Top Home Renovation Projects

When undertaking a significant home improvement project, it’s understandable to be concerned about your return on investment. Factors such as climate, your neighborhood, the housing market, and local economic conditions can all impact your home’s resale value and how much of the project cost you can recoup upon selling. Therefore, if you’re going to invest the time, effort, and expense of hiring a contractor, drawing up plans, and executing a substantial home renovation, it’s prudent to carefully consider these variables that can affect your return.

When deciding whether to undertake a home improvement project, resale value should not be your only consideration. If you plan to continue living in the home, your future enjoyment of the improvement and your overall satisfaction with the house are also important factors. That said, it’s wise to include your potential return on such a substantial investment when making home improvement decisions. Let’s explore a few projects that tend to offer the highest resale value for homeowners.

It is interesting to note, that a survey by Discover Home Loans, released in early May 2024, found that more than half (55 percent) of American homeowners would rather renovate their current home than move to a new place.

Fix Up the Attic

Renovating your attic is a great idea for homeowners planning to stay in their home long-term. This allows them to maximize the return on investment from the remodel, even though home renovations have become commonplace nowadays. Many homeowners overlook the potential of their attic space.

Whether it’s simply adding fiberglass insulation to your home’s attic (108% of the cost recouped on resale) or converting the entire space to an additional bedroom (93.5% of the cost recouped on resale), attic improvements bear great dividends. Renovating your attic can be beneficial due to the possible rental income or the additional space.

Bathroom Makeover

At 102% of its cost recouped on resale, a bathroom improvement project can more than earn back the project costs. This includes enlarging the space, replacing a fixture, or swapping out old, tired flooring for a new set of tiles. Enhancing looks or functionality (or both) is perennially popular and a good selling tool.

More than 25 percent of realtors recommend upgrading the bathroom before placing a home on the market. In most cases, you don’t have to replace the tub to make it look better. Re-caulking and re-glazing for a new finish can also freshen up your bathroom’s look, as can a fresh coat of paint or wallpaper.

Kitchen Makeover

Suppose you want to give your kitchen a new look without a complete overhaul, even a minor tweak can earn you up to 98% on resale. A modern, functional kitchen can boost your enjoyment of everyday activities like cooking, sharing meals, and entertaining friends. It’s also a strong selling point with prospective home buyers.

New countertops, re-facing your old cabinets, and swapping out old appliances for more energy-efficient models will all help you recoup the cost of improvement, and perhaps even save you additional money in electricity costs going forward. You can also give your kitchen a budget-friendly makeover with new flooring and improved lighting fixtures.

If you’re thinking of a return on investment, keep the project modest. Interestingly, major kitchen remodels with upscale materials that involve changing the room’s size or layout or installing new cabinetry, return much less: 38 percent return on investment.

Improve Home’s Exterior

Repairing or replacing old, worn-out vinyl siding or chipping paint, updating your porch and outdoor entry space, and freshening up the shingles can all greatly increase your home’s curb appeal and at an average return on resale of 95.5%, it’s a sound investment in your home.

Replacing vinyl siding with stone veneer — even on just a part of your home, such as the entryway — can greatly enhance the exterior and, again, the curb appeal of a house. The average cost estimate accounts for 36 linear feet of sills, 40 linear feet of corners and one address block, and materials including two water-resistant barrier layers and corrosion-resistant lath and fasteners. This project adds not only class to your home but coins to your pocket, as it also recoups all of your expenses and then some.

Replace the Front Door

For the sake of first impressions, replacing an older front door with a new 20-gauge steel door, particularly one that has glass and the same color on both sides, has in 2024 jumped to 188% return on investment. That could be because these doors offer a double value: enhanced curb appeal and energy efficiency — they fit more tightly into door-frames, reducing drafts that increase heating and cooling bills. Perhaps consider one with decorative window panels at the top for added visual appeal. Doors like this will cost around $1000-1500, and earn back about $900-1200 on average, meaning they almost pay for themselves.

This is a simple job that won’t take a lot of time to accomplish, and if you select the right color, it can add an eye-catching visual element to your home’s exterior as well.

Garage Door Replacement

A good-looking garage door is high on the list when it comes to getting cash back on your investment and has nearly doubled in value in 2024. If you have a garage door that is outdated or a bit worse for wear, you’ll be happy to hear that replacing your garage door is one of the improvements that provides a 102% return on investment. According to the report, installing a new garage door on galvanized steel tracks with a motorized opener should cost just over $4,300 on average and have a resale value of $4,400.

The estimate for this job is based on the cost of removing and disposing of 16-by-seven-foot garage doors and replacing them with four-section doors with heavy-duty galvanized steel tracks and assumes you’re reusing the motorized garage door opener. This curb appeal enhancer could get you back more than you spent on it when you sell your home — one of the few home remodeling projects to do so.

Professional Home Remodeling Solutions

Home remodeling projects come in all shapes and sizes, and the experts at Seacoast Building & Design can tackle them all. No matter the vision you have for your home, our team will be there to bring it to