--- title: This Easy Home Improvement Project Gives You the Best Value for Your Money description: Replacing your garage doors is the home improvement project that offers the best value for your money, according to Remodeling magazine. authors: - name: Shaina Mishkin url: https://money.com/author/shaina-mishkin/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 131 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Economy and Politics - Investing - Lifestyle - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology former_staff: true published: '2018-04-16T10:00:34.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T10:19:40.000Z' section: Housing tags: - garage - home buying - home improvement - home value - money magazine - real estate - remodeling - Renovation word_count: 318 canonical: https://money.com/easy-home-upgrade-biggest-payoff/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![FIX.05.2018.Garage Door](https://img.money.com/2018/03/fix05_q.jpg) Kitchen, bathroom and living room renovations might be [the most popular](http://st.hzcdn.com/static/econ/2016Houzz&HomeGlobalRenovationActivity.pdf) among U.S. homeowners—but they aren't [the most valuable](https://money.com/affordable-renovations-boost-home-value/). That designation goes to a project that's a bit less sexy and much more subtle: the garage door. Replacing an old, outdated garage door with a new one can almost entirely pay for itself when it comes time to sell, according to [*Remodeling* magazine's 2018 Cost vs. Value report](http://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2018/). While you may not think of the garage door as an object of beauty, replacing an old, battered door with a smart new one can make all the difference when it comes to [curb appeal](https://money.com/curb-appeal-sell-home-3-tips/). A new door can give the front of your house a fresh, clean appearance, says Buffalo-based appraiser Jim Murrett—even if would-be buyers can't put their finger on the reason why. There are other benefits too, like [improved insulation](https://money.com/energy-efficiency-upgrades/), which could significantly lower your energy bills (especially in colder states). The all-in cost of replacing an antiquated garage door with an upscale steel model boosts your home's value by 98.3% of what it costs to install. In other words, a $3,470 garage door will really set you back only $60 when you put your house on the market. "If you're going to sell \[anytime soon\], this gives you almost immediate return," says Murrett. And perhaps the biggest reason for the garage door's attractive payoff: It doesn't cost much to begin with. Of the nearly two dozen projects *Remodeling* ranked, replacing a garage door was one of the least expensive. And the cheapest of all the jobs *Remodeling* looked at—installing a new steel entry door—returned almost as much as the garage door, fetching about 91% of the average $1,170 outlay. (The report didn't look at touch-up jobs like repainting or sodding your lawn.) The most expensive projects, costing $100,000, such as adding bedrooms or a major kitchen renovation, typically recouped half or less of what they cost. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/easy-home-upgrade-biggest-payoff/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Improvement", "item": "https://money.com/home-improvement/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This Easy Home Improvement Project Gives You the Best Value for Your Money" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/easy-home-upgrade-biggest-payoff/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/easy-home-upgrade-biggest-payoff/", "name": "This Easy Home Improvement Project Gives You the Best Value for Your Money", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-04-16T10:00:34.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/easy-home-upgrade-biggest-payoff/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/easy-home-upgrade-biggest-payoff/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T10:19:40.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This Easy Home Improvement Project Gives You the Best Value for Your Money", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/03/fix05_q.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "FIX.05.2018.Garage Door" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Shaina Mishkin", "url": "https://money.com/author/shaina-mishkin/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/shaina-mishkin/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-04-16T10:00:34.000Z", "description": "Replacing your garage doors is the home improvement project that offers the best value for your money, according to Remodeling magazine.", "abstract": "Replacing your garage doors is the home improvement project that offers the best value for your money, according to Remodeling magazine.", "@id": "https://money.com/easy-home-upgrade-biggest-payoff/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T10:19:40.000Z", "wordCount": 318, "keywords": [ "garage", "home buying", "home improvement", "home value", "money magazine", "real estate", "remodeling", "Renovation" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Housing in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_the_United_States" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Home improvement", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_improvement" ] } ] } ] } ```