More Than Meets the Eye
A friend of mine owns a townhouse and is thinking it may be time to get it ready for sale and look for a single family home. She recently asked my opinion regarding the appliances in her kitchen which are currently all white: refrigerator, dishwasher, electric range and built-in microwave. The stove could probably be replaced before the property is listed for sale. She wanted to know if I thought she should buy another white stove, so that all the appliances match or did I think potential buyers would react more favorably to a stainless steel model. That way, if they wanted to upgrade the rest of the appliances to stainless steel at some point, they would be ¼ of the way there.
My response was that stainless steel is the way to go. I think if it were the dishwasher or microwave, stainless steel would not matter as much. I feel that more buyers are inclined to look at stainless steel as being appealing.
I started wondering what other people might think so I decided that the question would be a good one to pose to the Barrett Facebook friends and fans. So I used the Question feature and asked:
“A kitchen has all white appliances, including microwave and dishwasher. It’s time for the stove to be replaced. The owner plans to list the home for sale within the next year. What should the owner buy?
- A white one so everything matches now
- A stainless steel one in anticipation of all appliances being switched over time
- Don’t think it really matters”
We received a total of 26 votes and 8 comments. As of the writing of this post, matching white everything has a narrow lead of 13 votes to 11 for stainless steel. We gave the option for people to add their own responses and there was one vote for all black everything and another for hot pink. I think you have to buy that model at the Barbie Dreamhouse Home Store. 
The comments from those who thought everything needs to match included C.B. who said “Harvest gold, avocado green, copper-tone, almond…they have all come and gone. It remains to be seen if stainless steel is a keeper. White is always gonna be…reliable white.” P.B. agreed with that comment and said “C.B’s exactly right. And white is cheaper — a consideration if you’re not going to be around to use the stainless steel.” B.P. answered “And find it on craigslist. Who cares if it needs to be replaced again in a year? 
” J.O. thinks that “Stainless steel is so hard to keep clean!”
The stainless steel contingent included D.G. who said “I wouldn’t get locked in to 10 years more of white – start migrating to black or stainless. Mind you, I have all black – and a white fridge… it’s not killing me, (yet).” M.K. commented “I know this b/c I made the “match the old white fridge” during my summer home renovation. Wish I had gone with the stainless stove b/c it’s almost time for a new fridge!”
J.N., in a class by himself, recommends “one of these“. That one, I think, comes from the Transformers Home Store.
I just put up a supplementary poll to ask:
“For those of you that voted in our wildly popular stainless steel vs white stove debate, particularly those that voted for stainless steel, would it make a difference to you that the white microwave is a built-in model that lives above the stove?
- Yes, it would be better to have them match
- Think stainless is still the way to go
- Still abstain from casting a vote”
We’ll see how that one plays out. Thoughts?
Beth is a practicing Realtor and Interactive Marketing Manager at Barrett & Company Real Estate in Concord, Massachusetts. She spends her days coaching home buyers and sellers through the intricacies of buying and selling property and training her fellow agents on the importance of and benefits to an online presence, most recently on Google+! Read more of her work on the Barrett Massachusetts real estate blog.
Just got my new WHITE stove delivered and installed and I have to say it looks pretty good. Thought about the white microwave installed above, Carla's comment about avocado (we had that in our kitchen in 1970!), the comment about keeping stainless clean AND the consideration that white is cheaper and I won't be staying for more than a year. Ultimately I don't think one stainless steel appliance with 3 whites vs. 4 white will add anything material to the value of the place. If I were staying and planning on upgrading all appliances eventually I would probably have opted for the stainless because I do like the look of it, but I will hold off on that until I get into my new home.
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