Getting the Most Value When Remodeling Your Kitchen – Part II
In the first article concerning Getting the Most Value When Remodeling Your Kitchen we learned that to gain the most value from your investment you should expect to invest between 10-20% of the value of your home in your kitchen. Investing less than 10% of the value of your home when remodeling your kitchen could be a waste of money and could even decrease the value of your home. Spending greater than 20% could result in an over-improvement, which won’t allow you to capture the full value of your investment.
In this post we will discuss the next critical consideration – your kitchen floor plan.
Should you keep the existing floor plan or make changes?
In most cases maintaining the existing floor plan will result in a cost savings. When you maintain the existing floor plan you don’t need to relocate plumbing, electrical and gas lines, which will save you money. Also, you don’t need to change windows, doors or walls. The drawback is that you are limited to the existing floor plan, which is ok if you are happy with your current floorplan. If the utilities lines, windows and doors need to be replaced anyway then the additional cost to place the new items in a different location is just an incremental cost. In this situation changing the floor plan could be very cost effective or provide even greater value.
Why would you consider changing the floor plan?
People often change the floor plan of their kitchen to improve the flow and function of the space in order to provide greater utility. A greater level of utility improves the value of the kitchen. If you have ever lived with a poorly designed kitchen then you understand how frustrating, inefficient, and even dangerous this space can be. You really understand how it lowers the quality of your daily life.
When you are contemplating changing the floor plan the best questions to ask yourself is what improvements will be accomplished, what additional benefits will those improvements provide and finally what is the price tag for realizing those improvements? You achieve a positive value level when the level of utility received is greater than the price paid for achieving that utility: Value = Utility – Price.
To get the most return for your investment only consider changing the existing floor plan if you can realize a positive value. For help consult your local kitchen designer to discuss whether or not it makes sense to change the floor plan of your kitchen.
In Get the Most Value When Remodeling Your Kitchen (Part I) we covered the total budget (10-20% of the value of your home) and in Part II we discussed the impact of altering the existing floor plan. Stay tuned to learn more about product selection and how to gain the most value from your investment.