Is a Kitchen Renovation Worth the Effort to sell your home?
As always: it depends! A kitchen has the ability to make or break the sale of a home. An upgraded, attractive kitchen can make your home irresistible to the modern home buyer thus yielding a lesser number of days on market and, ultimately, achieving a higher dollar value for sale than what you may have invested to create the kitchen!
THE HEART OF THE HOME
The kitchen was originally intended for a singular functionality: cooking!, In the last 2 or 3 decades, the kitchen has morphed into the epicenter of the home. Sure, meals are still created here but, more importantly, it’s where the family gravitates for connection. When it’s well designed it can elevate the entire look and feel of a home. And when it’s not, it can make an entire home feel dated and insufficient.
A RENO IN ACTION AT 285 BEACON STREET
One of our pieces of seller advice for 2021 is “Don’t make buyers break out their vision goggles.” Get your property in “turn key” condition prior to listing. 285 Beacon Street was listed in the spring of 2020 with a galley kitchen that had been mostly untouched for the previous 15 years. The city of Boston has plenty of these but they scream that a home is from at least a generation ago. The property was listed for $1.75M in 2020. After a few months marketing the property we had received a couple of offers on the property but they were a little too low to make a deal. After reviewing options with the seller, they decided they were willing to put the time and money into redesigning and recharging the kitchen (along with the bathrooms). Fortunately, the position of the kitchen was ideal to transition the unit into today’s most desirable open concept where the kitchen spills organically into a living or family room.
Once the work was complete we sold the unit to the first buyer who toured the property for $1.9M. The renovation cost the seller approximately $150,000 thus netting them at least $60,000-80,000 more than what they might have netted had they sold nine months earlier.
MAXIMISING VALUE
A kitchen renovation will increase your home value, but remodeling for resale means choosing materials that appeal to the masses. Priorities must be set based on what SELLS a kitchen. This means:
- Thinking neutral. Keep the style and color scheme simple. By neutral, we don’t mean white. Choose surfaces and fixtures that blend with many styles for countertops, cabinets, floors and backsplashes.
- Opting for the right appliances. Don’t go with something too unique or too premium, instead pick a brand and finish material that is popular at the moment. Working with an experienced agent can give you insight into what is desirable, – in this example, a stainless steel Bosch package was a great fit.
- Open up the space. If your kitchen currently feels tight and your unit configuration gives you the flexibility to open some walls to allow your kitchen to interact with a living area, that’s probably a good bet!
- Avoid extremes. Is it necessary or luxury? The bright colored walls, exotic wood cabinetry, the separate refrigerator and freezer units, or $10,000+ range. Don’t cheap out, but avoid the highest end items and features to get the best ROI. Of course, if you’re selling a unit that’s $5M+, you would need to opt for the highest end materials and fixtures. In Boston, the market trends into the luxury category around $2M. Anything that is not a top of the line brand in a home that is worth more than $2M is likely to stand out as a negative.
Boston is an exciting place to call home and finding the right opportunity to buy in this area is no insignificant task. Be in touch if we can keep our eyes and ears open for you! Conversely, if you need help getting your place sold in the most efficient way possible, we’re here to help. Our team has significant renovation experience and can guide you through the “do’s and don’ts” of a home renovation!