How to know how much kitchen renovation adds to home value

[Andrew Joiner]

When I do a project around the house, I consider my labor to have no value or cost ... so typically I shift as much as possible to labor.

That's so true for me as well Bill. After all I'm a hobbyist now.

[Dale Murray]

How I deal with this math in my own house is what would a reasonable project be for my area.

In my area a typical kitchen remodel is $20k.
If the ROI is 80% that would net $16k at resale.
If I do it myself and it costs me $7,000 that means I made a $9,000 profit on my work.

Doing it myself, I also will have a much higher quality kitchen than the typical $20k remodel, however, I cannot base my math on that. If my job is comparable to a $30k job, I still live in a market where $20k is the standard.

an $80k house with a $100k kitchen does not result in a $180k house.

[Derek Cohen]

The typical kitchen in my neighbourhood runs $30-40K, at least. Of the $10K I spent on my build, only $2500 was timber. I was able to re-use carcases, and did not cost in the labour of building 25 frame-and-panel doors plus all the drawer fronts, all in solid Hard Maple. I am a hobbiest, and this was fun for me. I posted my photos to provide a size to gauge against.

I do believe that $6500 is doable, if you do it yourself. It just depends on the materials you use, and how you use them. Still, as I mentioned earlier, it will not add value to a house. Kitchens are commodities that get rebuilt every decade it seems. Ours was overdue after 22 years.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Martin Wasner]

an $80k house with a $100k kitchen does not result in a $180k house.

Oddly enough.... I bought a house for $40k. Put about an $80k worth of kitchen remodel into it, and sold it for $140k. I also re-did the bathroom, re-trimmed the main level, and new carpet throughout. Most of that gain was realistically from the market rebounding. I could've likely made as much not lifting a finger as I did pouring $40k worth of material and about 1000 hours of labor into that house over the three years I owned it. All in all, that house should've been knocked down and burned. I don't know what everything I did would've cost had I hired it out, but I'm guessing close to $200k

I totally agree with you btw. My house was an anomaly buying it at the very bottom, and raking the bank that held the title over the coals as they were just trying to dump everything because the sky was falling.

To the OP, without knowing the neighborhood, school distict, condition of the rest of the home, current state of the mechanical, roof, windows, etcetera. (even the season and whether or not the school year is on has an affect on home prices) Nobody on the internet is going to know what you added to your house, if anything. Say you paid $800k for a house in a neighborhood that homes typically sell for north of a million. Great. But what if your house is like the pile of crap I bought for $40k? You might've over paid by $200k, and now it's worth $640k instead of the $600k it was worth pre kitchen remodel? Sometimes there isn't enough glitter in the world to roll that turd in to make it shiny. My last house, was that case. I should've torched it, but couldn't swing the cost of replacing it, even though I got it for less than the lot was worth today.

I work in a neighborhood once in a while that is historic. A complete pile of crap ready for a few gallons of diesel and a match sells for over $800k. But, you can't do that, since it's historic. Inevitably what happens is somebody comes in, pays the $800k, then drops another couple of million dollars into it to make it right, and everyone is happy. That demographic is few and far between though. It's a niche within a niche. Most would rather forgo the status of living in that neighborhood and just buy something that needs to be torn down in another area a few blocks away that is already well into the gentrification process. That's why I say, you can't really KNOW what it's worth until it is sold. The rest is purely speculation.

[johnny means]

It's hard to believe you could do for $6500 in costs an outcome equivalent in scope to what others quoted you $70,000-$110,000. Congratulations if you accomplished a feat like that.

Yes, an appraiser should be able to give you an idea of the differential you added to your house value (if any) if you can show him/her some before and after photos. I often hear that kitchen and bath remodels are the most impactful on overall house value versus other improvements.

Not hard to believe at all. Really, how much raw material is in a large kitchen. 10x raw material is not unrealistic.

[mike waters]

I work in a neighborhood once in a while that is historic. A complete pile of crap ready for a few gallons of diesel and a match sells for over $800k.

hahahaha this is a good one! love your writing LOL!!

thanks for the other tips by the way.
Our house is built very well, it is solid. It sold for so much less because most people who are purchasing this caliber of a home are not young and have already "renovated" homes throughout their lives.
That is what my neighbors told me at least.

When we moved in they said, "We knew you'd have kids and would be young! How exciting!"
When I asked how they knew that, the above was their reasoning.

Brick home, 6" studs, very solid.

Really the only issue was mold in bathrooms (not even major mold) and the tile was awful because original owner did it himself.

[Jim Dwight]

I think "enjoy and forget it" and "it depends on the buyer and the time you are selling" are great answers.
I think purchased cabinets would be at least 4X the cost of the materials. I just used Kraft Maid cabinets on a complete gut job kitchen in our house. I am sure I could have made them for 1/4 what I paid but my wife wouldn't wait. We went with all plywood boxes and the doors are solid maple but it is still not a lot of material. Plywood is also high grade. Drawers are solid maple and dovetailed. I don't think it's junk but I wish I had the time to build it and the resulting dollar savings.
My total experience, however, is one kitchen I built two houses ago, one island in the last house, and now this kitchen. I also notice that I accept the compromises or minor issues in things I make better than I do similar issues with things I spent a bunch of money on. I enjoy being around things I made is another way to say it. Can't put a price on that.
I put the cabinets in, the appliances in, laid the ceramic tile in two bathrooms, painted, and did all the trim work. I also did the other finish electrical (fixtures, outlets, etc). So there is some of my work in the finished project - and I saved some. I also had to finish up/clean up after every contractor I hired.

[mike waters]

Still need to add the soffit, backsplash, and the toe kick.
Also need to set up the server drives for the bifold uppers.

[Mark Bolton]

So your 10 months in to your saga, your first post said you'd be building a 70-110K kitchen for 6500 in materials, then later another list was north of 50K-60K and didnt include hinges/pulls/hardware/finishing (the finishing alone is worth a fortune). How do you feel you came out? When I read your second tally and the actual material costs were more than high dollar estimates you received I began to wonder.

[Jared Sankovich]

Interesting design. Was the bulkhead a requirement or ascetic decision?

[fRED mCnEILL]

I had a similar experience when I reno-ed our kitchen about 15 years ago. I bought ALL the hardwood material from a local sawmill and the sheet goods from a lumberyard specializing in seconds. Had to work around some of the defects in sheets and had to mill all the hardwood. But my expenditure was similar and I estimated somewhere between 70 and a hundred grand for commercial cabinets. Its hard to say what some people fall in love with which triggers a sale.But I have to say that the comment over the years from other women who have been in our kitchen tells me it would have been a key selling point. And the real clincher-my wife still loves it 15 years later.

[mike waters]

So your 10 months in to your saga, your first post said you'd be building a 70-110K kitchen for 6500 in materials, then later another list was north of 50K-60K and didnt include hinges/pulls/hardware/finishing (the finishing alone is worth a fortune). How do you feel you came out? When I read your second tally and the actual material costs were more than high dollar estimates you received I began to wonder.

Hey mark! It ended up that the materials cost (hinges, servio-drive for uppers, tip-on on all drawers, etc) was $14,230.
the appliances cost another 25k (though, I don’t consider that ‘cost of building’) I was mainly referring toninstall/cabinet materials.

i am happy with everything.
I’m the base cabinets against the wall are made of teak on moisture resistant MDF.
Both islands are made of a dyed European white oak.
Veneered panels were cut on panel saw and ran through an edgebander. Then sanded with 180, sprayed, then sanded with 320 and sprayed again. (SW conversion varnish)
The uppers are bi-fold servo-drive Aventos HF.
servo-drive trash can.
tip-on drawers glides everywhere else, with maple dovetail drawer boxes (I priced out legrabox boxes and the effort involved and decided not to do them)
Zero handles anywhere, it’s all push to open and slide to close.

the uppers are push to open and there is a hole bored on each side that has a servio-drive switch you push to close them with.

the countertops are Empire Grey by daltile. It’s a quartz. I bought the slabs directly from the warehouse here in Nashville for $1,000 each. I needed 3 slabs. I got a fabricator whocharge med $18/sq. Ft. Total including slabs was 6,500 for countertops (including the floating vanities I made for our master/kids bathrooms.
they did a so-so job... nothing anyone else would notice but me (or some of you on here) the normal person would notice 1mm gap where countertop meet me end panel. I got what I paid for on that one...

i did kot lurchase any drawer inserts yet, it’s not really a needed feature yet. We are still waiting on the cooktop to come in and are not even using the kitchen yet.\

Sorry for the ADD message, it is super late and i am exhausted!
The hardest part? Was adjusting those bi fold doors so the reveals were 3mm all around. Adjusting 34 drawers with 3mm reveals was not fun either...

[mike waters]

Interesting design. Was the bulkhead a requirement or ascetic decision?

Well, I think the bifold doors (blum Adventist HF with servo drive) is really awesome. Everyone I have showed them too mouth has dropped (literally) the. The next words are, “that is so awesome”.
the aervo srive switches are programmed so the doors do not collide with one another. And there’s is a switch you push to close them so you don’t need to reach up.

[Biff Phillips]

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.

It's possible. My house is not 300k, but we live in a much cheaper area of the country. It has approximately 30 linear feet of cabinets (base) a little more on the uppers.

Quartz Countertops and sink $2000-2500 (do not know exact amount)
Maple: about $1000 at an action (I had a lot left over)
Plywood for the bottoms/island (uppers all solid wood): 3/4 and a few sheets of 1/4, Menards maple (since only the inside showed, the outside was real maple)... about 400
Finishes, knobs, drawer slides, etc: about 1000

Total: about 6k

[Biff Phillips]

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.

This is what everyone is overlooking.
If you had a nice kitchen already, ripped it out, and replaced it.. then yes, very little appreciation. Maybe none.
Part of the reason why the house was marked down 40% was because the kitchen was a mess, and most people want "move in ready"
A million dollar house (marked down 400k from damage) going from an awful/broken kitchen to an acceptable kitchen? Hard to say exactly, but I am guessing at least a 50k jump. But of course, this assumes the rest of the house has been repaired too..
Of course, you need an expert appraiser to know for sure.