impact of reno style choices on resale

keep it towards "normality" and you'll be able to recoup some. keep it red/green/blue and you will pay for it yourself without a penny coming back. even if you put great appliances, they will be overlooked in a "whacky" color kitchen.

if you don't go white, mid to dark tone woods work. you can go whacky with a backsplash that will cost a few hundred to replace prior to resale.

Keep it restrained--maybe one or two elements only that you let yourself go a little wilder with if they can be easily changed later.

Any reno likely won't be worth all that much if you hold the apartment for 10-15 years, so your plans do matter. Effective space reconfiguration, crown mouldings, added electrical work like more lights and outlets and things of a more permanent nature will retain value though.

As for red cabinets, etc, even you may come to tire of such things much sooner than you thing.

The mind of a buyer who dislikes your reno choices is this: the seller is asking me to pay some premium for his reno that I hate and will have to live with or tear out. Why am I spending all this money on an apartment if I have to live with a kitchen I hate or have to do my own reno? Better I look for a unit that is priced to reflect the reno I'll have to do or that has a reno I can live with.

As a buyer, I have a certain ideal in mind and I start mentally adding to the cost for each aspect I'd need to replace. This is above pure cost reflective of the time/pain associated with renovating. e.g. I'd say, $150k for a kitchen tear-out, $75k for a bathroom tear-out, $50k to replace floors etc..etc...

There are certain apartments priced as gut renovations and the math could work. There are other apartments priced as mint and the math could still work. Unfortunately, there are other apartments priced and described as move in ready that I'd view as partial or guy renos where the math simply doesn't add up and I move on to the next listing.

To the extent you individualize, you are narrowing the list of ideal buyers. It may work in your favor and that perfect buyer is happy to pay a premium for their ideal product. However, it is more likely that your choices will result in somebody doing the mental math and factoring in $150k for a new kitchen. Worse, to the extent your apartment sits on the market for a short while, it could taint the property as over-priced etc..etc...

To kyle's point thuogh. To the extent you're viewing this as a long-term home, your investment is likely to become devalued either way so you may as well choose something that's going to make you happy to live in and use for the next 10 years.

Even if you do not plan on selling for 10-15 years, many buyers who intend to reno do not do so right away and plan to live with the existing kitchen/bath for a few years first. Your pool of buyers will be much larger if you go with the "updated prewar" style, which will "keep," than with a whacky color combo, which is much more likely to feel dated and passé 10 years from now.