A New Kitchen for my Glendale Home?

I was down in the Pelanconi the other day, talking to my peeps.  One of them asked, “should I put in a brand new kitchen?”

Should she?  A variation on this question is asked almost every day in Glendale.  The answer depends on a few key considerations:

1. How long to you expect to live in this home?
2. How much will a “new” kitchen cost?
3. If you do this kitchen, will your home be a lot better than the homes around it?

Let’s take each question, in turn.

How long are you going to live there?

I know this sounds obvious, but hear me out.  If you are going to live there “forever” have yourself a ball.  The only consideration is your budget.  If you DO wind up selling, it will be in another time and another market.  Anything can happen to values.  There is no reason to deny yourself the pleasure of a new kitchen if you want one and can afford it.

How much will that kitchen cost?

There is lot of bandwidth on the cost of a new kitchen.  You can do one on the very cheap… say $20,000, and you can go hog wild with every built in wizzy wig known to man kind.  I watch too much HGTV- I can spend the GPD of a small country if I was really let loose.  If you can get everything for the Guido Special it might pay off to do a kitchen, even if you are selling in the near term.  Watch out, though.  When Guido is involved there are often unforeseen consequences.

If you do it, will your home be the best on the block?

Here’s the rub for my gal in the Pelanconi.  They think they might sell in the next 6 to 18 months.  They are thinking that a kitchen will really enhance the value of their home and it would, except…

This house is already one of the nicest in the area.  Awesome lot.  Awesome curb appeal.  Lovely floor plan with even lovelier period details.  If I were to sell it today, without lifting  finger, I would sell it for near top value for this neighborhood.  My gal just needs to do a few cosmetics to go from “near top” to “breaking records but still get it appraised”.

Do you wonder what you should do to your Glendale  home?  Give me a call.  Every situation is a bit unique and I am happy to give you good coaching as well.  Also Realtor.Org published this article on profit making projects and Remodeling Magazine published the results of their regional survey on most profitable projects.