Will your remodeling project pay off?

If you're planning to invest in some home improvements before you put your house on the market, choose your projects carefully.

That's the takeaway from Remodeling Magazine's annual Cost vs. Value Report, which compares construction costs with resale values for the most popular home-improvement projects.

In today's market, it makes sense to concentrate your spending on the things buyers see first.

Smaller exterior projects that boost curb appeal recoup more of their cost at sale time than big-ticket remodeling, such as additions, luxurious kitchen and bath overhauls.

In the West North Central region, which includes Minnesota, the project with the best return on investment was replacing an entry door. Homeowners who made that simple fix saw an 86 percent return, the report found.

Other projects with the highest payback included enhancing the exterior with manufactured stone veneer (82.2 percent return), vinyl siding replacement (81.5 percent) and wooden window replacement (80.6 percent).

The project with the lowest return (approximately 50 percent) was a master suite addition.

And home-flippers beware: There's not a single remodeling project that returns more money in home resale value than it costs to hire a pro to do the work, at least in our region.

Here's another note of caution: What buyers say they're looking for in a home may not be what they're willing to pay for.

For example, heating and cooling costs were cited as "somewhat" or "very important" to 85 percent of home buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors' 2013 Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers. But these "important" features won't induce a buyer to make an offer, much less a higher one.

"Visual appeal is what sells the house," said Mike Gaughan, a broker for ReMax Choice Properties in Nashville who was interviewed for the report.

One Wisconsin construction manager learned this lesson on his first house flip. "I thought about it like a contractor," said Tony Szak. a former remodeling company owner, now regional projects business development manager for TCI in La Crosse.

Buyers fall in love with a house for the way it looks and feels, and only then wonder about what it needs structurally.

"Buying a house is emotional. You don't get emotional over a roof," said Pat Vredevoogd Combs, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Grand Rapids, Mich. "You cry when it leaks, but you don't get emotional over buying it."