Making a home is like building any relationship: the more love you put in, the more you get out.
But there’s a bonus with your home. When it’s time to go your separate ways, you can make a tidy profit.
These two investments, love and money, go hand in hand. Spruce up your home with your dream features, and you could boost its eventual sale value by more than the features cost. Of course, this is more effective if your dream feature is pendant lighting or a farmhouse sink rather than, say, a sunken ball pit or a firefighter’s pole.
So, which features are most attractive to buyers? Angi is on a mission to help you build the best home to live in and the best home to sell. We combed Zillow for sold properties with common or trending added features and used math to figure out the price premium associated with each feature. (You’ll find our full methodology at the foot of this page.)
We’ve highlighted the 10 most profitable features and the best for each room and included our full lists at the end so you can justify your own dream feature to your other half.
Please note, our study reveals correlation, not causation. These home features will not definitively add the associated premium to your home. It is likely that the premium is closely related to the additional care that owners of homes with these features have put into their homes and their sales process.
Image Credit: Ilija Erceg/iStock.
The Most Profitable Home Feature, Room by Room
We analyzed over a quarter of a million house listings across the U.S. and calculated the price premium associated with popular features in every room of the house. The results show that adding these features to each room will increase the value of your home
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Bathroom
- Double Sink Vanity
- Price Premium: 2.35%
Image Credit: ismagilov/iStock.
Bedroom
- En-suite
- Price premium: 1.41%
Image Credit: PC Photography/iStock.
Kitchen
- Pot filler
- Price premium: 3.20%
Image Credit: j.hendrickson3/ depositphotos.com.
Living Room
- Fireplace
- Price Premium: 1.97%
Image Credit: gamespirit/iStock.
Exterior
- Outdoor Kitchen
- Price premium: 2.05%
Image Credit: oocoskun/Depositphotos.com.
First Impressions Count, But Quality Converts
Adding genuine details to your Zillow listing can help draw in potential buyers; consider them virtual ‘curb appeal.’ But we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars: if the job’s not done right, curious buyers will notice the flaws on closer inspection. If you’re not confident you can make quality improvements yourself, hire a professional. Your home is an investment, and saving money here may prove a false economy.
Not sure which features might boost your particular property’s value? Try one of these.
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Pendant lighting
Price premium: 2.66%
Image Credit: ucpage/iStock.
Under cabinet lighting
Price premium: 2.48%
Image Credit: Serghei Starus/iStock.
Barn door
Price premium: 2.32%
Image Credit: PC Photography/iStock.
Butcher block
Price premium: 2.26%
Image Credit: primo-piano/iStock.
Quartz countertops
Price premium: 2.26%
Image Credit: hikesterson/iStock.
Oversized windows
Price premium: 2.23%
Image Credit: KatarzynaBialasiewicz/iStock.
Farmhouse sink
Price premium: 2.22%
Image Credit: alabn/iStock.
Subway tile
Price premium: 2.13%
Image Credit: Switlana Symonenko/iStock.
Custom cabinetry
Price premium: 2.13%
Image Credit: Mark_Breck/iStock.
Kitchen Island
Price premium: 2.08%
Image Credit: hikesterson/iStock.
Metal roof
Price premium: 2.01%
Image Credit: Bilanol/iStock.
Hot tub
Price premium: 1.96%
Image Credit: nedomacki/iStock.
Double oven
Price premium: 1.88%
Image Credit: ismagilov/iStock.
Patio
Price premium: 1.87%
Image Credit: mariapogony/iStock.
Granite Countertops
Price premium: 1.86%
Image Credit: essentialimage/iStock.
Fire pit
Price premium: 1.85%
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
Pergola
Price premium: 1.85%
Image Credit: Mathilde Receveur/iStock.
Recessed lighting
Price premium: 1.76%
Image Credit: ThreeDiCube/iStock.
Garage
Price premium: 1.76%
Image Credit: DFTidrington / istockphoto.
Walk-in closet
Price premium: 1.72%
Image Credit: Colleen Michaels/istockphoto.
Bay windows
Price premium: 1.70%
Image Credit: ArchiViz/iStock.
Solar panels
Price premium: 1.68%
Image Credit: shironosov/ istockphoto .
Fenced yard
Price premium: 1.62%
Image Credit: Lari Bat/iStock.
Wet bar
Price premium: 1.62%
Image Credit: hikesterson/iStock.
Walk-in pantry
Price premium: 1.59%
Image Credit: irina88w/iStock.
Swimming pool
Price premium: 1.57%
Image Credit: sl-f/istockphoto.
Walk-in shower/wetroom/curbless
Price premium: 1.56%
Image Credit: irina88w/iStock.
Wood flooring
Price premium: 1.56%
Image Credit: jacek_kadaj/iStock.
Shed
Price premium: 1.47%
Image Credit: HildaWeges/iStock.
Hardwood flooring
Price premium: 1.31%
Image Credit: hikesterson/iStock.
High ceilings
Price premium: 1.08%
Image Credit: runna10/iStock.
METHODOLOGY & SOURCES
To create these tables, we built a long list of home features using authoritative sources such as Better Homes & Gardens, European Cabinets, and Fool. We analyzed 251,292 house listings on Zillow from across the U.S. and calculated the price premium associated with popular features in every room of the house.
Log-linear regression was used to estimate a percentage price difference as a function of the presence of each of the selected features.
Results are only reported for features meeting three conditions: they appear in at least 100 listing descriptions of sold homes (25 for metro level); their estimated coefficient in the regression was statistically significant at the 10% level; the estimated coefficient is greater than zero (i.e., feature has a positive impact on price).
Correlation, NOT Causation
Adding these design features to a home, or just adding these words to a for-sale listing description, does NOT guarantee or definitively cause the ultimate sale price to increase (or fall) as much as observed. Rather, the most likely explanation for these results is that for-sale homes with these kinds of features in their descriptions may be of generally higher quality all around.
This article originally appeared on Angi.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
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