I don’t fit in a regular tub. If my legs are covered, my back is upright & upper body is out of the water & if I slide down to get my back in, the knees come up out of the water. Nor is it wide enough to turn sideways. I’ll trade that very minor inconvenience for getting things off the top shelf w/o a step stool. 
I’m having a similar debate, only I only have 1 bathroom. But it’s small, and I think it could appear bigger and be more functional but going with a walk in shower over the tub/shower combo.
But for me, that would mean no tub at all come resell time. I don’t take baths, but it is a 2 bed/1 bath condo unit in an area with lots of families, so I suspect it would hurt me when I sell.
If I had a second bath with a tub, I wouldn’t question taking the tub out of the master at all.
I would want a tub somewhere in the house myself, and I think any couple with small kids also would, besides the people who would like one for themselves.
However, if you’re not actually thinking of selling the house in the next ten years, who gives a toss? IMO, people spend far too much time thinking about ‘resale value’ and other people’s preferences. Re-do your bathroom for yourself.
Deal-breaker. The garden tub is the reason we bought our current house.
Some people really, really like baths.
We did the exact same thing, got rid of the soaking tub as we never used it. Put in a large walk in shower and love it. In addition I know of at least 3 neighbors who did the same thing.
In talking to each couple they all said the same thing, the shower was more important to them, and they wouldn’t blink twice if they were looking at a house and there wasn’t a soaking tub in the master. All agreed there had to be a tub somewhere though.
My house is a fantastic house, there is no doubt I could put it on the market tomorrow and sell it almost immediately. If someone doesn’t want my house because there isn’t a soaking tub, well bye. In my opinion very few people would let that alone be the deal breaker, they might want a tub but wouldn’t walk away from the perfect house because there isn’t one there. There might be a few but very few in my opinion.
I picked the first answer, but the second applies. We have a shower only in the (tiny - 5’ X 8’) master bath and a tub/shower in the second bathroom. In our last house in FL, we had a huge shower - about 4’ X 5’ - and I loved it. Our house in Virginia had a great big soaking tub as well as a separate shower, and we rarely used the tub - it took forever to fill and it cooled down too fast.
Anyway, to answer the question, I prefer a shower only in the master, preferably a large shower, and as long as there’s a tub in the second bathroom, I’m good. I seem to recall being told that the VA won’t finance a house that doesn’t have at least one tub.
I would much rather have a big shower than a tub. I think for resale there needs to be a tub in one of the bathrooms, but I’d be happier if it weren’t in mine.
My daughter comes over once a month or so to use the tub in my bathroom because it’s deep and has jets, and hers at home is shallow, but that’s all the use it gets.
Those of you for whom it’s a deal breaker: what if the house also has a hot tub outside? We chose to to just build a huge walk in shower in our master, because if we want to soak in water we just get in the hot tub (and there is a bath/shower combo in the other bathroom). Curious if this changes any minds.
We have a decent sized tub in the master bath and a walk in shower approximately 4’ by 6’. We’ve used the tub twice in 12 years.
For the master bathroom (what would be called an “en suite” in the UK), I wouldn’t really mind whether it had a bath or shower.
So long as there is a bath somewhere in the house, that’s the main thing. The “family bathroom” (what it’s called in the UK) would almost certainly need to have a bath in it.
It’d be a negative for me. Not necessarily a deal breaker if a house is otherwise perfect, but it’d be on the “con” side if I were weighing options.
A hot tub would be a negative for me in any situation. I would not want to maintain it, and with kids the standing water freaks me out.
I’ve lived in places with a tub but no shower. I’ve lived in places with a shower but no tub. The latter with the shower is decidedly better.
We took out the 5 foot tub and replaced it with a 4 foot shower, which left enough room for a stacked washer and dryer in the bathroom which my wife loves. We don’t miss the tub.
In my particular case no, the hot tub outside wouldn’t make up for the lack of a tub inside.
I like baths. Sometimes, when my skin is being particularly troublesome, I take medicated baths to make things better. If I’m buying a home it has to have a tub.
Mind you, it doesn’t have to be an elaborate, pool-sized tub with jets and lights and bubblers and whatever else they put in them these days. Just a bathtub. For me, it’s a dealbreaker not to have one.
If the tub was outside … how the hell does that work? Aren’t you worried about the neighbors gawking, being arrested for indecent exposure, what? Or do you wear a bathing suit and not, you know, actually take a bath from the standpoint of cleaning yourself?
That said - plenty of people are anti-bath. Do what you want, with at least one tub in the house I doubt you’ll have too much trouble finding a buyer when it comes time to sell.
Oh hell yes. It would absolutely suck to have to wait in the morning for a tub to fill up when I have to get to work. I like to hop in the shower, dry off, get dressed, and go.
The previous house I lived in had a shower and no tub in the master. It wasn’t a problem at all. The tub in the main bathroom was plenty - we pretty much only used it for washing the dogs.
A big walk-in shower with a built-in seat would be heaven! I’d have a place to put my shampoo and a place to sit when I shave my legs…
Not having a tub in the master bath would not be a turnoff at all for me. Agreed with the others that as long as there is some kind of tub in the other bathroom, it’s all good.
Now, in an ideal world, where I have unlimited space, money, and time to plan, I’d have a regular master bathroom with an awesome walk-in shower, another bathroom somewhere with a standard ADA-compliant bathtub for washing kids, dogs, or whatever, and a completely separate SPA BATHROOM with a super-deep tub, another awesome shower, professionally maintained foliage, etc. (And a toilet in a little side room, ya know?)
If you take a bubble bath, or if you take a bath when you’re dirty and sweaty, I can guarantee there’s going to be a ring around the tub. Ugh. Better get that tub cleaned.
Or better yet, take a shower.
You and my husband, who’s 6’10". And he has to squat under a shower.
It would be a dealbreaker. I take a bath every morning. Not only are baths very relaxing and one of life’s great pleasures, they also loosen up my gimpy ankle. And if I’m the master of the house, then there should be a tub in the master bathroom.
We had a big ‘thing’ with the architect for our “big” house years ago. She kept insisting we needed a bathtub in the master bathroom. We wanted a large multi-head shower, walk-in, no door, glass block shower. We compromised by having space for a tub, but putting in a window seat instead. We loved, loved, loved the shower and so did everyone else. Everyone wanted to use the shower when they stayed with us.
Eventually put it up for sale and sold it to the first folks thru because the guy LOVED the shower.
Get the shower:)