Saturday, August 11, 2007

Time for a New Kitchen! How Much of the Cost Should I Recoup?

After a couple of years of delaying, my wife and I are finally having our kitchen remodelled. We also plan to add an additional bathroom to our upstairs (which will bring our total to 2.5 baths a much more family-friendly number than 1.5). Part of how we decided on these remodels is that we think we will get most of the money we put into them back out when we sell the house. Just how much we'll get back is subject to a bit of debate. According to Remodeling Online we should get about 75%-85% of the cost of the projects back when we sell our house. Meanwhile HomeGain.com suggests that a minor kitchen/bath update can actually return 147% of your investment, though it looks like they just mean slapping on a coat of paint and doing some caulking which I would consider standard maintenance. HGTV suggests that minor bathroom and kitchen remodels recoup almost 100% of their cost. I'm not exactly sure which source is right, but I think we win regardless because we plan to live in our house for several more years and actually enjoy the upgrades.

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