I know this is a little outdated (well, it was in yesterday's Wall Street Journal), but I thought I would briefly talk about it here in case anyone missed it.  The article talked about how big renovations (i.e. remodeling) are providing not only little to no returns, but they could actually be hurting your sale price.

The idea behind this was pretty simple: housing prices continue to rise and people don't want to spend additional money.  Adding large-scale renovations is only going to increase the sale value of the house, which will turn off potential buyers.

The article also stated that smaller-scale improvements such as adding granite countertops are the best way to go in today's market. 

Anyone have any experiences to back up what WSJ is saying?