Renovation Budget + ROI Tool
Most renovation calculators tell you what you want to hear. This one plans a realistic budget — with a buffer for what old houses hide — and gives you an honest, sourced estimate of your resale payback. No "adds $50,000 to your home" fantasies.
One-time purchase · Excel / Google Sheets · honest, banded numbers
Not ready to buy? Get the free lite version first →
That un-recouped part isn't a loss — it's the price of enjoying the space. This tool just tells you the real number.
A midrange bathroom returns roughly 60–74% of its cost at resale; a major kitchen, 50–60%. That's not a failure — it's how remodeling works. The renovations that recoup their full cost are almost all exterior replacements: doors, siding, a garage door. Knowing which bucket your project is in — before you spend — is the whole point of this tool.
Source: 2025 Cost vs. Value Report — Zonda × Journal of Light Construction. National averages; regional results vary widely.What it does
Break your project into materials, labor, fixtures, permits, and design. Add a contingency for the surprises older homes hide behind the walls — 8–10% is the rule of thumb, more for anything pre-1980.
Pick your project type and see the recoup range straight from the 2025 Cost vs. Value data. Always a range, never a single made-up number, because your market can swing it 20% either way.
The part you won't recoup isn't hidden or spun as a gain. It's shown plainly as the real cost of enjoying the space, so you can decide with your eyes open.
Enter an amount, a rate, and a term, and see the monthly payment and total interest. Handy for deciding how much project you can actually carry.
Scaled-back, as-planned, and stretch scenarios sit side by side, so you can see what trimming or adding does to both your budget and your payback.
Why this one's different
Other calculators inflate the payback. This one won't.
Plenty of free tools quietly imply a remodel "pays for itself" or "adds tens of thousands" to your home. It sells software, but it sets you up to overspend. Every number here is banded, sourced, and defaults to the realistic sub-100% range for interior work.
Not ready to buy?
The free lite tool covers the basics — a simple budget and an honest recoup range for your project type. When you want detailed budgeting, financing, budget scenarios, and the full benchmark table, the complete tool is $39.
Get the free lite versionWhat's inside the full tool
Real spreadsheet, real formulas, in Excel or Google Sheets. Ships pre-filled with a bathroom-remodel example; overwrite the yellow cells with your project.
A one-page guide and the honest truth about renovation ROI up front.
Pick your project, enter costs by category, set a contingency buffer, get your total.
Your banded recoup range, resale value added, and the honest un-recouped cost.
Budget scenarios plus a financing calculator for your monthly payment.
The full 2025 Cost vs. Value recoup table, cited, with contingency guidance.
Pricing
A renovation is one of the biggest checks you'll write. Spending it with a clear budget and an honest payback estimate — instead of a contractor's ballpark and a hopeful guess — is worth a lot more than $39. Buy it once; it's yours.
Instant download · 14-day money-back guarantee
Questions
No — and anyone who guarantees a resale figure is guessing. These are national averages from the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report, shown as ranges. Your actual return depends on your market, your finishes, and timing. The tool is built to give you a realistic band, not a false promise.
Because that's the reality of interior remodeling. Kitchens and baths return roughly half to three-quarters of their cost at resale. The rest is what you pay to actually enjoy the space while you live there — which is a perfectly good reason to remodel.
No. It's a standard spreadsheet — opens in Excel or free in Google Sheets. No macros, no add-ins, nothing to install.
The free lite version gives you a simple budget and an honest recoup range. The $39 tool adds detailed category budgeting, a contingency buffer, a financing calculator, budget scenarios, and the full sourced benchmark table.
14-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked.