As long as you have a tub someplace in the house I don't think it matters. Do what you will like best.

I would say yes, since you say you have room and you know you are selling in a few years. Could be a deal breaker for some. I know I wouldn't want to take a nice relaxing bubble bath at the end of a stressful day in my kids' bathroom.
Might sit on a rubber ducky. :(

I vote yes. I'm planning to turn my shower into a tub/shower by stealing some space from an adjacent closet. If you already have the space, it's a no-brainer.

Are you planning on selling in the next two years? If not, I vote no, you probably won't get your extra investment back and it will be a waste of money if you don't use it.

Do an oversized luxurious shower, or perhaps put a cabinet where the tub might go, something that could be removed without huge expense by new owners down the road. You could have the bath area plumped in the walls for the tub, as that might not be too expensive if you're already opening up the walls. When you sell just tell the new owners that the plumbing is ready, go for it. Then they can have they tub they actually want.

You might want to see what other homes in the area have. If you have only a shower and most of the other comparable homes have a tub and shower, then your home lists with the master as a 3/4 bath not a full bath. I'm not a real estate expert, but I would imagine that could impact pricing or interested buyers. Personally it would be nice to have a tub, but not if I had to give up a nice sized shower. I rarely take baths and don't have kids so it would not be a deal breaker for me as a buyer, but I might expect to pay less for the house because of it.

The 3/4 bath thing doesn't apply in all cities; it doesn't in mine for example.

It's dealers choice both for you and for potential buyers down the road - since you can't guess what they'll want. We're not doing one in our master, b/c our other baths have a tub. We're using the space for a nice dressing table for the lady of the house. If I were shopping for a home, I'd like a house that used the tub space for something else...

Do what you want to do, and make it look nice and useful and it shouldn't negatively impact you for resale.

The 3/4 bath must be a regional designation. I've never heard of it. We didn't do a tub in our master because we don't use them-- instead we did a great big shower. There is a tub in the hall bath, so there is one in the house. I don't think it will hurt resale. For every person who turns down our home because there's no bath tub in the master, there will be someone else who appreciates the fantastic shower.

Our contractor said that in most bathroom redos in our area, he's removing the existing tub and not replacing it.

I meant to say that our contractor said this about most master bathroom redos he has worked on lately.

I am certainly not a real estate expert, so please educate me. Does this mean that in some regions as long as there is some sort of bathing facility in the room (either shower, bath, or both) it is listed as a "full bath" and in other regions there is a differentiation of "full bath" vs "3/4 bath"? Does "1/2 bath" mean toilet and sink regardless of region?

The original poster said "I have plenty of room to add the bath", so from that I gathered that this was not a case of large shower vs tub, but perhaps that was an inaccurate assumption. If you do not put in a tub, what will go in the space? Will you be putting in a larger shower? Will you add closet space (linen or clothing)? A makeup/vanity area? A seating area? Empty floor space? As I said above, not having a tub would not be a deal breaker for me as a buyer. But I wonder what you'll be doing instead of the tub. Perhaps what you're considering would be more valuable. Or perhaps it could look like there was room for a tub but it simply was not added.

Same in our area. Although I hear it on this forum, IRL I have never heard for fractional bathrooms. There are bathroom and powder rooms. Thats it.

Most new homes I am seeing do not have tubs. Most people prefer large walk in showers.

In the life of a person, or a home, baby years are really short to require installing a permanent bath tub which later becomes hazardous to adults showering in it!

I wonder how many adults slip and fall in tubs (for taking a shower).

While I like a tub, where I live (FL) through my whole lifetime it's been pretty common for the master bath not to have a tub (unless it's a big extravaganza bath with all the accoutrements). Even before the concept that the MB had to be grand, our 1960s vintage house had a tub in the kids/guest bath and my parents' bath was shower only, so I suppose it depends on where you are.

pricklypearcactus - I have a copy of the bank appraisal for the house my sister is buying. This is the wording from the UNIFORM APPRAISAL DATASET (UAD) DEFINITIONS ADDENDUM (Source: Fannie Mae UAD Appendix D: UAD Field-Specific Standardization Requirements)

Explanation of Bathroom Count
Three-quarter baths are counted as a full bath in all cases. Quarter baths (baths that feature only a toilet) are not included in the bathroom count. The number of full and half baths is reported by separating the two values using a period, where the full bath count is represented to the left of the period and the half bath count is represented to the right of the period.
Example:
3.2 indicates three full baths and two half baths.

It does not appear that the 3/4 bath versus full bath is a regional thing. According to Fannie Mae, there are only full and half baths.

I've always heard that a full bath must have a tub (but not necessarily a shower) and a 3/4 bath has a shower but no tub. A half bath has just sink and toilet.

Everything I've read suggests that a tub to shower conversion is a huge trend. If I were house hunting, I'd much prefer a nice shower to a tub that happens to have a shower.

Great information, dekeoboe. Thanks!

I second KMCG. Do what you want. When we went shopping for our first house I preferred that it wasn't remodeled so that the price was lower and knowing that I would gut everything -even if it was brand new- so that I can remodel it to my standards or liking.

I would love to pull out our jetted tub and reconfigure the space to have a huge shower. Problem is there is a large window above that tub and we have neither the desire nor the funds to mess with taking the window out, messing with adding brick (hoping you can find an exact match), etc. Plus the fact that in my area, it is expected to have the jetted tub. So yes, I think it all depends on the area you're in and the current expectation if you were to sell in the near future. I would LOVE a trend (HGTV are you listening?) to kick into to high gear of pulling out the tubs in favor of a large shower. All I use it for is to wash the dogs. Maybe there will come a time where I'll appreciate it, but in the 7 years we've been here, I've had exactly one bath in it.

It depends some on the house, the neighborhood, and the market. My house is a perfect starter home for a family with young children, so it ought to have a tub. But we have one in the hall bath, so the master bath does not need one.

If your house is not so great for little kids (traffic, steep yard, who knows) then it's a matter of taste. You might consider a soaking tub as an adult version.

I wouldn't bother with a 3/4 but a nice soaker tub is a huge drawcard as a parent retreat, especially with a nice bathroom with a view...seen lots of those.

Either that, or a nice posh shower with fancy tile, jets etc.

We just bought a house with no tub and turned down a really nice house with a tub/shower (a famous artist had done mosaics in the shower -- it was gorgeous -- and there was no way to get the tub out without damaging the mosaic) My parents sold a tubless house to the first person who looked at it. Put in what works for you. No matter what you choose, someone will like it and someone will hate, so make yourself happy.