Tweaks, Not ‘Blowouts’

Nice piece in the WSJ last week about remodeling trends.
Here’s a snippet:

Smaller projects like updating kitchens and baths and humble attic-bedroom conversions are more popular, while two-story master suites and $100,000 kitchen blowouts are decidedly out of fashion. One of the most cost-effective improvements, say contractors, is removing a wall to create an open kitchen-dining area.

–“The New Rules of Remodeling“; The Wall Street Journal (4/24/2010)

The only thing I’d add is that changing a home’s footprint (foundation, roof line, and exterior walls) raises the difficulty factor — and cost — exponentially.

I’ve long espoused a real estate equivalent to medicine’s Hippocratic Oath: ‘first, do no harm.’
About the author

Ross Kaplan has 19+ years experience selling real estate all over the Twin Cities. He is also a 12-time consecutive "Super Real Estate Agent," as determined by Mpls. - St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine. Prior to becoming a Realtor, Ross was an attorney (corporate law), CPA, and entrepreneur. He holds an economics degree from Stanford.

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