What home improvements have the worst ROI?

High-end and highly personal projects recoup the least — luxury primary-suite additions and top-tier bathroom or kitchen gut renovations often return only 35–60% of their cost. They can still be worth doing for how you'll use the space, just not as a resale play.

What Home Improvements Add the Most Value? (2026)

Q: What home improvements add the most value?

Exterior replacements lead: a garage door, a steel entry door, and manufactured stone veneer recoup the highest share of their cost at resale. Curb-appeal and maintenance items — fresh paint, updated fixtures, landscaping — also punch above their cost. Big interior remodels add value but recoup a smaller share.

Q: Should I renovate before selling?

Focus on high-recoup, low-cost items: curb appeal, minor kitchen and bath refreshes, fresh paint, and fixing anything broken. Avoid large, personal, high-end remodels right before a sale — buyers rarely pay full price for someone else's taste.

If you're improving your home partly with resale in mind, not all projects are created equal. The ones that add the most value relative to their cost are, almost every year, the least glamorous: exterior replacements and curb appeal. The big, personal, high-end remodels add value too — just a smaller share of what you spend.

Best resale ROI, in order

From the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report, the projects that recoup the highest share of their cost (national averages, which vary by market):

Highest-recoup projects
Project	Recoup
Garage door replacement	~200–270%
Steel entry door replacement	~180–216%
Manufactured stone veneer	~175–208%
Minor midrange kitchen refresh	~90–113%
Siding / window replacement	~60–75%

Those exterior figures over 100% are inflated by the report's methodology and a hot replacement market — treat them as "recoups very well," not a literal doubling of your money, and don't apply them to interior projects.

Lowest resale ROI

The projects that recoup the least are the big, personal, high-end ones:

High-end primary-suite additions — often ~35–49%.
Major (upscale) kitchen remodels — roughly 50–60%.
High-end bathroom gut renovations — around 60% or less.

Worth doing for how you'll live in the home — just not as a resale strategy.

The cheap wins people forget

Some of the best value isn't in the Cost vs. Value tables at all: fresh paint, updated light fixtures and hardware, clean landscaping, and simply fixing what's broken. These cost little and shape a buyer's first impression more than an expensive remodel does. (For how resale recoup works in general, see renovation ROI.)

Estimate your project's payback — free

The BidSolid Renovation Budget + ROI Tool gives you an honest, banded resale-recoup estimate for your specific project, alongside a realistic budget. Free lite version to start.

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Frequently asked

What adds the most value?

Exterior replacements (garage door, entry door, stone veneer) and low-cost curb-appeal items lead; big interior remodels add value but recoup less.

What has the worst ROI?

High-end, personal projects — luxury suite additions and top-tier kitchen/bath gut jobs, often 35–60%.

Should I renovate before selling?

Stick to high-recoup, low-cost items and repairs; skip big personal remodels right before a sale.

Source: 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (Zonda × JLC), national averages shown as ranges; exterior figures over 100% reflect a methodology artifact. Estimates, not guarantees of resale value.