These three kitchen upgrades will boost your home’s resale value and appeal.

To a homeowner, a kitchen is a place to spend time cooking, entertaining friends, or trying new creations with family. It’s often a home’s busiest room, causing it to look a bit worn and dated faster than other rooms in the house. When your home goes up for sale, your favorite room in the house is not only going to be judged and analyzed by prospective buyers, but it’s features and upgrades will add or deduct from the appraised home value.

There’s no need to panic. The research has been done, and these three kitchen upgrades will be sure to boost your home’s resale value and appeal. A kitchen renovation can yield up to a 70 percent ROI and reduce the overall amount of time on market.

Energy-Efficient Appliances

Average Cost: $200 – $3,500 per appliance

Energy Star-rated appliances will not only satisfy budget-conscious buyers, but they will also deliver favorable points on the appraisal. As a consumer, you can shop for the best deals on Energy Star-rated appliances and enjoy close-out discount prices.

Buyers will be looking at many homes (and many kitchens). Make it easy for them to remember your upgraded appliances by placing the owner’s manuals in clean, transparent folders on kitchen countertops.

Countertops

Average Cost: $1,200 – $7,000

Kitchen countertops are a big deal to home buyers, but don’t upgrade beyond your neighborhood style. Ask your Realtor to share photos of the homes sold with the highest price-per-square-foot, and look at the countertops. Granite? Corian? New formica? If you upgrade to the most expensive option without considering neighborhood conditions, your overall ROI could take a hit.

Flooring

Average cost: $1,000 – $4,000

Flooring options have come a long way, and many affordable options make it easy to upgrade.

HGTV’s kitchen flooring buying guide helps you weigh the pros and cons of hardwood, laminate, bamboo, cork, vinyl, linoleum, and tile.

Before you consider kitchen remodel options, get recommendations from your contractor and your Realtor. Not only do you want to choose new kitchen features that will add to your home’s value, but you want it to have aesthetic appeal to potential buyers.