There are two lists in every pre-sale conversation. The list the homeowner has in mind (the kitchen, the bathroom, the room that has bothered them for years) and the list the listing agent has in mind. NAR has been surveying its members about the second list for years, and it looks nothing like the first.
The Realtor list
The National Association of REALTORS® runs two versions of its Remodeling Impact Report. The 2025 edition, produced with the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, surveyed 4,005 Realtors on interior projects. The 2023 edition, produced with the National Association of Landscape Professionals, surveyed 2,620 Realtors on outdoor work. Together they give the share of agents who recommend each project before listing.
In the 2023 outdoor survey, 92% of Realtors recommended improving curb appeal in some form before listing; 74% recommended landscape maintenance, 53% a standard lawn care service and 44% tree care. In the 2025 interior survey, 50% recommended painting the entire home, 41% painting a single interior room and 37% installing new roofing. At the other end of the 2023 list, an irrigation system was recommended by 2% of Realtors, an in-ground pool by 1% and an outdoor kitchen by 1%.
Read the bottom of the list as carefully as the top. The projects that get the most attention in renovation media, pools, outdoor kitchens and irrigation, are recommended by one or two Realtors in a hundred. The projects at the top are the ones a seller can finish in a weekend or hire out for a few hundred dollars.
What the top of the list costs and returns
For the outdoor items, the 2023 report also estimated cost (from landscape professionals) and value recovered (from Realtors). A standard lawn care service, at $415, recovers an estimated 217% of its cost at resale; landscape maintenance, at $4,800, recovers 104%; an overall landscape upgrade, at $9,000, recovers 100%. Landscape lighting, at $6,800, recovers 59%; a fire feature, at $9,000, recovers 56%; and an in-ground pool, at $90,000, recovers 56%.
A $415 lawn service is the highest-recovery item in either NAR report. The three cheapest projects are the three that recover 100% or more; the three most expensive recover a little over half.
Painting is the one recommendation without a matching cost-recovery figure: NAR asks whether agents recommend it, not what it returns. Half of them recommend painting the whole house and 41% recommend at least one room. That is a strong enough signal to act on, and the cost is low enough that the recovery figure hardly matters.
The roof: recommended, loved, and still under 100%
New roofing is the odd one out. It is on the Realtor list (37% recommend it before listing), it scores a perfect 10 on NAR's Joy Score, and an asphalt-shingle replacement costs $31,871 nationally with an estimated $21,501 recovered at resale, or 67.5%, according to the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com). A metal roof costs $51,865 and recovers $25,972, or 50.1%.
The numbers only conflict if you read a roof as an upgrade. Realtors recommend it for the opposite reason: a roof that has reached the end of its life is a condition problem, and condition problems change whether a house sells, not just what it sells for. That is an interpretation, not a survey finding, but it is the only reading that fits all three facts at once.
Why this list looks the way it does
NAR also asked 806 homeowners why they remodel. The answers, in order: worn-out surfaces, finishes and materials (27%); improving energy efficiency (19%); wanting a change (18%); and preparing to sell within two years (18%).
Only that last group, about one in five, is remodeling for the buyer. For everyone else, NAR's Joy Score is the honest measure: the typical finished project scores 8.2 out of 10, and kitchen upgrades, new roofing and primary-suite additions all score a perfect 10. Those are real returns on a house you live in. They are just not the returns a listing agent is pricing.
If you are in the one-in-five, the Realtor list is your plan. If you are in the other four, the Joy Score is.
One more reason the list matters now: the market is no longer doing the seller's work. Prices measured by the FHFA purchase-only index rose 2.6% in the year to July 2026, down from a peak of 19% in July 2021. When prices climb that fast, a house sells on the way up whatever its condition. At 2.6%, presentation does the work, which is what every item on the Realtor list is about.
Chart: year-over-year change in the FHFA purchase-only House Price Index, United States, seasonally adjusted, monthly, 2012 to July 2026. Source: FHFA House Price Index, retrieved October 2026. This product uses FHFA data but is neither endorsed nor certified by FHFA.
What to do with this, by situation
Listing within 90 days. Work the top of the list, in order: lawn and landscape maintenance, trees, then paint: half of Realtors recommend the whole home, 41% at least one room. Every costed item on that list is under $5,000 in NAR's estimates; paint has no published cost figure. The roof is a condition call for your inspector, not a value play.
Listing in 6–24 months. Add the Cost vs. Value Report's top three if they apply, garage door ($4,672), steel entry door ($2,435) and stone veneer ($11,702), all of which return more than they cost in the 2025 report. They belong in the same "seen from the curb" category the Realtor list is built around.
Not listing. Pools, outdoor kitchens and primary suites all carry Joy Scores of 9 or 10. Buy them for the joy and budget for roughly half the cost coming back, not all of it.
The rule
Before you list, do what the agents recommend, not what the magazines photograph. The agent list is cheap, outdoor and cosmetic, and the data on recovery says it is cheap for a reason.
The cheapest item on the Cost vs. Value list is covered in The $2,435 Door. The pattern across the full ranking is in The 2025 Renovation ROI Rankings.