Home Upgrades Before Selling: What's Worth the Money?

By Ron and Tammy

The Wexler Group is a Chicago-area real estate leader with over 3,100 closed home sales and a reputation for delivering a consistent 5-Star experience by staying ahead of market trends so clients always come out ahead.

If you’re thinking about selling your home and wondering which upgrades are worth the investment, the answer might not be what you expect. Homeowners assume they need to pour money into a big kitchen or bathroom renovation to get top dollar, but the reality is that most of those major projects don’t come close to paying for themselves at resale.

We see this all the time. Homeowners spend $50,000 on a kitchen upgrade, and it adds maybe $15,000 to $20,000 to the sale price. That’s a 30% return at the most. If you spent $100,000 on a kitchen and enjoyed it for 10 years, that’s a different conversation, because you got to live in it, and the $30,000 in added value means it really only cost you $7,000 a year to enjoy that kitchen. But if you’re doing it right before you sell? You’re spending $100,000 to get $30,000 back. That’s not a smart investment.

So what actually works?

The small cosmetic projects that most homeowners overlook. We just went through this ourselves. We had a rehab with beautiful but dated oak cabinets, and after the house sat without the right offers, we pulled it off the market, painted the cabinets, put on new hardware, and it sold in one week. The cost was less than $2,500. That’s the kind of return you want.

And it’s not just cabinets. Something as simple as painting your front door can change a buyer’s entire impression of the home. Picture the buyer standing on your doorstep while the agent fumbles with the lockbox.

That’s their first impression, and it matters. If the door is peeling and the flower pots are filled with dirt instead of flowers, that feeling sticks with them through the whole showing. We’ve shown buyers the perfect home, and they walk out saying they didn’t love it, and when you dig deeper, it comes back to something small that set the wrong tone before they even stepped inside.

The other piece most sellers don’t think about is who they hire. After over 40 years in the business, we have a vetted vendor list that we’ve built through our own homes, our families’ homes, and hundreds of client projects.

Our flooring guy is someone we’ve worked with for over 30 years. He’s done at least 15 houses for us personally and probably 150 to 200 for our clients. That kind of relationship means he calls us when he has leftover high-quality vinyl from another job and offers our clients a deal on a bathroom floor that needs work. The right contractor takes care of you.

One thing we always tell homeowners: don’t pay a contractor 100% upfront. Even if it’s someone you trust. Keep some meat on the bone so they stay motivated to finish your job and come back if they pick up another project in the middle of yours. If they’ve already collected everything, the urgency to get back to your house drops, and you don’t want to be waiting.

Have your Realtor walk through the home, make a list of what actually brings a return, and tackle those items with a timeline so you’re not still getting started three months later. Most of the time, it’s cosmetics. Paint. Flooring. Maybe having an old bathtub sprayed instead of ripped out and replaced. The projects that cost the least often do the most.

Watch our video for the full breakdown, or jump to the topics that interest you most using the timestamps below:

00:00 — Updates That Matter
01:36 — Kitchen Upgrade Math
03:30 — Cosmetic and First Impressions
05:13 — Finding Good Contractors
08:06 — Paying Contractors Safely
09:02 — Walkthrough Checklist
10:05 — Invest Smartly
10:38 — Reach Out

If you’re in the Chicagoland or the Southwest Suburbs and you’re thinking about selling, the Wexler Group would love to walk through your home, help you figure out which projects are actually worth it, and connect you with vendors we trust.

And if you’re not in our area, reach out anyway. We’ll help you find an agent who works the same way we do. Call us at 708-629-5151 (that’s our 7-day-a-week hotline), email ron@thewexlergroup.com, or visit thewexlergroup.com.