We just sold our home. Prior to putting the house on the market I watched area Craig's List ads and found very nice used stainless steel appliances to replace the dated ones in our kitchen. For approximately $800 we refurbished the kitchen with stainless steel. Really updated the room. We ended up traveling about 40 miles to pick up the appliances, but it was well worth it. You could also check used appliance dealers.

We just sold our home. Prior to putting the house on the market I watched area Craig's List ads and found very nice used stainless steel appliances to replace the dated ones in our kitchen. For approximately $800 we refurbished the kitchen with stainless steel. Really updated the room. We ended up traveling about 40 miles to pick up the appliances, but it was well worth it. You could also check used appliance dealers.

DH and I HATE stainless appliances, so that will not impress us, especially in a house with cabinets that are "chipping and swollen melamine".

What does your realtor suggest?
What is common for your neighborhood?

Unless your neighborhood is very unusual, you should expect to see zero return on these appliances. ie if your house it worth 160k, that just comes with the assumption that it has working appliances. With that in mind, you should minimize what you spend on replacing them. If both are functional, I'd recommend a major cleaning effort. If they aren't functional, I'd find used if possible.

"What is common for your neighborhood? "

This is the most important question.

What does your competition have?

Many buyers seem more impressed with 'new' than anything else.

Would be best that all appliances in your kitchen are the same color.

I haven't seen your appliances, but if the only issue is dirt and age, I can't believe they wouldn't be vastly improved with some elbow grease and breaking out the heavy-duty toxic cleansers. And trust me, no one is more of a crunchberry when it comes to cleansers, but sometimes the toxic stuff is the way to go.

Getting stainless steel appliances when you still have chipping and unattractive kitchen cabinets doesn't make any sense. It's like a woman wearing a full face of makeup with ratty sweats.

I agree with Sweet Tea. All the same color is the most important thing. Trilo makes a good point with the idea that fancy, high end appliances with other elements that are less than stellar doesn't make sense. Will also call more attention to the flaws in the other surfaces.

If you can't get a great deal on used ss appliances, I agree that you either go a) cheap new; or b) clean clean clean the ones you have.

As for the cabinets: my mom's house had low-end laminate cabinets that were badly chipped. I got a scraper and chipped all the laminate off, primed and then painted the cabinets, and put on up-dated hardware. They looked great, totally new and it only cost a few dollars for the hardware, paint and primer.

Check any 'outlet' stores. Sears has them.

Could you re-face the cabinets inexpensively?

I agree about cleaning them if possible.

Where you live does the refrigerator go with the house? Where I live it doesn't but some places it does. If it does I would pick the same color, assuming it's white or black. If not I would look for inexpensive stainless.

As for your cabinets, can you at least touch them up and maybe put new handles on them?

All that is required to be able to be sold is functional appliances. Clean what's there. "Upgrading" to stainless or even buying new appliances is ridiculous for a kitchen that will need a complete gut remodel ASAP. Just be aware that any offers you will receive will reflect the condition of the kitchen NOT the appliances in the kitchen and be prepared to either list it 20K below your competition or to take at least 20K below the surrounding sold properties if you ask full price for it.

Now, if you are willing to do a bit to make it look better, you could probably do craigslist used appliances and new paint grade cabinet doors and even a laminate counter for the same money you'd spend on purchasing stainless appliances. But, you'd have to DIY it. Would the effort be worth it to you to not to have to knock off 20K from the home?

I hate stainless too, and agree that you should match whatever you already have. Since people are selling perfectly good white appliances (replacing them with stainless) you can get some really good deals secondhand, through Craigslist or Kijiji. (I got a white JennAire glass-top stove that was immaculate, secondhand. Love it!)

I'm not a fan of stainless either. Clean what you have.

I'm not familiar with melamine cabinets. If it is something you could paint to make cute, I would do so.

Thank you all very, very much! My appliances on their last legs. My dishwasher has multiple broken tines on the top rack and the oven has had both heating elements replaced and the white front is stained from burn marks when I ran the self-clean cycle. Go figure ;-). Both really are dying painful deaths.

I am grateful for the feedback and will start scouring Craigslist since I have a few months. And, thanks for the tip on scraping and painting the cab doors. The boxes are wood, and in great shape. The doors chipped, then got water swollen in some spots. I will try your suggestion!

Thanks all!

We must have the same cabinet doors. Sorry to say that you can't do anything to them. From what I understand this particular product was defective and they quit making it because of the chipping and swelling problems. Don't even bother touching up the badly swollen spots...it looks terrible and you'll be fooling no one. Just leave them as is and make sure everything is really clean.

Melamine cabinets are more than likely pressed particle board under the melamine. You don't want to paint that.
IMO, you may be best off to just price it according to its current condition. Like others have suggested, you need to find out what your competition is looking like before you can make any kind of a good call.