THE STUDIES AGREE: SMALL EXTERIOR FIXES RECOVER THEIR COST. BIG REMODELS USUALLY DO NOT.

Zonda's 2025 Cost vs Value report combines real estate professional surveys with estimating data across 28 projects and 115 markets (VERIFIED). Its national leaders were garage door replacement at 267.7 percent of cost recouped, steel entry door replacement at 216.4 percent and manufactured stone veneer at 207.9 percent, with eight of the top ten projects exterior replacements (VERIFIED). Its own editor's caveat is that large interior remodels may be personally rewarding while their financial returns are less predictable than exterior replacements (VERIFIED).

A Denver page quoting the 2025 report lists garage door replacement at about $4,666 cost and $8,751 recouped, an entry door at $2,355 and $4,430, a minor kitchen remodel at $27,492 and $26,406, and a midrange bathroom at $25,251 and $18,881 (PROBABLE, secondary page). The pattern matches the national one: the small exterior items return more than they cost, the big interior ones return less.

Start from what a buyer sees in the first minute and what an inspector will write in the first hour: the door, the garage door, the paint, the roof, the systems. A repair that removes an inspection objection is worth more than a remodel that adds a feature. Then price the rest against the listing calendar: a project that takes six weeks costs six weeks of carrying the house.