4 Updates to Avoid Home Office
Cost of home office remodel: $13,143
Average resale value: $9,569
Percentage of cost recovered: 93.5%
Best return: San Francisco 115.2%
Worst return: Wichita, Kan. 36.4%
If you work from home, spending money to turn a 12x12 room into a home office with custom cabinets, 20 feet of laminate desktop, and upgraded wiring for all your electronic gadgets may be worth it. But as a presale investment, it doesn’t pay off.
"[Remodeling] the rooms people spend less time in–a home office, a media room or the master bedroom addition--might be worth it to the client, but from [the standpoint of] making a difference in the value of the house, there’s a 50% to 75% return rate," says Vince Butler, Chairman NAHB Remodelors™ Council and president of Butler Brothers Corporation, Clifton, Va.
