First-Floor Grandparent's Suite:
A Draw or a Turnoff for Buyers?

Question: My wife and I have a two-story home, with four bedrooms on the second floor, including a master bedroom. A decade ago, we added a first-floor "grandparent's suite" with a full bath, sitting room with enclosed fireplace, kitchenette, bedroom and walk-in closet. Since then, Mother passed away. We're comfortable with our master suite on the second floor, but we intend to sell our house in a few years. Should we replace the kitchenette with a vanity area to make it a first-floor master suite, or leave it the way it is? Which would be more desirable to buyers?

-- Ed and Renee Carter, Edwardsville, Ill.

Ed: With home prices falling and inventories rising across the U.S., long-held assumptions about what will appeal to buyers are crumbling like crackers in soup. Sellers whose homes have been sitting on the market for months are starting to pepper me with questions I never heard two years ago, like, "Should I add a wet bar and built-in bookshelves to the family room?" or, "Should I break down the walls between my kitchen and family room?"

Indeed, desperate last-minute revamps and facelifts are one reason that remodeling revenues continued to climb slightly in 2006, even while home sales slumped. According to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, homeowners spent $168.7 billion in improvements and repairs last year, up 1.5% from the year before.

Relax, everybody. It isn't necessary to second-guess buyers. While it's true that house hunters have many more choices than they did a couple of years ago, real-estate agents say the main attractions are still location and school district -- both factors a seller can't change. While it pays off to fix obvious flaws like a poor floor plan or deteriorating siding, or to add an extra bath if you only have one, it doesn't make sense to go beyond what's standard in your neighborhood. You'll only get a fraction of the money back when you sell.

Moreover, whatever you do to spruce up your home, it's likely that it won't entirely please whoever buys it. A 2006 report by the Home Improvement Research Institute found that shortly after they buy a home, two-thirds of buyers undertake at least one home improvement project.

Still, with 76 million baby boomers headed to retirement -- often with elderly relatives in tow -- the question of whether or not a first-floor master bedroom is a major selling advantage is worth considering. So let's look at what the trend-setters in home sales -- new-home builders -- are doing.

Gopal Ahluwalia, director of research for the National Association of Home Builders, says the trade group's surveys show that 59% of buyers prefer a first-floor master suite to a second-floor one. But that leaves a substantial minority, 41%, who want a second-floor one. Many builders are splitting the difference by building two master suites, one upstairs and one down. By 2050, his research projects that 62% of all upscale homes (with more than 4,000 square feet) will have two master suites.

But wait: Mr. Ahluwalia also says that second kitchens in master suites are also becoming popular in upscale homes. "I wouldn't recommend spending the money to take it out," he says.

Neither would I...unless, of course, the kitchen violates any local building rules or codes. In fact, I imagine that a home with an extra kitchen is more versatile than one without, since it can provide an extra measure of independence for a parent, a live-in housekeeper, or an adult child come home to roost.

-- June Fletcher is a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and the author of "House Poor" (Harper Collins, 2005). Her "House Talk" column appears most Mondays on RealEstateJournal.com. Email your questions about the residential real-estate market. Please include your name, city and state. If you don't want your name used in our column, please indicate that. Due to volume of mail received, we regret that we cannot answer every question.

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