I would be turned off by marble (or replace it if I could), as I generally don't like the look. I don't even like marble-looking quartz.

If a house is right, counters won't be a factor either in selling or buying.

I'm sorry you're having a "replacement counter roller coaster"...I mean. It's JUST a counter. :)

For me, just about anything else is more important.

How long are you planning on being in that house? No matter how beautiful your counters are, people looking for the latest look in ten years are going to want to replace them. This is not something to obsess over. Presumably you chose them because you like them. Enjoy them!

Hard to imagine someone not buying an otherwise wonderful house because of the countertops. And, if you think about it, no matter which countertop you choose, the next owner might want something different. Get what you want and enjoy it! Life is short!

Most people don't know marble from Formica. Don't worry about it.

"artificial experience of quartz" I take it that DW knows it is 90% real stone and is more durable than other options? But anyway I wouldn't not buy a home for a liking or not the countertops.

As a percentage of the overall purchase of the home, counters are a relatively minor investment. You just spent $500,000 and you are going to worry that you need to replace the kitchen counters for $6,000? Not usually. Get the counters you like, let the next buyer worry about what they like.

I would be more concerned about tile back splashes and floors because of the mess in replacing them. I would replace marble countertops and any gray floors.

I would never rule out a home based on the kitchen countertops! We just bought a home with a HORRENDOUS kitchen that we had to gut and renovate and we still bought the house in spite of the kitchen because of its great bones. If it was just the countertop we needed to replace and not the entire kitchen, I would have been THRILLED!

BTW Quartz is a great countertop material. Much prefered over Marble and has the same look, but much lower maintenance.

I agree with other posters to just choose what you like and enjoy it while you live there! Good luck!

I cannot imagine anyone choosing a house over kitchen countertops. I for one had a serious preference for marble and wound up with soapstone instead in one of my kitchens. I have stayed with the soapstone because it looks great in that kitchen and I am not going to redo a perfectly good kitchen over the countertops. I looked at many houses with quartz counters and thought I would change them out were we to buy that particular house- certainly not a strike against the house in any way.

Those comments kind of surprise me, because - unless it's a small kitchen - countertop appearance is a big piece of the aesthetics that isn't easily or inexpensively changed (like repainting walls would be). I would definitely rethink a house if I knew I'd dislike the look of the kitchen every time I walked in.

I don't think that anyone is denying the fact that countertops make a difference in the look of a kitchen. Just that the countertops would be the dealbreaker for a homebuyer. I'm sure you would prefer to buy a home with countertops that you like. You also want to buy a home in a neighborhood you like, at a price you can afford, with a layout and size that works for your family, etc etc. Most people are not faced with such an abundance of choices that meet all those criteria that a simple countertop can be the dealbreaker.

And even if they were - of the hundreds of prospective homebuyers who will tour a house, there are dozens of different opinions on what is "attractive." The countertop you hate may be the countertop another homeowner loves.

To the OP - if you are going to be there a while, buy the countertop you like. Homebuyers will want a refreshed kitchen anyway if you are selling a decade from now. If you are selling soon, then just plan for neutral choices. Marble and quartz are both acceptable countertops in an updated, buyer-friendly kitchen.

For Gods sake. People buy homes for location, school systems, number of beds and baths. For curb appeal, for a lot of things including the best combination of all above inside what they can afford to buy. Get the tops you like and live in the present. I will just pray it isn't some ten miles of yogurt swirl berry barf GRANITE. .........ugh lol.

You will never please all those phantom future buyers, whether it be in your choice of counter tops, flooring, layout, etc. etc. So just select what works for YOU and your family and your budget. Do your research on whatever material you are considering, and realize that all of them have pros and cons; none is perfect.

People will do all sorts of crazy stuff.

We bought a house two years ago with Corian countertops, which I absolutely despise. They are non-offensive to look at but I hate the (lack of) functionality of Corian. It didn't stop us from buying the house, though. The question was simply "are we going to replace these counters right away, or wait until we have the $$$ to redo the entire kitchen?" I say put in what you like and enjoy it!

No material is perfect,no house is perfect. Counter tops would not make me eliminate a place but lack of natural light has. Currently we have marble and soapstone. Were I selling tomorrow, I would not change them. Not in 10 years either.

"And even if they were - of the hundreds of prospective homebuyers who
will tour a house, there are dozens of different opinions on what is
"attractive." The countertop you hate may be the countertop another
homeowner loves."

Oh, I agree! I would never (and have not) suggested that the owner make a choice based on what they think someone else would like. I'm very opposed to that, in all things house-related -- make changes for what you want, not for what you think a phantom future buyer would want. But that wasn't the original question, and not what the comments I quoted were about - those were about personal choices and preferences, and about what I or another poster would do as home buyers (not buy, or not get in the way of buying) based on the countertops.

My house had the most fugly builder-grade thin granite counters imaginable. I didn't care because I bought the house for the location, windows and light, and layout. I replaced the counters, done. Also replaced all the carpeting, and painted all the walls. To the OP, if you are going to question whether the counters might hold up a sale, you need to think same about your carpeting, appliances, wall colors, bathroom tile, and the list goes on and on. You could go crazy with that because you cannot guess what a buyer might like or not. Nor will you be able to guess what will please a buyer today vs. what will please a buyer in 5 years. That is, except for location, light, and layout - those are the deal-breakers whether today, or 10 years from now. I advise you and your DH just to abandon the "counter replacement roller coaster", and get counters that you want.

when buying a started level house years back, i walked out when i saw one with salmon formica in the kitchen.... this was a time when formica was the standard. of course i could have replaced it, but 'when all else is equal' why have to replace a counter top?

some times all else is equal. sometimes buyers know they won't be living there all that long. sometimes countertops do matter.

i'm at the other end of my house buying years, now. i think i've renovated all the kitchens and baths i want to renovate. its become difficult to get good people, difficult to get a good result (my expectations are high for quality installation!) and oh so expensive. if i ever buy another house it will durn well not have to have things redone.

so, nope, i wouldnt buy someone elses 'pre-patina-ed' marble counters. you may think they are charming but actually the next person might not think so.

Kitchen counters are not even a consideration when I’m house hunting ( I have been recently ). Location is foremost, floor plan, etc. Things like countertops, window treatments, flooring, etc, don’t even enter into the equation. I just assume that I will remodel to my taste & needs ...

I've bought 4 homes and sold 3. I never made a decision based on the look of the kitchen. I hated all 4 kitchens and rebuilt two of them. We buy our house based on #1 - space - we need a certain number of bedrooms and a place for a desk. #2 - price. #3 - location. After that, you look at the integrity of the house - roof, heating system, windows, floors, rot, infestations, etc.

Those that hesitate to buy based on a kitchen counter are watching too much House Hunters and missing the big points.

Like this Jan? lol

I put marble counters in over 12 years ago and still love them patina and all but if resale in the near present was a possibility I would not have used marble. It stops looking new within minutes of use and many people will see that as a flaw not as character.

Who the heck knows what some phantom buyer will want next week let alone down the road. I had a red high gloss kitchen with butcher block counters in my last house. Realtors told us that it would never sell because of the kitchen but one realtor loved it.. We it sold in 11 days for over asking . The house just sold again 10 yrs later same kitchen 2 days to sell.

We bought our home & I hated the countertops. 3 years later we changed them. For me I can see potential instead of what is already in place. I didn't like several things about our new home, but knew we could make the changes I wanted to over time. I love home improvements & I putting my own stamp on a home. With that being said I would never NOT buy a house because of something cosmetic that can be changed at some point.

"Those that buy for a kitchen counter are watching too much House Hunters and missing the big points."

I don't think anyone said they would buy it for the counter, only that they might not buy it because of the counter. I suspect for many, it's because they don't want to renovate (d/t cost, trouble, mess, availability of professionals). In my opinion, those who blissfully say "I'm going to tear it out and renovate in a few years anyway" are reading too much Houzz or watching too many home reno shows. (I had no idea what "House Hunters" was and had to go look it up.)

So OP, the middle ground seems to be, choose what you like, but avoid high maintenance materials, or "taste specific" colors/busy patterns, while keeping an eye on resale.

Hopefully you can find a surface that will be something you love now, that most future buyers won't hate, and that the adventurous can someday easily change.

I agree with all as far as counters are concerned. They will not make or brake my decision on a house. I consider the purchase based on a sum of factors not just esthetics. Buy what you want in a neutral and you should be fine. Don't buy for others buy for you. People will always want to change and will have a gizillion opinions. So do you.

I think the key phrases in the original post are "some day" and "if we ever sold" - while no one really knows what the future will hold, if you have no plans to sell in the next 5-10 years, then do what you would love and want. It's YOUR house, after all. Anyone who would not be able to see beyond a countertop in a house purchase is probably not someone you want to have to negotiate a sale with anyway....

We won't make the decision of marble vs quartz solely on resale. As we were considering pros/cons to each, we just weren't sure if marble or quartz could really be a downside to some buyers.

My house was on the market for a good while, a few years before it was relisted and we bought it. No one seemed interested in buying the house with the off-brand Corian countertops when plenty of other houses had new kitchens with newer styling.

We looked past the solid surface countertops and saw the size of the rooms, the neighborhood, and the whole package. But not everyone does.

As for our reno, the countertops is the most expensive change in it because we are keeping our existing cabinets (which I painted) and appliances. The other elements changing are the backsplash (new tile), undermount sink, and a new faucet.

Thanks so much for all of the opinions! :) It helps to see the conversations, both those like us who bought the house, despite a crack in the countertop and said "we'll just change it when it bugs us enough because we like the rest of the hosue" vs those who validated that in a competitive housing market, if we had to sell in the future (job move, etc), we have to balance that kitchens and bathrooms sell homes faster.

"We looked past the solid surface countertops and saw the size of the rooms, the neighborhood, and the whole package. But not everyone does."

I would say everyone does. HGTV shows couples picking houses apart and mumbling things about "wallpaper" and "dated". But that's just a show and not reality.

Even in competitive housing markets, cosmetics are the last thing to think about.

People are, I think, more intelligent than you give them credit for. Also, yes. Realtors will tell you what people who are looking to buy your house don't like about it, but we don't necessarily tell the truth, which is oftentimes indefinable...

A countertop alone would not turn me off a house, but the prospect of larger scale renovations would just because that is not what I want to be doing at this point in my life. But a counter...eh can be costly depending on choice of material and amount of material needed, but not a terrible upheaval.

My thought is if you plan to live in the home for any good amount of time, say at least five years, make it what YOU want. Don’t find yourself living in some hypotethical buyers home and finishings. Then it will never feel like your home. And that hypothetical buyer might buy a house across town, and the one actually looking at yours wants to change everything anyway.

I personally would choose quartz over marble any day of the week, it just works better for me and my lifestyle, but others would choose the opposite. Others entirely would want soapstone, or butcher block, of stainless steel, or Corian. You can’t please all of us, so please yourself.

Yes pennydesign ... that House Hunters is the silliest, especially when one of them says things like “I don’t like the color of this bedroom “ or they walk into a 25 foot kitchen & say “ oh, this kitchen is kind of small”. ... I don’t even watch HGTV anymore.

It really depends on the price of the house and its location. In many expensive neighborhoods, people will replace a 2 year old kitchen just because it's "not their taste". If a more modestly priced or even low-priced area, I think countertops would be an issues only if they were some strong color (bright yellow or orange Formica or some such).

People have pretty strong opinions about countertops these days. Higher end kitchens are expected to have either quartz or marble; spec housing expects granite. Me? I don't care for either! I LOVE my Glacier White Corian countertops and have done so now for 33 years! Blondaninomina, I cannot imagine what on earth you are talking about saying they are not "functional"! They are very easy to clean, practically indestructible (no hot pans, though), and wear like iron. Mine look like they did when they were first installed.

But I am aware that people today think of Corian as "low-end" countertops in the US; in Europe and the UK, they are considered very high end. I remodeled my kitchen for myself; if the new owners don't like it, they are welcome to replace it.

"No one seemed interested in buying the house with the off-brand Corian countertops when plenty of other houses had new kitchens with newer styling."

I'm sorry, but the reason the house didn't sell "for a few years" wasn’t because of the countertops. There would have been more compelling reasons that it didn't sell for such a long time like perhaps how it was priced, or its location, size, or the kitchen's condition/appearance in its entirety, or other issues we can't know here.

I agree with Pennydesign that buyers are more knowledgeable than to view the counters as a reason not to buy, and certainly their realtors are. Your conclusion should not be that the home's counters caused it not to sell. Your conclusion should be to get the counters you would like to live with.

Something to keep in mind when it comes to marble maintenance: IF you love marble but you fear that it will show the years of use when you are ready to sell, or if you are considering marble but want it to look "new" again at some point, as long as you are near a fairly substantial city with resources, there is probably a professional marble maintenance contractor who can make it look pretty "new again" for a reasonable fee. I would have them refinish any marble I had prior to listing my home (as I would also have carpets cleaned, any tiled surfaces cleaned and resealed and caulk and grout touch ups, etc.) Here's one near us who we work with often as an example of what they do (and note their procedures as not all restorers use the same quality equipment and practices): http://www.nsmarble.com/

I think a lot more people will be turned off by a "cheap" material like laminate, than an expensive one like marble or quartz. I would never choose to put marble counters in my home, but if they were already there, I would happily use them. I'd likely want to replace a laminate. Abnormal patterns or colors would also be a bigger problem, I would think. If you are worried about it, advertise as "stone countertops" without specifically mentioning the type. Many people wouldn't be able to tell quartz, granite, or marble apart. They'll just know it's not laminate.

We are doing marble on our countertops and have three young children. Marble is perfectly fine and has been used for centuries.

Patricia- that is such a wonderful kitchen- you must miss it dearly! That red wall is awesome. And I love your tea kettle- I have the same one :-)