One of the biggest expenses I had for my previous home was replacing all the windows. It helped a lot, but unfortunately was $26k to have done properly (could

One of the biggest expenses I had for my previous home was replacing all the windows. It helped a lot, but unfortunately was $26k to have done properly (could have been done cheaper, but I went for the good stuff) and the net result was a $0 increase in potential sale price. When I sold the house, I only made money on the deal because of the market doubling in the time span I owned the property. Now I'm looking to buy/build again, and I will still invest in good windows because it makes such a difference on a summer day and with noise, that quality of life difference matters to me, but it seems it doesn't matter to anyone else because it's not priced in and builders don't care. Even if I buy a brand new "energy efficient" track house, it'll have shit windows. Only by building a custom house and mandating these things can I have any hope of getting it if I don't want to dump another $20k-$30k into a house after I buy it.