Laminate vs. wood flooring. What rooms?

Wingit

We've finally decided on a floor and installer to work through for laminate wood added to living room, office, & a hall way.  Now DH is getting advice from a friend that we should do engineered wood to add value to our home.  This is based on his experience selling his previous home. 
While I would love to add value, I also have to consider how we will live in the home for a few (around 5) more years and I feel we need to consider our neighborhood.  We are in a cookie cutter neighborhood and have one of the smaller and thus lower valued homes.  I've seen houses sell on our block recently that have either had ZERO upgrades or just laminate upgrades.  Haven't seen any wood floors or other significant upgrades.  
At this point, I'm more concerned with making sure our home is appealing and sellable and not so much trying to add value that is not proportionate to the surrounding homes.  I have a feeling that DH's friend had a nicer home iin a nicer neighborhood where more upgrades are expected or the norm.  Incidentally, we have done some landscaping that should add value and has definitely added curb appeal.  We also have 2 large dogs that aren't destructive, but I worry they'll scratch wood just by walking. 

So what would you do?  Laminate or engineered wood?  I think we can make room in the budget for either.

Also, would you do bedrooms?  I wasn't planning on it because i like carpet for bedrooms but a realtor I know says that these days buyers are prefering hard floor in all rooms.  Our carpet is in good condition and is berber if that makes a difference in your opinions.

Thanks!

BellaKelsey

We have cherry floors installed by previous owners and our golden retriever's toenails have scratched them all over. Laminate would have been WAY better in our case!

toothpastechica

BellaKelsey:

We have cherry floors installed by previous owners and our golden retriever's toenails have scratched them all over. Laminate would have been WAY better in our case!

This. if you have dogs (or any animals with claws really) laminate is probably a better option. Also if hardwood/engineered floors are not already common in the neighborhood its not likely they will had significant value, a nice mid to high quality laminate that is easy to care for and doesnt show dirt is probably both a cheaper, more practical and often even prettier option since you have more options open to you at the same price.

brij2006

Ditto to laminate if you have any pets. We have hardwood throughout our home, and have laminate in the kitchen. We wish that we would have put the laminate everywhere instead of hardwood. It's so much easier to care for, and does not scratch. Just use a higher end laminate, and I think you would get a better bang for your buck. 

Also, when it comes to your neighborhood, and nobody else having wood floors. It is likely that it will overvalue your home for the neighborhood. People will see that they can get more of a "middle ground" or "basic" home with larger square footage than your home. The upgrades in a smaller home don't necessarily add the best value to it.