The Only Pre-Sale Repairs Worth Making

Draft note (delete before publishing): the figures below are national averages from a cited third-party report, not Lane County numbers. Add a hero image, confirm the disclosure line, and remove these TODO notes before you publish.

Every seller hears the same advice before listing: freshen it up, fix the little things, maybe redo the kitchen. Some of that advice pays for itself. A lot of it does not. The difference is not opinion. It is measurable, and it is the reason our pre-listing walkthrough only recommends work that earns its cost back at closing.

What the national data says

Zonda's 2025 Cost vs. Value Report tracks what common projects cost and how much of that cost returns at resale. The pattern holds year after year: exterior and cosmetic replacements beat large interior remodels.

• Garage door replacement returned about 268 percent of its cost, the highest of any project tracked (roughly $4,672 spent, about $12,526 added at resale).
• A new steel entry door returned about 216 percent (roughly $2,435 spent, about $5,270 at resale).
• A minor kitchen refresh, meaning new cabinet fronts, hardware, and a modern range rather than a full gut, returned about 113 percent. That was the top interior project for the second year in a row.

Eight of the ten highest-returning projects were exterior replacements. These are national averages, not Eugene or Lane County figures, so read them as direction rather than a guarantee for any one home. Source: Zonda 2025 Cost vs. Value Report.

Why big remodels usually lose money at sale

A full kitchen or bathroom gut can be the right call if you plan to stay in the home for years. As a pre-sale move it rarely is. You pay retail for the work, then hope a buyer values it the exact way you did. Most will not, and the buyers who would rather pick their own finishes anyway. The report is consistent on this: the larger and more personal the project, the less of its cost comes back.

How we decide, on your home

This is Phase 2 of how we list. Before any work is scheduled, we walk the property and flag only the changes that move your home up our 1-to-10 scale and earn their cost back at closing. If a project will not put more money in your pocket than it takes out, we tell you to skip it. A promise not to upsell is worth more to you than any single renovation.

When work does make sense, it runs through Grand Developments, the construction company Robert owns with his wife, Shelly Kane, who also owns Moxie Home Design for staging. We tell you that up front, because you should know the prep crew is connected to us before you have to ask, and you are always free to bring your own contractor instead.

TODO(robert): confirm the exact disclosure wording, and whether any referral arrangement applies when a seller uses an outside crew. See LISTING-PROCESS-RAW.md.

The takeaway

Before you spend a dollar getting your home ready, the question is not "what could we improve," it is "what will a buyer pay us back for." The data answers most of that before we walk in the door. The walkthrough answers the rest.