Concept

Cabinets

What it is

Off-the-shelf shaker-style cabinets from Home Depot or Lowe’s. Painted white or gray, soft-close hinges standard, basic granite or butcher block countertops. That’s the B-class kitchen package.

The guy who bought the house across the street from me in Colorado — he was in khaki shorts and sandals, growing weed in the backyard — he put in some budget floors, basic cabinets, basic granite countertops and a basic backsplash. He didn’t even redo the carpets in the bedrooms. Just cleaned them up. Then he sold that house for $600,000 on the same street where I was tearing the roof off and building a second story and spending a fortune. He bought for $423,000 and got out at $600,000.

That’s the shaker cabinet. Off the shelf from the big box store. It sells.

Why it matters

The baseline is about figuring out what the comparable houses did and matching it. Did they do the cheapest cabinets from the big box store? Did they do shaker cabinets at the same store? Did they go high-end? I’m going to pick the baseline — the bottom of what the comps are doing — because my best return on investment is going from bombed out to the bottom of the range of comps, not the top. And spending $60,000 more on cabinets and countertops to get $60,000 more in sale price is not profit. That’s zero ROI. There’s probably a loss there, actually, because every dollar spent is a dollar of risk taken.

The exception is the big three. If the kitchen is in the entry — if the buyer is going to see it the moment they open the front door — then I might go granite where the baseline is butcher block. I might do a nicer backsplash, an accent tile. But that bathroom in the back of the house? Tub insert, not subway tile. The people have already decided whether they’re buying before they got there.

How it shows up

The hardware move matters more than the cabinet brand. Same finish on every hinge, every pull, every light fixture, every plumbing fixture in the house. Brushed nickel throughout, or matte black throughout. Never mix. That one move adds massive perceived value for $200-$400 in extra hardware cost.

On a B-class flip, the kitchen is one of the lines you have to hold. The whole cosmetic renovation math breaks if you blow the kitchen budget by 2x. Stick to what the comps are doing, push it slightly in the big three zone if that’s where the kitchen lands, and leave everything else at the baseline.

baseline, big three, hardware package, range of comps, over renovating, cosmetic renovation