Do Dishwashers Help Sell Apartments? Q. I don't have a dishwasher. Should I install one before selling my apartment? A. Even in a city like New York, where restaurants and takeout are a way of life, most buyers still expect kitchens with a dishwasher. "People are very busy, and a dishwasher is not considered a luxury item," said Victoria Rong Kennedy, a senior vice president at Citi Habitats in New York. It's now considered an absolute essential for most households. Therefore, she said, if you want your apartment to sell quickly, it's a good idea to have one. "It doesn't have to be the most fancy, upscale one," she added. But it does have to be there. Without a dishwasher, she said, your apartment would likely be considered "below average." One exception, Ms. Rong Kennedy said, is "if the kitchen is absolutely too small, like in a tiny, tiny studio, where there's no way you're going to fit one in." But in the vast majority of cases, she recommended finding a place to squeeze in a unit "so you don't have rejections just because you're missing a silly dishwasher." There are plenty of shapes and sizes on the market, which should make it easier to find one that works for you, said David Mullman, a partner at Mullman Seidman Architects in New York, who has designed numerous kitchens. First, remember that "a dishwasher, generally, is connected to the plumbing at the sink," he said. So "the easiest and least expensive way to add one is to put it right next to the sink." In most kitchens, that requires removing a cabinet. If the resulting space is 24 inches wide, you're in luck: that's the standard width for most dishwashers, so you'll have lots of models to choose from. If the space is narrower, you might be able to use an 18-inch-wide model, Mr. Mullman said. It's smaller, and there aren't as many choices, but it's not a bad solution for a small kitchen in New York. But if your kitchen is already short on storage space, a better option might be a dishwasher drawer, most of which are 24 inches wide but only about 16 inches tall. "If you're talking about a studio apartment, then having just one dishwasher drawer may be fine," he said. And you can still have another drawer of storage underneath. For a finishing touch, Mr. Mullman likes to add a matching wood panel to the front of the dishwasher so that it blends seamlessly into the kitchen cabinetry (this requires a dishwasher designed to accept a custom panel). Although stainless steel is popular for most appliances, he said, when a mismatched dishwasher interrupts a run of cabinetry, "it looks like a missing tooth to me." Questions about repairs or redecorating in preparation for putting a home on the market may be sent to marketready@nytimes.com. Unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.