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by Reginald Butler, Jr.
Quick answer: Only a handful of home improvement projects reliably return more than they cost, and according to the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report they are a garage door replacement at 268%, a steel entry door at 216%, manufactured stone veneer at 208%, and a minor kitchen refresh at roughly 113%. None of them are $50 weekend projects. The honest version of the advice is that a few mid-priced exterior replacements pay for themselves, most big renovations do not, and the cheap cosmetic work is worth doing for a different reason than ROI.
Which projects actually return more than 100%?
The 2025 Cost vs. Value Report from Zonda, now in its 38th year, is the only long-running dataset that tracks project cost against estimated resale value across dozens of markets. Four projects cleared 100% nationally.
A garage door replacement cost about $4,672 and returned an estimated $12,507, or 268%. A steel entry door replacement cost about $2,435 and returned $5,270, or 216%. Manufactured stone veneer cost about $11,702 and returned $24,328, or 208%. A minor midrange kitchen remodel, meaning new fronts on existing cabinet boxes, new hardware, counters, sink, and paint, returned roughly 113%.
The other twenty-six projects in the report averaged around 76%. So the picture is not that improvements pay off. It is that three exterior replacements and one restrained kitchen refresh pay off, and the rest cost you money.
Why do the big kitchen remodels do so badly?
The single most useful number in the whole report is the contrast within the same room. A minor midrange kitchen returned about 113%. A major midrange kitchen returned 44.2%. An upscale major kitchen cost $161,499 and returned an estimated $49,399, or 30.6%.
In the Mid-Atlantic the picture is similar, with major midrange kitchens around 49% and upscale around 34.9%.
If you are selling a starter home, this should end the conversation about gutting the kitchen. Refresh the fronts, the hardware, the counters, and the lighting. Do not move a wall. You will spend a fifth as much and recover more than twice the percentage.
What about all the cheap stuff — paint, hardware, decluttering?
Here is where I have to be straight with you, because the internet is not. There is no controlled study showing a documented ROI on cleaning, decluttering, swapping cabinet pulls, or upgrading light fixtures. You will see numbers like a 107% return on interior paint or a 2,000% return on decluttering. Those figures come from contractor and junk-removal marketing, not research. I am not going to repeat them under my own name.
That does not mean the work is not worth doing. It means the reason is different. Clean, decluttered, well-lit homes photograph better, show better, and sit on the market fewer days. That is a real advantage. It is just not a measured dollar return, and anyone quoting a precise percentage on a $200 job is making it up.
Paint deserves a specific caution. Zillow published color research in 2017 based on actual sale prices, which found things like blue bathrooms selling for about $5,440 more and white bathrooms for about $4,035 less. Zillow published newer color research in 2025, but that one surveyed roughly 4,200 buyers about what they would hypothetically offer. Those are stated preferences, not transactions. Treat them as directional taste data, not as money.
Does landscaping and curb appeal pay?
Partially, and the evidence is softer than it sounds. The 2023 NAR and National Association of Landscape Professionals report estimated a 217% return on standard lawn care service and 104% on landscape maintenance. It also reported that 92% of REALTORS® recommend curb appeal improvements before listing, which is agent opinion rather than a sale-price measurement.
The widely cited Virginia Tech research showing a 5.5% to 12.7% value advantage from landscaping was a study of how people rated photographs. It measures perceived value, not what buyers actually paid.
So mow it, edge it, mulch the beds, and put something alive by the front door. Do not install a $15,000 hardscape and expect it back.
Is staging worth paying for?
NAR’s 2025 staging data puts the median cost at about $1,500 through a staging service, or about $500 when the agent stages. Of the agents surveyed, 29% reported a 1% to 10% increase in offer value, 49% said staging reduced time on market, and 83% of buyer’s agents said it helped their clients visualize the property. All of that is agent-reported rather than measured against a control group, but the time-on-market effect matches what I see in the field.
So what should a starter-home seller actually do?
Replace the front door if it is tired. Replace the garage door if it is dated, because on a modest house it is often the largest single visual element on the facade. Refresh the kitchen surfaces without touching the layout. Then clean, declutter, fix the light fixtures, and paint anything scuffed in a neutral, not because there is a study attached to it, but because it removes the objections that cost you showings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a 2026 Cost vs. Value Report? No. The most recent edition is the 2025 report, released in September 2025. Anything advertised as a 2026 version is recycling those numbers.
Should I renovate the bathroom before selling? NAR’s 2025 Remodeling Impact Report put a bathroom renovation at roughly 50% cost recovery. Fix what is broken, replace the vanity and lighting if they are dated, and stop there.
Do these percentages mean I make money on the project? No. A 268% return means the estimated resale value gain exceeded the project cost. It is an estimate from a survey of agents, not a guarantee, and results vary by market and by how dated the original item was.
What is the single cheapest thing with real evidence behind it? A steel entry door replacement. NAR’s 2025 data put it at 100% cost recovery and Cost vs. Value put it at 216%, at a national average cost of about $2,435.
Want me to walk your house and tell you honestly which of these are worth doing and which ones I would skip?
No pressure — just an honest conversation.
