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 · XLSX workbook · honest, banded numbers
Not ready to buy? Get the free lite version first →
Lower value applies an illustrative 20% haircut to the published 2025 national reference. This is not a published range or a forecast for your home.
That un-recouped part isn't a loss — it's the price of enjoying the space. These national references are planning assumptions, not a local valuation.
A midrange bathroom returns roughly 80% (2025 national reference) of its cost at resale; a major kitchen, 51% for a midrange major kitchen (2025 reference). 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.
Compare a published 2025 Cost vs. Value reference with an illustrative 20% downside haircut. The downside is a planning assumption, not a published range or appraisal. Your local result can differ materially.
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
Separate the project budget from resale assumptions.
Pricing assumptions can materially change a bid. Use your own costs and review the output against your actual job. No profit increase or payback is guaranteed.
Not ready to buy?
The free lite tool covers the basics — a simple budget, a published reference and an illustrative downside scenario 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 XLSX workbook. 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.
Published reference, illustrative downside, modeled value added and total budget less that modeled value, including contingency assumed spent.
Budget scenarios plus a financing calculator for your monthly payment.
Selected 2025 Cost vs. Value national project references, 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.
Download not available yet · 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.
Each download purchase arrives as a ZIP containing the listed XLSX workbook(s) and PDF buyer guide. Open or import a copy in your spreadsheet application and check formulas and formatting. Native Excel/Google Sheets verification is still in progress.
The free lite version gives you a simple budget, a published reference and an illustrative downside scenario. 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.