Saturday, February 28, 2009

Remodeling is an investment?

How do you interpret this clip from an article on remodeling?

On average a Kitchen Remodel will yield an ROI of 80-100%! This is an amazing rate of return on any investment, but the added bonus is that as a homeowner you get to enjoy the benefits of your Kitchen Remodel until you sell your home.


Ok, so if I spend $100k on my kitchen, the price of my house will go up $180k to $200k....right?  After all, the definition of ROI is profit divided by cost.  The first $100k would go to pay back what I spent, and the remaining $80k to $100k would be my profit.  Then I saw this tidbit in another article :

Homeowners can recoup an average of 83% for a vinyl siding replacement and 78% of their investment for a mid-range bathroom renovation

Wait a minute!  Recoup 83% means you didn't get back all the money you spent.  That means a negative profit and a negative ROI of 17%!

So why do they state--incorrectly--that the ROI is 83%?  Because it sounds better.  Because it makes people spend more money at Home Depot.  I'm not saying that people shouldn't remodel their homes, just realize that you're doing it primarily for your own enjoyment and not to make money!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Yelp == Mafia?

I'm a pretty big user of yelp.com, and there have always been concerns about competitor restaurants writing bad reviews.  But accusations of extortion --oh my!