Whether you’re looking for ways to make your dream home even dreamier or you’re preparing to sell your home in the coming years, prioritizing home upgrades and updates can be tricky. Homeowners play a balancing act between upgrades they want most and updates with the highest impact on home value. Use this guide to frame your mindset about home upgrade return on investment (ROI) and learn about a few top projects for boosting home value.
Calculating ROI in Home Improvements
While this guide is designed to be a helpful starting point for your home improvement planning, remember that returns are not always linear in real estate. Your home’s appreciation over time, the state of the market when you sell, and the movement of interior design trends can all play a role in the returns you’ll see from your improvements.
Plus, in many cases, an essential factor on those returns on your investment is the enjoyment you get out of your home upgrades! Depending on how long you plan to stay in the home, our primary advice is to choose upgrades you’ll truly enjoy. Prioritize according to elements you know you’ll need to address before you sell—like outdated carpet colors or countertops—then work through your wishlist from there.
With those nuances out of the way, let’s dive into a few key upgrades worth investing in for your home.
Kitchen Upgrades
Design trends move fast in the kitchen, and it’s one of the top spaces to make an impression on buyers. A newly-updated or thoughtfully upgraded kitchen can add instant thousands to your home value. In fact, the 2024 Cost vs. Value Report found that a minor kitchen remodel yielded a 96.1% ROI, meaning you’ll recoup almost all of your costs with smaller kitchen upgrades like new cabinets and updated appliances.
Home upgrades don’t have to involve completely gutting a level or spending all of your equity in one place. Take it piece by piece with high-impact changes that will wow buyers—and make your experience in your home more positive.
Bathroom Upgrades
Making moderate upgrades to your bathroom, especially your primary bath, can also have exciting implications for your resale value. Start with upgrades to the vanity, tile, and fixtures to give your bathrooms a more updated look and feel. If any of your bathrooms feature carpet flooring, switching those out is a great place to start.
Efficiency Upgrades
Save yourself money in the short-term while also increasing the attractiveness of your home when you sell! Efficiency upgrades go a long way with today’s buyers and they cut your energy bill immediately. Energy-efficient windows are one of the first upgrades to consider, especially if you live in an older home that may be leaking your climate control efforts.
Exterior Upgrades
Some of the highest ROI items according to the 2024 Cost vs. Value Report? Doors and siding. Replacing an old garage door, upgrading to a steel exterior door, and installing stone veneer siding took the top three places in the report, each offering a positive ROI of 193%, 188%, and 153%, respectively.
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but homebuyers certainly do. These upgrades not only look good, they also improve the safety and durability of your home’s exterior, making for an excellent investment in the long-term.
The best way to protect your home’s value? Keep up with routine maintenance on your exterior and all of your large appliances. When it comes to updates, work through the most glaringly outdated features first. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of updating your home, but remember that every small change counts.
Every home is different, and we’ve seen quite a few of them! We’d love to help you gain a more thorough understanding of your home’s value and possible routes for increasing it through updates. Reach out anytime with your questions—we’re never too busy!
