Home Reno Projects That Have The Best and Worst ROI

During Q1 and Q2 of 2019, HomeLight surveyed over 1,300 top-performing real estate agents in the United States to gain the collective expertise of the industry's leading professionals. In the Q1 Top Agent Insights survey, HomeLight asked agents a series of questions about interior home renovation projects, and in the Q2 survey, they inquired about exterior home improvement projects.

To start, HomeLight provided survey respondents with an estimated average cost for completing each respective renovation project.. They then followed up by asking respondents to provide an estimated dollar value that they believe each project would add to a house at resale. Finally, HomeLight calculated the estimated return on investment (ROI) for each home renovation project by comparing the estimated average costs to estimated resale values.

Interestingly enough, HomeLight found that home sellers are generally better off spending less money on smaller scale projects than trying to recoup their spendings on larger scale renovations.

For example:

• If you spend $167 on a deep clean, you'll recoup on average $1,728, a 935% ROI.
• Drop $486 on decluttering, and you can add $2,584 to your bottom line, a 432% ROI.
• Kitchen and bathroom upgrades are essentially a wash. There's a greater chance of losing money on these huge projects.
• As for the outside of your home, your top two projects should be basic yard care (352% ROI) and fresh mulch (126% ROI). Skip the high-end landscape, which has a -9% ROI.

Comparing Home Renovation Projects with the Best & Worst ROIs

Brought to you by: HomeLight

Preparing your house for sale is stressful enough; there's no need to strain your wallet on one major renovation when a handful of minor upgrades throughout the home will actually net you a larger ROI rate.