Induction cooking is still not well known & requires specific types of cookware. So, it could be a detriment to future resale.

HOWEVER, if you want an induction cooktop by all means purchase one & use it with pleasure. Should you decide to sell the house at some future time dropping in a electric cooktop will not be expensive.

Enjoy the new cooktop!

/tricia

Agree with Tricia --
Personally, I wouldn't want an induction, but knowing it's expensive, I'd hesitate to rip it out. So a drawback for me. (But not a big enough one to cause me not to buy the house.)

I may be old fashioned, but it's my opinion that nothing cooks as well as gas. I have electric at the moment, but when/if I build will be the happy owner of the new GE Profile series. Not too expensive, but good enough for my purposes.

An induction cook top in the kitchen would receive a bonus from me! Someday I will have one :-)

I'm with Patty Cakes. I studied cooking in France and am still a pretty devoted cook and foodie. Nothing beats gas in terms of responsiveness and fine control.

Induction would be a selling point for me, but I'm sure manu buyers would not know about it. For them it might be neutral or negative.

How likely are you to sell? If you think it is fairly likely, try to buy an electric smoothtop unit that fits the same hole as your induction. Before you start showing the house, remove the induction and replace with the electric. Take the induction with you or sell it on ebay.
If you doubt that you will move anytime soon, but what you want and don't sweat other's opinions.

These responses just go to show that you can't please everyone and should get whatever you will enjoy using, lol.

Like Jeri, I would consider an induction cooktop a bonus and would end up installing one myself if it wasn't already in place.

I'll second the advice about the electric smoothtop. It heats up much more quickly than normal electic coils and still seems somewhat "upscale", but without the upscale price tag.

I was going to suggest what Quip suggested. Don't worry about resale unless you're going move within the year. Get the induction cooktop if you want and if you really think its presence will affect resale, then just replace it when you put the house on the market.

FWIW, we have induction, love it, and didn't even think about its impact on the house's resale value.

You may want to ask this question in the appliances forum as well.

What is an induction cooktop???

Terrig:
It's a special kind of electric cooktop that heats extremely quickly, is efficient, doesn't throw heat off into the room, and the cooking is done because the pot itself gets heated rather than the cooktop itself. It's got something to do with magnetic induction...whatever that is.

Anyway, thanks so much for the insights, and I just wanted to mention that I'd include my pots and pans in a resale.

I have an induction coooktop in our newly-remodelled kitchen. Perfect solution since gas wasn't a practical option. Bought some new pots and pans, but not many because the kitchen wasn't yet fully-functional (and I'm not the most fully-functional cook anyway...). Old ones were perfectly good, just didn't work with induction, so we sold them at our garage sale.

Not an hour after the sale ends my husband says to me, "You know, the new house doesn't have induction and those pots would have worked over there."

Where I live (metro Detroit area) it wouldn't matter a hill of beans and you would get zero back on your investment. Pretty much you get zero back no matter what you do to your home in this market.

I really think the majority of people don't care what kind of cooktop you have -- or at least it isn't going to make or break the deal. For instance, what if someone is thrilled about your cooktop but you have an old crappy bathroom that will cost $12,000 to replace? It is not a big deal.

When we bought our last house, one of the first things I did was was replace the dishwasher and refigerator. Both worked, but were incredibly cheap, inferior appliances, like something a landlord would install. It certainly didn't dissuade me from buying the house, which was lovely and a good deal.

Would make no never mind to me what you had if I liked the house and I do like to cook. It's all about the house not the stove.
I'm with Livvy above.

I am renting a place that came with an induction cooktop. I really don't like it. It is very hard to control the temperature and it will shut itself off in the middle of cooking. Probably because I set a spatula down on the counter and it touched the glass top - a safety feature. Also, the touch buttons won't work unless your hands are totally dry. Finally, since it is a slick, black top it gets smudged very easily and I have to wipe it down much more than a normal stove in order to keep it looking nice.

Let's see: We're buying several-hundred thousands of dollars worth of house, and we are worried about what type of appliances are inside? Huh? Appliances get replaced several times during the lifetime of the house. Worrying about appliances when house hunting is akin to asking a car salesman what brand of tires are on the car. Geez!

Some months ago, there was a question as to whether a washer and dryer being mismatched is an indicator of trouble. I'm surprised at the number of people that felt it was. I guess these same people wouldn't care for my stereo system, as I have a $1295 MacIntosh preamplifier driving a $800 Soundcraftsmen power amplifier. I guess the "mismatched" brands are a sign that I have a cheap stereo, huh?

For those you wonder why appliances are worth discussing, think about the details of the appliance. Granted standard size free standing range is easy to replace with no alterations to the countertops. But, countertop cutouts for slide in ranges and cooktops vary in size.

When I had to replace my slide in range, I could not find one deep enough to fill the cutout in my granite countertop. So, I now have a granite patch behind the range. It is not optimal, but the alternative was replacing the countertop.

The OP's induction cooktop will fit a specific size and shape cutout in the countertop. Replacement is easy is you can find one that fits the exact same hole. But if a replacement needs a different hole, buyers are looking at countertop modification or replacement. Depending on the countertop, that may or may not be a big deal. But to some buyers this may seem like "too much work."

The OP's induction cooktop will fit a specific size and shape cutout in the countertop. Replacement is easy is you can find one that fits the exact same hole. But if a replacement needs a different hole, buyers are looking at countertop modification or replacement. Depending on the countertop, that may or may not be a big deal. But to some buyers this may seem like "too much work."

I think you're borrowing trouble here. Cooktops do come in fairly standard sizes so while there is variation, it's not usually much if you're looking at the major appliance brands. When we moved into this 60-70's Leavittown house last year, the original cooktop was STILL in the kitchen (coiltop with pushbutton control). We replaced it with an induction cooktop very easily. DH threw the circuit breaker, took out the old cooktop, unwrapped the new one, installed some clips and plunked in the new cooktop. Voila.

Tom,

You've made too broad a generalization about houses & appliances. The houses we've been looking at have $10-$15K ranges. If I have to replace that range...it's coming off my offer price!

That's one of the problems with 'our' 1825 colonial for those who've been following my saga. It's got a brand new $6,500 48" Jenn-aire range. I HATE it because it's not duel-fuel & I want the electric self-clean. Due to the opening size, I'd put either a Wolff or Viking in its place & would expect the cost to be about $13K installed. Had we been able to see that discussion with the builder through to a contract I would have expected him to foot the tab for replacement.

If we're talking a $600 range...then, yes, you're right. It's no biggie.

/tricia