Whether your home is located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, or Anywhere, USA, REALTORS agree that bathroom and kitchen updates will not only improve the salability of your home...  they will also give you the most bang for the buck.

According to the Cost vs. Value Report 2008, bathroom and kitchen renovations return more than 75 cents on the dollar.  But that's assuming you're paying their estimated price of nearly $16,000 for a mid-range bathroom and more than $56,000 for a mid-range kitchen.  If you're a do-it-yourselfer, the cost is simply the supplies needed to do the job.  Your investment will yield a huge profit.

Even if you hire a contractor to do the work, your cost can be substantially reduced if you shop wisely and provide the materials instead of paying retail.  Whether you're updating your home for resale or your own enjoyment, Habitat for Humanity Re-stores will save you a bundle of money. The resulting savings will increase your return and perhaps provide a nice profit when you sell your home.

You probably already know that Habitat for Humanity promotes home ownership by building homes for eligible families.  The new homeowners work side by side with volunteers, using donated materials to build a new home on property that is donated or, in some cases, already owned by the new homeowner. 

But not all donated building materials are used for these homes - some are sold for profit in the Habitat for Humanity re-stores around the country.  In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, that store is Renovation Station on Fort Smallwood Road in Pasadena.

After a month of visits to Home Depot and Lowe's, we completed a list of preliminary selections and budget for our bathroom renovation:  vanity, lighting, fixtures, doors, flooring and finishing details like towel bars and door knobs.   Then we headed to Renovation Station, where we purchased nearly everything on our list for less than half of retail.  Everything was brand new and still in its original carton or packaging.

No, we didn't have as wide a selection as we would at a big box store, but we found comparable products - and frankly, fewer selections made it easier to choose. 

Here are some examples:

Prehung door - $40 (we returned two purchased previously at Lowe's for $65 each)

30" wood vanity - $104 (same quality as those priced $260 and up at the box stores)

Granite counter top and sink - $60 (similar to those priced $199 at Home Depot or Lowe's)

Door knobs - $5 (same brand costs $15 at Home Depot)

They also had towel bars, lighting, toilets, tile, medicine cabinets, mirrors, and other items needed for any bath renovation.  We could have bought everything there, but we re-used faucets updated recently and I opted to use part of our savings for a mirror and towel bars from Pottery Barn - a splurge I otherwise might not have made.

What else do they have at re-stores?  Well, I just mentioned products for bathrooms but they have products for every room in your house - new, still in original cartons or packaging.  Above photo, for example, shows their Levolor blinds, and photo on the left shows the Glacier Bay kitchen faucets available at the Pasadena re-store.

Used items include furniture, accessories, cabinets, lighting, bath fixtures, doors, hardware...  If "retro" is what you're going for, you can probably find original fixtures in good condition at most re-stores.  In fact, someone told me about finding a unique door that fit her older home - a size and style she'd been unable to find anywhere else.

There's a story behind many of the products in the store, such as the vanity and top that we purchased.  They were donated by a contractor who had obtained them in quantity for a hotel renovation but had a few left over.

Anne Arundel County residents are fortunate to have several re-stores nearby (within an hour) in addition to the one in Pasadena - in Baltimore (2), Prince George's County, Montgomery County, and Washington County in Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia.  If you don't find something you want in one location, you can check out another.  Each will have its own unique inventory, since they rely upon local donors.  But don't expect neatly arranged and organized displays like your neighborhood retail store have... remember, it's a mix of new and used items, and the store is maintained by a minimal staff of volunteers.  You may have to go "hunting" for stacks of brand new lighting fixtures in different areas of the store, for example - a small inconvenience for the huge price break.

To find out if there's a Habitat for Humanity Re-store in your area, just click on this link.  You can save a LOT of money on your home renovation.  That means a better return on your investment and hopefully a nice profit.

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Margaret Woda is a licensed Associate Broker sharing her professional real estate experience and expertise with buyers and sellers of residential real estate in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore - Annapolis area including Anne Arundel, Howard and Prince George's Counties, Maryland.  If you enjoyed reading this post, check out Focus On Crofton and Your Online Relocation Package for Anne Arundel County.