By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass

The full walkthrough is in the video above. What follows is the reference version for anyone who prefers to read, wants to come back to a specific number, or wants to send the framework to a spouse or family member before the next contractor conversation.

TL;DR:

The highest-return pre-sale improvements on Long Island are overwhelmingly exterior and low-cost, not interior and expensive. Ranked by the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report from Zonda and the 2025 Remodeling Impact Report from the National Association of Realtors: a garage door replacement returns approximately 268%, a steel entry door approximately 188%, and a minor kitchen refresh approximately 113%. Neutral paint plus continuous flooring and a light kitchen and bath refresh can lift final offers by as much as 10%. Curb appeal and landscaping ($2,000–$8,000) return more per dollar than almost anything else because roughly 90% of buyers see the home online first. A new roof belongs on the list only when it actually needs replacing. The projects that consistently lose money are the full luxury kitchen gut (approximately 36%), trendy or highly personal finishes, large additions, over-improving beyond the neighborhood ceiling, and pools installed to sell. The difference between doing this well and badly is routinely $30,000–$100,000 at the closing table — and it comes down to a short conversation before any contractor starts.

These numbers come from the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report and the 2025 NAR Remodeling Impact Report. They are national and regional benchmarks, not a substitute for licensed contractor bids on a specific property or advice from an accountant on anything tax-related. Confirm everything in writing.

How These Six Projects Were Scored

"Best home improvement" is a phrase that usually travels with no math behind it. These six were ranked on five factors that determine whether a pre-sale dollar comes back at closing.

First, cost recouped percentage — how much of the spend returns on the sale-price line. Second, the absolute dollar cost, because a project returning 100% on $5,000 is far safer than one returning 80% on $40,000; small checks are easier to recoup than large ones. Third, curb-appeal leverage — the photo a buyer sees first online and the view they see first in the driveway. Fourth, how broadly the project applies across the Long Island housing stock, from the average cape to the North Shore colonial, rather than a luxury-only play. Fifth, the effect on days on market and buyer traffic, because the right project does not just lift price, it pulls more buyers through the door faster.

The Garage Door: The Unicorn of Pre-Sale Projects

The top of this list is not a kitchen or a bathroom. It is a garage door.

A garage door replacement is the single highest-return home improvement project in America for the second consecutive year. On Long Island it runs roughly $5,500 to $9,000 installed — above the national average of about $4,672, because labor, materials, and installation cost more here than almost anywhere else. The 2025 Cost vs. Value Report puts the return at approximately 268%.

On a $5,000 garage door, that's roughly $13,000 back at sale. On a $9,000 garage door, that's over $24,000 back. No other home improvement project in America right now does that.

The reason the math works is architectural. On most Long Island homes — the front-facing-garage colonials, splits, and ranches that dominate the housing stock — the garage door is one of the largest visible planes on the front of the house, sometimes larger than every other visible feature combined. A buyer sees the front door, the front lawn, and the garage door. When that oversized plane goes from a dented, faded, 22-year-old flat panel to a clean carriage-style door with a row of windows across the top, the entire elevation reads as upgraded and maintained.

The install is a one-day project for a competent crew. No design taste required — pick a door, match the color to the trim, get the windows across the top panel. Three choices, done. The windows are the entire reason the new door reads as an upgrade, so skipping them undercuts the whole return.

The Steel Entry Door: Thirty Seconds of Solo Work

The steel entry door is second, at approximately 188% for a $3,500 to $6,500 installation. Replacing sidelights or the surrounding casing pushes higher.

The front door does thirty seconds of solo work while the agent opens the lockbox and the buyer stands and stares at it. Scuffs, faded paint, a dented kickplate, a dated brass knob from 1991 — buyers see all of it in that half minute. A scuffed, drafty, dated door signals how the rest of the house has been maintained. A crisp, energy-efficient steel door with modern hardware — pride of ownership, security, efficiency — signals the opposite.

When the existing door is structurally sound, a lower-cost version does most of the same work: bold paint (deep navy, black, or a deep green), a modern handleset, and a new kickplate for a couple hundred dollars. The exception is a home with an architecturally significant or recently upgraded door — a quality original on a historic Sea Cliff or Old Westbury property is an asset, not a liability, and should stay.

Neutral Paint: The Cleanest Data in Pre-Sale

Painting the entire home is the project half of all agents recommend first, per the 2025 NAR report. Interior key rooms run $5,000 to $12,000 on Long Island; a full exterior runs $10,000 to $22,000 or more, with multi-story North Shore colonials with detailed trim and dormers at the top of that range.

The data on paint is the cleanest in the entire pre-sale conversation. Neutral paint, combined with continuous flooring and a minor kitchen and bath refresh, reduces days on market and can lift final offers by as much as 10%.

On an $800,000 Long Island home, that's $80,000 of offer lift. On a $1.5M Long Island home, $150,000. On a $2.5M North Shore colonial, $250,000. For a paint job that cost $15,000 to $20,000.

Paint is the most efficient way to make a whole home read as new and move-in ready. Buyers stop registering the wallpaper, the accent walls, and the beige-on-beige from 2007, and start projecting themselves into the space. The minute a buyer mentally moves in, the seller has won.

Use warm whites and greiges rather than saturated greens, blues, or terracotta. Do the whole house, including trim and ceilings — not just one room, not just the powder room. Hire a professional. Painting over a water stain or a smoke smell without fixing the source is worse than not painting at all, because the buyer's inspector will find it. The exception: a home that was already painted in current neutrals in the last two to three years. If the house already looks like a magazine, leave it alone.

For substantive framework on how staging works alongside these improvements, the Long Island staging guide covers the framework in detail.

Curb Appeal: The Cheapest Marketing Dollar of the Whole Sale

Curb appeal is where the gap between cost and return is widest. A real refresh runs $2,000 to $8,000 — power-washing the siding, walkways, and driveway, fresh mulch on every bed, shrub trimming, seasonal plantings at the entry, walkway repair, and a clean edge where the lawn meets the beds. Larger North Shore lots with mature landscaping that's gotten away from the owner push to the top of that range. Average capes and splits sit at the bottom.

Eight of the top ten projects in the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report are exterior upgrades. That is not a coincidence — it is the entire game. Roughly 90% of buyers see the home online first, and the exterior photo is the thumbnail that decides whether they click. If the thumbnail is overgrown shrubs, moss on the walkway, faded mulch, and a cracked front step, they don't click, don't tour, and don't offer. A weekend of cleanup is the least expensive marketing dollar of the entire sale.

Common mistakes on Long Island: over-planting with high-maintenance beds the next owner will dread, neglecting the backyard where the buyer pictures summers, leaving moss and grime on the siding, and putting out busy personalized décor. Wind chimes. Garden flags. Ceramic frogs. Take the frogs inside.

Most of the curb appeal work is doable without a contractor. The dollar cost is mostly mulch, paint, and a few weekends of labor. The return is some of the highest of any project on this list because it changes the listing photo and the first thirty seconds of the showing.

The Kitchen: The Most Expensive Mistake Sellers Make

The most expensive over-improvement on Long Island starts with a sentence heard at nearly every listing appointment: "We were thinking of doing the kitchen before we list." What that usually means is gut it. It should not.

A minor kitchen refresh runs $22,000 to $40,000 — refacing or repainting sound cabinet boxes, new countertops, mid-grade appliances, new hardware, a new sink and faucet — and returns approximately 113%. A full upscale gut runs $80,000 to $150,000 and returns approximately 36%.

Read those two numbers next to each other one more time. Minor refresh, 113%. Major luxury gut, 36%. That's the difference between making money and lighting it on fire.

Spend $100,000 on a full gut and add roughly $36,000 of value. The buyer who would pay a premium for a fully gutted, top-of-the-line kitchen also wanted to choose the cabinet color, the slab, the backsplash, and the faucet finish himself. Once a seller has chosen all of it, that buyer is not paying extra.

If the boxes are sound and the layout works, refresh. If the kitchen is so far gone that a buyer will gut it regardless, don't refresh at all — price the home as a project and let the buyer renovate it themselves. You either refresh, or you let the buyer do it. The full luxury gut is almost never the seller's move.

For substantive framework on the broader renovation-versus-sell-as-is decision, the renovation vs. sell as-is guide walks through when either path fits.

The Roof: The Only Conditional Project on the List

A roof belongs on this list only when it needs replacing. A Long Island roof runs $15,000 to $40,000 or more — bigger North Shore colonials with slate or architectural shingles at the high end, standard asphalt roofs on capes at the lower end.

The direct cost recouped on a roof is only moderate. Replacing a roof is not, by itself, a return play. What makes it worth doing is what it removes.

A visibly old roof unsettles buyers, complicates their mortgage and their homeowner's insurance, and becomes a major inspection negotiation a week before closing — at the exact moment the seller has the least leverage. The inspector finds curling shingles, the buyer's attorney calls, and suddenly there's a $15,000 credit on the table at the worst possible time.

So the roof math is not "do I get my money back." The roof math is "would I rather replace it now and market it as brand new, or replace it under duress at the buyer's price the week before closing." A roof under 12 to 15 years old with no leaks should be left alone — do not replace a healthy roof for cosmetics. A roof 18 to 25 years old, with curling shingles or any leak history, should be replaced before listing and marketed aggressively as new.

What to Skip Before Listing

Four categories of spending reliably lose money on Long Island. The major luxury kitchen gut, at roughly 36%, is the headline example. Highly personal or trendy finishes — bold patterned tile, statement wallpaper, colored cabinetry (sage green, navy, terracotta), themed rooms (nautical, Tuscan, nursery) — narrow the buyer pool, because the finish that delights the owner alienates the next buyer. If it wouldn't run in a magazine currently on a newsstand, don't install it before listing.

Large additions and primary-suite builds carry some of the lowest returns in the data once Nassau and Suffolk permit and approval timelines, which can stretch a year or more, are accounted for. If a bigger primary suite is genuinely wanted, build it, live in it for five years, then sell — don't build it to sell.

Over-improving past the neighborhood ceiling simply will not appraise. Every Long Island town has a price cap, and a $150,000 renovation on a block that tops out below it does not come back. The neighborhood caps the return.

Pools deserve their own line. On Long Island a pool rarely returns its installation cost and narrows the buyer pool to buyers who specifically want one, which is not most buyers. An existing pool is fine and needs no apology — but a pool installed to sell is a loss.

How Sub-Market Shapes the Right List

The six-project framework works across Long Island, but the emphasis shifts by sub-market.

Nassau County North Shore luxury (Port Washington, Manhasset, Roslyn, Great Neck, Plandome, Sands Point) has a sophisticated buyer pool with high finish expectations. Neutral paint, curb appeal, and both exterior doors matter most. A minor kitchen refresh often makes sense; a full luxury gut still doesn't. The garage door return applies especially well to the front-facing-garage colonials that dominate the sub-market.

Nassau County Mid/South Nassau (Garden City, Levittown, Lynbrook, Mineola, New Hyde Park) has a substantial buyer pool that's more rate-sensitive. Curb appeal, paint, and the garage door produce the strongest ROI. Kitchen refresh works when boxes are sound; over-improvement in this sub-market never appraises against the neighborhood ceiling.

Northeast Queens (Bayside, Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, Douglaston, Little Neck, Whitestone) operates under NYC framework with buyer pool composition varying by neighborhood. Exterior improvements and paint carry the strongest ROI. Kitchen and bath refreshes work well for the older housing stock. Additions rarely make sense given NYC permitting timelines and lot-size constraints.

Timing the Improvements

Sequencing matters almost as much as which projects get done. The projects that produce the best outcomes go in a rough order that respects both installation lead times and permit windows.

Three to four months before listing is when to start any project that needs Nassau or Suffolk permits — a new roof, structural work, or anything touching an addition. Permit timelines vary by town and season and can easily stretch a project past the intended listing date. Starting late here is what turns a two-month prep window into a five-month one.

Six to eight weeks before listing is when to schedule a garage door replacement, a steel entry door replacement, and a minor kitchen refresh. Garage doors typically install in a day but have two- to four-week order windows for the right style. Entry doors run similar timelines. Kitchen refreshes — refaced boxes, new counters, new hardware — typically run three to five weeks from measurement to completion.

Four to six weeks before listing is when to schedule interior and exterior paint. A professional crew can typically complete a full interior in a week to ten days and a full exterior in a similar window, weather permitting on the exterior side.

Two to three weeks before listing is when curb appeal work happens. Power-washing, mulch, plantings, walkway repair, and edging need to be recent enough to still look sharp in listing photos and at first showings. Doing it too early means the beds look tired by the time the property lists.

The last week before listing is professional photography, video, and any final touch-ups. The property needs to be in listing condition for the photos, because the online listing goes live the day photos are done.

Sellers who compress this timeline usually pay for it. Rushed painters cut corners on trim and ceilings. Landscapers hit peak-season backlogs. Contractor availability tightens the closer to spring the calendar gets. A seller aiming for a March or April listing who calls the first contractor in February is starting late.

The NY Framework Applies Regardless

Whatever improvements a Long Island seller chooses, three NY-specific requirements apply.

The NY Property Condition Disclosure Statement (PCDS) has been mandatory statewide since March 20, 2024. The 56-question form covers property condition, environmental factors, and seven flood-related questions added in the 2024 amendment. The old $500 credit alternative is gone. New work — a roof, windows, systems — becomes part of the property's disclosure history, and known defects still require disclosure regardless of subsequent improvements.

Real estate attorney engagement 1-2 weeks before listing enables PCDS coordination, contract preparation, and closing logistics planning. NY attorney fees typically $1,500 to $3,500+ for standard Long Island residential.

Post-Sitzer/Burnett changes (August 17, 2024) affect the net proceeds picture. Buyer's agent compensation is now negotiated per offer rather than automatically listed on MLS. Standard 2-2.5% typically maintains full buyer pool access. Fee-negotiated listing commissions of 1.5-2% are increasingly available on higher-value properties, producing $20,000 to $50,000+ savings — often more than the total improvement budget.

For substantive framework on Long Island selling costs including all closing components, the Long Island selling costs pillar covers the full picture.

A Recent Conversation

A North Shore seller worked through this conversation recently about a month before listing with a contractor's estimate already in hand: a $95,000 kitchen gut, a new primary bath, and a landscaping overhaul. The plan would have consumed most of a season and returned a fraction of its cost.

The plan reworked in one sitting. The kitchen became a $28,000 refresh — refaced boxes, new quartz, new appliances, new hardware. The primary bath came off the list entirely. The landscaping budget dropped to a $5,000 cleanup, a new carriage-style garage door, and a repainted front entry with new hardware. Total spend fell from roughly $140,000 to about $45,000. The prep window shrank from a season to three weeks. The home showed as clean, current, and move-in ready.

The offers reflected it. First-weekend open house drew fourteen showings and four offers within eight days. Final contract closed at $1,308,000 — $109,000 above list — with a clean 55-day contract-to-closing, a $2,800 inspection credit, and an appraisal that came in $7,000 above contract. Net proceeds landed at approximately $591,000 after mortgage payoff and selling costs.

The specifics were unique to that property, but the framework is the point: a small list, a clean budget, and a sharp plan beat a large list nearly every time.

Where to Go From Here

The sellers who do this well walk into the listing appointment with a short list and a clear budget. The sellers who do it badly pour $150,000 into projects that return $50,000 and hand the difference to the next owner. The distance between those two outcomes is a thirty-minute conversation before the contractor ever starts — a property-specific read on which of these six projects actually make sense for a particular home, block, and price band.

The full walkthrough is in the video above — including the reasoning behind each ranking, the specific mistakes that cost sellers the most, and the projects that reliably lose money. Anyone weighing preparation alongside timing will also find the pre-listing preparation pillar guide, the renovation vs. sell as-is guide, and the Long Island staging guide useful companions.

For a specific Long Island property, the conversation is the same one that happens in the video's closing — a real read on which improvements actually make sense before any contractor starts. Reaching out for that conversation is welcome anytime.

Note: This blog post covers general framework. Individual property circumstances and market conditions vary. The 2025 Cost vs. Value Report and 2025 NAR Remodeling Impact Report figures cited are national and regional benchmarks, not a substitute for licensed contractor bids on a specific property or advice from an accountant on anything tax-related. Consult qualified professionals for advice specific to your situation.

FAQs

What is the single highest-ROI project before selling on Long Island?

A garage door replacement, at approximately 268% per the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report — the highest-return home improvement in America for the second consecutive year. On Long Island it runs $5,500 to $9,000 installed. A $5,000 garage door produces roughly $13,000 back at sale; a $9,000 door over $24,000. The math works because the garage door is one of the largest visible planes on the front of most Long Island homes — front-facing-garage colonials, splits, and ranches — so upgrading it changes how the entire elevation reads. It's a one-day install with no design decisions required: pick a carriage-style door, match the color to the trim, get the windows across the top.

Is a minor kitchen refresh really worth more than a full renovation?

Yes. A minor refresh ($22,000–$40,000) returns approximately 113%, while a full upscale gut ($80,000–$150,000) returns approximately 36%. The buyer who would pay a premium for a fully gutted, top-of-the-line kitchen also wanted to pick the cabinet color, the slab, the backsplash, and the faucet finish. Once a seller has chosen all of it, that buyer isn't paying extra. Refresh when the cabinet boxes and layout are sound, or price the home as a project and let the buyer renovate. A seller almost never recovers the cost of a full luxury gut.

Should I replace a roof that isn't leaking?

No. A roof under 12 to 15 years old with no leaks should be left alone. Replace only an old, curling, or leak-prone roof — and when you do, market it as new. The value of a roof replacement is the inspection negotiation, insurance friction, and financing friction it removes, not the sale-price line. A visibly old roof unsettles buyers, complicates their mortgage and their homeowner's insurance, and becomes a major inspection negotiation a week before closing at the exact moment the seller has the least leverage.

Which pre-sale improvements lose money?

The major luxury kitchen gut (approximately 36%), trendy or highly personal finishes, large additions and primary-suite builds, over-improving beyond the neighborhood price ceiling, and pools installed to sell. Each rarely returns its cost and several actively narrow the buyer pool. The finish that delights the owner alienates the next buyer, and every Long Island town has a price cap that no amount of renovation will push past.

When should I start these projects if I want to list in the spring?

Three to four months before the target listing date for anything needing Nassau or Suffolk permits (roof, structural, additions). Six to eight weeks before for a garage door, steel entry door, or minor kitchen refresh — installers have two- to four-week order windows and refreshes typically run three to five weeks. Four to six weeks before for interior and exterior paint. Two to three weeks before for curb appeal work, so it still looks sharp in listing photos. The last week is for professional photography and final touch-ups. Sellers who compress this timeline usually pay for it — rushed painters cut corners, landscapers hit peak-season backlogs, and contractor availability tightens the closer to spring the calendar gets.

By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass

Eric Berman | Long Island & Queens Associate Broker | Compass
1468 Northern Blvd, Manhasset, NY 11030
(917) 225-8596 | eric@ericbermanre.com | theericbermanteam.com