rooms are selling features of homes in your neighborhood, are four bedrooms more popular than three bedrooms in your market, etc.
Still, it's hard to imagine that a formal dining room to bedroom conversion is going to contribute anything to the house having a natural traffic flow to it.
Is it going to look and feel out of place? Will you have walls and doors oddly and noticeably out of place? Will the inhabitants of the bedroom have to cross living and eating spaces to get to and from bathrooms?
Those are some of the questions you need to be asking yourself. However, sometimes a homeowners assessment of their property can be clouded. So, why not have 2-3 different Realtors com through and give you their take on the matter. Most will do it without cost for the chance of doing business with you in the future.
And when they come listen real closely to what they're saying and line it up with what you know in you gut. For example, the last home I sold a home I had mildew in the master bedroom shower stall...and I knew it, but just hadn't gotten around to cleaning it yet.
And you know what? Only one agent had the courage to say something about. Perhaps the others thought that they might offend me, but in actuality it worked against them because they failed to mention an obvious thing that detracted from the visual appeal of my home.
The point is to make the agents feel empowered to share their honest opinions.
To recap, I think what you're contemplating is a bad idea and would adversely effect the resale value of your home. Further, I wouldn't do it if it were my home. Selling real estate is hard enough these days without creating even more challenges.
Maybe others will chime in and tell you what they think!
