How to know how much kitchen renovation adds to home value

[Jared Sankovich]

I have to question the idea that $6,500 in materials is an appropriate amount of money to spend rehabilitating the kitchen of even a $300,000 house.

Wouldn't be hard for a 300k house. Especially if it's painted, assuming you only include the boxes, doors and drawers. Though in this area a 300k house is a trailer, a foreclosure or a knock down/scrape off in a bad neighborhood.

I'm having a hard time with $300/ft. Even the amish cabinet makers in rural PA are $600/ft for custom built.

Semi custom here in Northern Virginia is 1300+/ft

[mike waters]

I have to question the idea that $6,500 in materials is an appropriate amount of money to spend rehabilitating the kitchen of even a $300,000 house.

Sorry that you have to question it but for 3.50 square-foot veneered laid out on three-quarter MDF
Assembling and finishing comes out to 6500
The drawers for material comes out to 2900
Countertops are 6000
Rev shelf with servo drive 500
Two blanco SS sinks 1600

The quotes that I was getting from cabinet shots only included cabinetry not even yours and they were outrageously overpriced due to the neighborhood I live in and people bumping up the price because they think that we’re rich

[scott vroom]

$6,500 in retail material cost is low unless you really skimped on everything. Typical buyers of a 7 figure house may want to do a tear out and redo, in which case you just wasted six-and-a-half long ones.

[Jim Becker]

A kitchen renovation "can" have a positive effect on home value, but there are so many variables that it makes it almost impossible to calculate with any "accuracy". Premium materials and appliances can help, but you are not assured of any specific return. Doing my kitchen in 2003 didn't have a dramatic effect on RE value, but it certainly was accounted for in my insurance premium. Adding our addition had a more noticeable effect, although the timing wasn't ideal and it's only catching up to where it should be now almost 9 years later.

My advise? Just enjoy your new kitchen and don't worry about what it's doing for value unless this is a "flip home" and the time to sell is near term, rather than years down the road.

[mike waters]

I really wrote this all wrong.
the material for the carcass, panels and drawer faces is 6,500 (very nice teak and graphite oak)
the drawers are 2900
blum tip-on
servo drive uppers Aventos Hf are $2,000 total.
Countertops 6k
appliances were $23k (Miele)
our kitchen is 76 linear feet.
its not a cheap kitchen by any means.
the quotes I was getting was ONLY for the cabinetry not the drawers and they were minimum 70k

[Bill Graham]

Sorry to say but resale value is primarily determined by what other houses in your neighborhood have sold for with weight given to most recent sales. If you're lucky you'll get your $6500 back.

It'll make your house easier to sell if the potential buyer likes the choices you've made for colors and countertops but that's about it.

I spent $30K redoing my kitchen last year and I don't expect to see any return at all. Cabinets, countertops and appliances are fashion statements these days and what's hot today could be cold next week. If you're primarily concerned with resale value on a remodel you buy the latest, greatest and cheapest from the nearest Big Box store and hope you can sell before styles change.

If you now have a nice kitchen that makes your life easier then be happy with that. Unless you're adding square footage remodeling/renovation projects rarely come anywhere near paying for themselves.

[mike waters]

Sorry to say but resale value is primarily determined by what other houses in your neighborhood have sold for with weight given to most recent sales. If you're lucky you'll get your $6500 back.

It'll make your house easier to sell if the potential buyer likes the choices you've made for colors and countertops but that's about it.

I spent $30K redoing my kitchen last year and I don't expect to see any return at all. Cabinets, countertops and appliances are fashion statements these days and what's hot today could be cold next week. If you're primarily concerned with resale value on a remodel you buy the latest, greatest and cheapest from the nearest Big Box store and hope you can sell before styles change.

If you now have a nice kitchen that makes your life easier then be happy with that. Unless you're adding square footage remodeling/renovation projects rarely come anywhere near paying for themselves.

I understand that, thanks.
The previous kitchen was awful, the bathrooms had cracked tiles and was awful and no one has lived in it for the last three years.
There was mold in bathrooms etc.
it was bad
BUT now it is great! all the major issues are resolved for less than 15k.
Total cost for bathrooms is $14,000 (Four 5x10 bathrooms and one 300 sq. ft. master with 11 ft steam shower)
Refinished the floors (they were bad too) for $18k
We got the 7,100 sq. ft home for 840k (asking was 1.2m) and the homes in our neighborhood have sold 1.6m+ over last few years. There is one one the market now for 1.4 and it is 4,900 sq. ft.

I tore out all bathrooms (5 bathrooms) and the kitchen (giant). Doing most of the work myself.

Total out of pocket for us is ~$60k and the home will be absolutely stunning compared to how it was before.

Maybe that will give a better idea.

[andrew whicker]

Photos or it didn't happen

[Phillip Mitchell]

$6500 for a full kitchen remodel???

I have tiny, let me repeat, tiny basic kitchen in my sub-1000 sq ft house that I'm finishing up remodeling. I've done all the labor except laying the hardwood (~$500) and installing tile (~$800) New hardwood floors, cabinets (from Ikea...), fresh paint, custom countertops (I made), sink, tile backsplashes, fridge, custom milled hardwood trim for windows/doors, cherry baseboard and crown molding, blah blah blah...

We have around $13,000 just in material & appliance cost and were very, very selective and frugal in our choices. I have no idea how you could only have $6500 in all the material costs for a kitchen remodel. You'd be lucky to get cabinets from Ikea for anything larger than my kitchen for less than $4-5k alone.

I have hundreds and hundreds of hours of labor in this kitchen so far and know that it's important to me and my family to have something custom for us, which I'm sure you understand and can relate to. However, just bc you or I spent 500 hrs of labor on a custom kitchen remodel doesn't necessarily mean that it's worth any price to an appraiser or potential buyer. Kind of depends on how much they like it and how much of it they feel like they can live with if they buy the house. Clean, simple, and functional is huge for kitchen value, IMO.

[Bill Graham]

I understand that, thanks.
The previous kitchen was awful, the bathrooms had cracked tiles and was awful and no one has lived in it for the last three years.
There was mold in bathrooms etc.
it was bad
BUT now it is great! all the major issues are resolved for less than 15k.
Total cost for bathrooms is $14,000 (Four 5x10 bathrooms and one 300 sq. ft. master with 11 ft steam shower)
Refinished the floors (they were bad too) for $18k
We got the 7,100 sq. ft home for 840k (asking was 1.2m) and the homes in our neighborhood have sold 1.6m+ over last few years. There is one one the market now for 1.4 and it is 4,900 sq. ft.

I tore out all bathrooms (5 bathrooms) and the kitchen (giant). Doing most of the work myself.

Total out of pocket for us is ~$60k and the home will be absolutely stunning compared to how it was before.

Maybe that will give a better idea.

Mike,

Thanks for clearing things up, I assumed(and we all know what that means) you were improving the house you lived in.

You got a great deal on the purchase and stand to get a nice return for your effort on resale. Congrats!

[Chuck Saunders]

I think that is what folks were missing Mike. You were not taking a move in ready house and redoing the kitchen where the return on you upgrade is fully dependent on the whims of the market. You were bringing a sub standard kitchen up to snuff and that is what the market is expecting to see. If you were to sell this home on completion buyers would see a fresh complete move in ready home and they will pay accordingly instead of having to discount the offer to account for all of the work that would have to be done and if they don't want a project then no interest. I think you will do quite well and will be paid for your hours when you sell.
Chuck

[mike waters]

Photos or it didn't happen

Lol.. I have posted dozens of photos on multiple threads here

[Edwin Santos]

I think that is what folks were missing Mike. You were not taking a move in ready house and redoing the kitchen where the return on you upgrade is fully dependent on the whims of the market. You were bringing a sub standard kitchen up to snuff and that is what the market is expecting to see. If you were to sell this home on completion buyers would see a fresh complete move in ready home and they will pay accordingly instead of having to discount the offer to account for all of the work that would have to be done and if they don't want a project then no interest. I think you will do quite well and will be paid for your hours when you sell.
Chuck

This is a good point. Maybe it's not so much that you added value, but rather you removed a deficiency.

When the day comes to sell your home, you'll probably sell it faster and get a better price than had you not touched the kitchen, but you'll likely never know the specific dollar amount associated with the kitchen component. Plus the fact that you get to live with the upgraded kitchen during your time there is worth something also.

[Bill Adamsen]

I really wrote this all wrong.

I think I understood what you were saying and it made sense to me. I just did a kitchen and the hardware costs .... slides, hinges, handles, sheet goods, hardwood [$1000, $400, $600, $2200, $600] were relatively in line with your number. I bought the doors and drawers separately and those were expensive ... but I expect a lot less than the alternative of having me build them. But if I had built them the material costs would have been perhaps $2500. So adding up the estimated raw material costs ... $7300. It took about a month to assemble (would have been much longer if I'd built the drawers and doors) and two+ weeks to install. What else ... painting was $4000. Then the client spent a fair amount on appliances and fixtures, countertops, floor refinishing, and of course all the rough construction (framing, windows and doors, insulation, electrical, plumbing, sheetrock, trim). But outside of labor, I can see the hard cost of the kitchen being in alignment with your original estimate.

Your original question was about value ... I can't imagine someone basing their "value" on a collection of receipts. More likely – depending on where the house is located – they will look at the neighborhood and comps, and whether they feel the house is in "move in" condition. Having a well-executed, and desireable kitchen goes a long way towards making the house attractive and move-in ready. If it were not (and this is what goes to your question) the potential buyer would ask themselves, "is this work that needs to be done, and about how much would it cost to get what I want?" Likely their number is going to be closer to the cost of a professionally completed kitchen (than your actual expense) and perhaps in the $80k +/- range if indeed the kitchen you built is the one they want. Likely that amount (whatever it actually is) is the value you have added to the house.

[lee cox]

I spent the last 3 months on a kitchen remodel on our home mainly to install a Viking 6 burner range with a Viking hood. The cabinet's varnish had turned that old orange nontransparent look. The cabinets were made out of fancy maple wood in the 60's. So I modified them for the range and refinished them. Of course I ended up redoing the rest of the kitchen because it looked bad after redoing the cabinets. This was for our pleasure but it probably added value to the home.

PS
I had a friend helping. He had done many kitchens remodels before.

I guess size makes a difference in the time it takes. My kitchen size is 22 x 15.5 feet by 10 feet high.