Remodeling ROI in DFW: Which Projects Add the Most Resale Value

If you're spending on a remodel and hoping to get the money back when you sell, the current data has a counterintuitive answer: the projects with the best return are usually the small exterior ones — a new garage door, a steel front door, fresh siding — not the six-figure kitchen or the primary-suite addition. That's the consistent finding of Zonda's 2025 Cost vs. Value Report, the remodeling industry's benchmark for how much of a project's cost you recoup at resale, in which eight of the ten highest-ROI projects nationwide are exterior projects. This guide walks through what that data actually says, where North Texas fits, and — just as important — why the highest-ROI project is rarely the one you should build.

One thing up front: every cost and percentage below is national market data from that published report, not a quote or a result from The Remo Guys. Your real numbers depend on your house, your finishes, and your local market.

What "remodeling ROI" actually measures

The Cost vs. Value Report is published every year by Zonda (in partnership with the Remodeling brand). The 2025 edition — the 38th annual, released in September 2025 — is the most current available. For each project type it pairs an estimated national cost (built with Verisk's XactRemodel construction-cost data) against an estimated resale value added, which comes from surveying real-estate professionals about what the improvement would contribute to a sale price. ROI is simply value ÷ cost.

Two honest caveats make those numbers usable instead of misleading:

• A resale-value estimate is not a check. It's an agent's judgment of what a project adds if you sell within about a year — not cash you're guaranteed to pocket.
• Above 100% doesn't mean the remodel prints money. A garage door "recouping 267%" mostly reflects a low project cost meeting a high curb-appeal impression. Read these as a ranking of which dollars work hardest, not as an investment return.

The highest-ROI remodeling projects right now

Here's the top of the 2025 national table. Notice the pattern — it's almost entirely curb appeal:

Project	Type	Cost recouped (2025)
Garage door replacement	Exterior	267.7%
Steel entry door replacement	Exterior	216.4%
Manufactured stone veneer	Exterior	207.9%
Fiber-cement siding replacement	Exterior	113.7%
Minor (mid-range) kitchen remodel	Interior	112.9%
Vinyl siding replacement	Exterior	96.5%
Backup power generator	Systems	95.3%
Wood deck addition	Exterior	94.9%
Composite deck addition	Exterior	88.5%
Fiberglass "grand entrance" entry	Exterior	84.7%

For scale, the report puts a garage door replacement at roughly $4,672 nationally, returning about $12,507 at resale; a minor kitchen remodel runs about $28,458 for roughly $32,141 in added value. (2025 Cost vs. Value Report, national averages — again, not The Remo Guys' pricing.)

Why the small exterior jobs keep winning

Curb appeal is priced from the street. A buyer forms an impression before they reach the door, and agents fold that into a list price. A garage door, a bold front door, or clean siding costs comparatively little, installs fast, rarely needs a structural permit, and changes the whole face of the house. High impact ÷ low cost = a big ROI percentage.

Here's the honest part most contractor blogs skip: several of these are jobs you don't need a full design-build remodeler for. A garage door or an entry door is usually a direct specialty install, and if that's all you want, hiring that specialist yourself is the right — and cheaper — call. Where a general contractor actually earns its fee is the bigger, disruptive, permitted work: kitchens, baths, additions, and whole-home renovations that touch structure and systems and have to be sequenced and inspected.

Where kitchens and baths land

Interior remodels don't top the ROI chart, but they're far from equal — and the split is instructive. In the 2025 report a minor (mid-range) kitchen remodel recoups about 112.9%, the lone interior project in the national top tier, while a major (mid-range) kitchen remodel returns closer to 50% — and a high-end, upscale gut nearer 36%. A mid-range bathroom remodel came in around 80%, its strongest showing since 2007 (up from about 73.7% a year earlier), and a universal-design (aging-in-place) bath landed near 61%.

The lesson is right-size, don't over-build. A refreshed, well-designed kitchen recoups more of its cost than a gutted luxury one, because most buyers pay for "clean, current, and functional," not for the last $40,000 of custom. That's also why interior work costs more than an exterior swap: a real kitchen or bath brings in the state-licensed trades a code-compliant job requires — electrical and HVAC work licensed through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), plumbing through the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (TSBPE) — not just a facade change. If you're weighing scope, our kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling pages lay out where the money goes.

Additions and whole-home projects: lowest ROI, highest livability

Big-ticket work — large additions, primary-suite expansions, upscale whole-home remodels — consistently sits at the bottom of the ROI table, often recouping well under half its cost on paper. The upscale major-kitchen figure above (~36%) is a fair proxy for how the big, high-end projects tend to pencil out at resale.

That's not a reason to skip them. It's a reason to be honest about why you're doing them. You don't add a primary suite or renovate the whole house to flip it next spring — you do it to live in it: more room, a floor plan that fits your family, a home that works for the next decade. ROI is the wrong yardstick for a project whose real payoff is the five or ten years you spend inside it. If an addition or ADU or a full renovation is on the table, weigh the livability honestly and budget it realistically — our guide to what a whole-home renovation costs in Collin County gives real local ranges.

What North Texas buyers actually pay for

The national table is the backbone, but region matters — and North Texas is a strong market for remodeling returns. In the 2025 report, the West South Central region (which includes DFW) ranked second nationally for overall returns — behind only the Pacific region, and the first time West South Central displaced New England in more than two decades of the report's regional tracking. Translated: remodeling dollars tend to hold their value better here than in much of the country.

What Collin County buyers specifically reward:

• Move-in-ready kitchens and baths. In Plano, Frisco, and McKinney, finish expectations run high and buyers visibly discount dated interiors.
• Real energy efficiency. With 100°F-plus summers, efficient HVAC (a TDLR-licensed trade), good windows, insulation, and radiant barriers read as value, not luxury.
• Covered outdoor living. Shade has outsized worth in this climate, which is why covered patios and decks live as usable square footage.
• A sound foundation and drainage. On Blackland Prairie clay, buyers and inspectors scrutinize foundation and grading; settlement problems or unpermitted work quietly drag both your appraisal and your leverage. In Plano and across the county, "the house is solid" is itself a selling point.

ROI is a tiebreaker, not the verdict

Use the data the way a pro does — as one input, not the decision. If you'll sell within a year or two, weight ROI heavily and favor the curb-appeal projects the report rewards. If you're staying five-plus years, weight livability, energy savings, and function, and let the resale percentage take a back seat. And if you're genuinely torn between remodeling and buying something new, run both paths side by side — our renovate-or-move tool and cost estimator are built for exactly that. The highest-ROI project on the chart is almost never the one you actually want to live with, and that's fine — knowing the difference is the whole point.

Talk it through before you spend

The best remodel is the one that fits your horizon — resale, livability, or the honest mix of both. The Remo Guys is an insured and bonded design-build general contractor based in Allen, serving Plano, Frisco, McKinney, and the rest of Collin County. We'll tell you plainly which projects tend to pay you back, which are for you and not the next owner, and what your specific house actually needs. Request a consultation and we'll walk it with you.