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1) Midrange Bathroom Remodel
Average cost: $10,499
Average resale value: $10,727
Percentage of cost recovered: 102.2 percent
Best return: 168.7 percent in San Francisco
Worst return: 61.7 percent in Cleveland

Spend money to remodel your bathroom and it's likely to come back to you when you sell, particularly if you focus on the master bath.

For a 5x7 bathroom:

• Do two pedestal sinks with glass and wooden shelves from Restoration Hardware to create openness and the perception that the bathroom is big.
• Slate-colored tile looks rich and matches a lot of color schemes and looks great with brushed nickel fixtures.
• Replace your 5x3 tub with a tile shower with glass doors to create space.
• Replace the toilet. There's nothing worse than a nice bathroom with a cheap toilet and plastic seat. Go to a home store for a reasonably priced toilet. You don't have to buy a $500 Toto toilet.
• Add a honey-colored vanity and a nice sink.

In many homes, it's a better investment to update what you have than to spend more to add on. For example, adding a bathroom to a one-bathroom house in a neighborhood where most homes already have two may not return as much as remodeling an outdated bathroom in that same community.

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