Comstock's magazine 0118 - January 2018 | Seite 28

n ON THE MARKET
ARE HOME UPGRADES WORTH IT?
Pricey renovations won’t necessarily increase the value of your home
BY Ryan Lundquist
AS AN APPRAISER, I GET ASKED QUES-
TIONS ABOUT THE VALUE OF PARTICU-
LAR HOME IMPROVEMENTS ALL THE
TIME: How much is a kitchen remodel
worth? What about a bathroom remod-
el? Are solar panels a good way to boost
property value? My answer is simple,
and always the same: It depends. I know
that’s frustrating to hear, but there’s a
reason why it’s the best answer. So let’s
talk about it.
You’ve likely seen those lists, may-
be distributed by a real estate agent or
published in Remodeling Magazine, that
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tell you what various home improve-
ments are worth. They’ll state that a
kitchen remodel increases the value of
your home by $43,000, and upgrading
a bathroom brings $22,000. Or wood
floors compared to carpet will make
your property worth $12,000 more. The
home improvement lists are great be-
cause they’re easy to understand, but
there’s one glaring omission: location,
location, location.
A high-end kitchen in East Sacra-
mento is not going to be worth the same
amount in Stockton, just as extra ga-
rage space in San Francisco commands
a very different price in Elk Grove,
and solar panels in a $150,000 hous-
ing tract don’t yield the same value in
an $850,000 neighborhood. The truth
is, there isn’t a single figure attached to
any given item, because the value of up-
grades depends heavily on not only the
improvements themselves, but the loca-
tion of the property.
Let’s also remember there’s a differ-
ence between home remodeling shows
and real life. On TV, we watch flippers
spend $40,000 on a house they then sell