Whether you want to sell your home or invest in an upgrade, upgrading your kitchen is one of the best renovations you can do in your home. As we covered in the last few weeks, both minor kitchen upgrades and major kitchen renovations have high ROI’s. An up to date kitchen can bring that positive reaction to a would be buyer. Let’s take a deeper dive into which upgrades to focus on what do always keep in mind when redoing the kitchen area.

Over Upgrading Your Kitchen

No matter how much money you have put aside for a kitchen upgrade, there is only so much ROI you can realistically get. For example, if you spend $50k on a kitchen remodel, and the home is currently valued at$200k, do not expect a $35k boost in value. Generally, your budget should stay around 10% of your homes value. You do not want to go too low either on your upgrade. Going cheap will make it easy to miss the features that buyers in general will be looking for. You may think this is limiting your budget, but in reality, it helps you stay away from the over the top upgrades. Some examples are exotic wood cabinets and excessive appliances.

Granite – Always Granite

Granite for your counter tops is a feature that is becoming more and more expected. As long as it is real granite, there really isn’t a need for any high end granite. The upgrade of granite is usually enough. To most buyers, they will be excited to see granite..but few will appreciate the high end granite with respect to the additional cost. Like we said, treat granite as if it was standard in every kitchen and make sure you have it.

Be Aware of Space

An open kitchen is always ideal. More people can interact or help cook, its a big no-brainer. But functionality will always take priority over features. For example, if your kitchen simply cannot have an island…do not force one in there. The traffic will frustrate the owner in the long run. Same thing with giant cabinets…do not let them take away from counter space. Giant refrigerators can often over dominate a small kitchen. There are all mistakes that actually take away from your kitchen. And lastly, do not go too crazy with any extreme color schemes. It will just make the kitchen feel that much smaller.

What are some of the kitchen upgrades that you think are must haves?