When you purchase a house to flip, how do you know when to replace the kitchen cabinets or when to leave them. If they are old and brown but in good shape and you replace them with new ones will it bring more money for you that it will off set the additional cost and time when you sell.
imho, cabinets are a very expensive improvement. If at all possible, if they are solid, I would opt to paint, strip & stain or just replace the doors. I know it would depend on the home, but lots of people like the painted door thing &/or the ‘shabby chic’ look
IMHO painted, stained, urethaned cabinets look like someone was trying to get away cheap.
Cabinets are expensive but if the job and budget allow, cost recovery and then some is very probable.
If you can get reasonable priced labor You can recover up to two times the cost of the cabinets by replacing them …providing the labor is reasonable. Lowes wanted 2k to install their kitchen cabintes. A random cabinet installer put in my Lowes cabinets and countertop for 500.
I have an example at my site: www.jyrentals.com
On the top left corner there is a temporary link for 156 Park before and after.
Cabinets are not hard to install if you know how to find the Wall Studs. I’ve done 2 decent size kitchens with nice looking, inexpensive cabinets for about $1000 for each. IMO it is not worth the time and effort to to strip and paint, which usually means you will need to buy new hardware as well. This might be the way to go if you dont care about your time and labor, cuz you will need alot of it and is a hassle. ALso the same thing with just replacing cabinet doors. by the time you buy them stain them and put new hardware on you could have bought new cabinets.
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when I said refinish or paint cabinets abotve I did qualify it depended on the house
I still say if it is a rental, I would try not to put $$$ into new cabinets. If you are flipping the property then new cabinets are good. They are not easy to put in if you are a 5’2" female . the cheapest we have found at home depot are the white millworks & those also need to be put together & depending on the size of the kitchen that could be a 2 day job for some folks
again - it depends on the property & the exit plan
jmo
So then the consensus is, if you are flipping the property, the cabinets look old and dingy, you are in a middle class neighborhood, it is worth the money to replace the cabinets. You believe you will recoup the money plus some.
We have a cabinet factory just over the Texas line from us…abot 35-40 miles. The cabinets for my current project will cost $605 plus a counter top. The same thing at Lowes/Home Depot is over $1000. This place does not advertise much. Look in hte phone book, etc.
Keith
take em all down and paint them…coat of primer, 2-3 coats of a good quality med-high gloss…they will look brand new…i’ve done it many times
If the cabinets are in generally good shape then having them refaced is an option that typically costs about 1/3 of replacing them and they will look brand new.
…oops forgot to say: These cabinets were unsalvageable. They are broken, chipped, warped, bent, have a big sway at the sink, have drawers nailed together with 8-penney commons, etc. The sink is avacado green but went nicely with the 1970s floral green/orange wallpaper and the orange rubber cove base!
Keith
The sink is avacado green but went nicely with the 1970s floral green/orange wallpaper and the orange rubber cove base!
Cool! I heard that those color schemes are coming back?
…well, on top of that, the full bath (under the wallpaper) was lime green, the master bedroom (under the wallpaper) was “Pepto-bismal” pink, one of the bedrooms was bright yellow with one wall having yellow and orange stripes. Two of the bedrooms had shag carpet (honest to God, no BS!) – one in blue and one orange, yellow, and green swirls.
Apparently there is no color in the pallet that they were afraid of!
Most of it has been “neutralized”…still got to patch the walls in the full bath…
Keith
Two of the bedrooms had shag carpet (honest to God, no BS!)
Shag…yea baby!
Not that sort of shag…but that’s what the wall in the half-bath looks like it was used for…
LOL…
I’d tear them out and replace if they look like that. First place a woman looks is the kitchen, cabinets that bad will kill the deal every time. You know even if there was a 20 car garage with a lift and a shabby kitchen the wife would out vote the husband on that one. ;D
The worst is already gone…I can get cabinets in about an hour at the factory. I am still using the avacado sink during the rehab but am going to FedEx it to Mark Haas when I yank it out…
Keith
Ewwww…!!!
For a rental - cheaper cabinets. If you are flipping to sell - spend the money. 2 places to spend money are kitchens and bathrooms.
Do check with local millners (is that the word?). They can be much cheaper than HD or Lowe’s.
I love the humor in this forum. I was walking around Home Depot this weekend when I heard my partner gasp loudly. I turned and couldn’t believe my eyes. The feature commode/sink set was all in a very 70’s reminicent beige.
Beige not your color?
Never fear, there is a catalog of colors you can choose, how about lavendar? Sky blue anyone?
Keith - your avocado sink might be ready for a reincarnation as the new hipster color…
Okay seriously, kictens can be a big wow factor when selling a flip/rehab. My two cents? Do it right. I can’t tell you how many bad kitchen jobs I see. Even if you buy affordable cabinets, take time to install them well and make sure the countertop is lined up and level.
If the budget allows throw in one or two bonus features like a knife drawer or built in lazy susan. Buyers go nuts when they think they are getting a “fancy kitchen”.
Liz
Liz,
This is actually a buy-and-hold rental property. But, my rentals are clean, neat, freshly painted, and serviceable. We believe that, just because people rent, it doesn’t mean that they should receive sub-standard amenities. We keep our properties nice and expect the same of our tenants.
On the flip side, we’ve had several people stop and say that they saw our vehicles and wanted to see if they could rent our new project because they liked the last one so much (it was a higher priced area/property that they couldn’t quite afford)…
Keith
“…But, my rentals are clean, neat, freshly painted, and serviceable. We believe that, just because people rent, it doesn’t mean that they should receive sub-standard amenities. We keep our properties nice and expect the same of our tenants…”
I so totally agree with this… learned it well when we owned an old motel that we did weekly rentals…
generally speaking, if the landlord doesn’t appear to care about the property, it is highly unlikely the tenants will care either. They are more likely to care if they are expected to care & actions speak louder than words…
IMO a rental does not need to be fancy as much as it needs to be clean & good repair - this is of the utmost importance. Just shows respect for others I think