When you’re planning to sell your home, it’s essential to clean, repair, and update the house to make a good impression, starting with the most visible and functional areas. Your kitchen is the number one room many buyers will look at when forming their impression of the home—and deciding how much to offer for it. For this reason, home improvement to prepare for sale should start in the kitchen with new, modern appliances.

The 3 Most Important Appliances to Replace

1. Dishwasher

If you’ve lived in a home with no dishwasher or with an old or finicky one, you know how much extra work it creates. For this reason, buyers will be looking for a newer model in good repair with plenty of capacity for their family size. At the same time, a washer that uses too much power and hot water is bad for the environment as well as a homeowner’s wallet, so when you choose your dishwasher, look for EnergyStar® appliances that are certified to be energy-efficient and eco-friendly.

2. Range

For buyers who enjoy cooking, the stove and oven are a central concern. The easier the cooking surface and oven are to clean, the better. If your range will be surrounded by counters on both sides, a slide-in range is just fine, but if a side will be exposed, choose a freestanding range with all its sides attractively finished. If you’re also redoing the cabinets as part of your kitchen remodeling project, you can select a drop-in range, which needs to have custom cabinetry built around it.

3. Refrigerator

A refrigerator or fridge-and-freezer combo needs to fit the space left for it as closely as possible. Too large and you’ll have trouble placing it; too small and you’ll struggle with the smaller capacity. Once you’ve decided on the right size, consider color. Right now, brightly colored kitchen appliances are trending; if you don’t want to commit to a bold color scheme, black stainless steel finishes or white appliances with stainless fixtures are the most popular neutral options, providing a sleek, modern look.

For a one-stop-shop that will take care of your kitchen remodel, from the first design drafts down to the appliances and fixtures, choose Valley Design Center on the Upper East Side. No other designer in New York City is also a licensed plumber with a showroom to display their wide range of stone countertops, Kraftmaid® and Toto® products, and cabinetry and flooring options. To benefit from their 40 years of experience, call them at (212) 832-4200 or reach out online.