Hire Contractor or Fix Myself?

[Danny Mak]

It is with great excitement that I am writing this post. I am going through closing on my first home! It seems like a dream because I have been researching for so long and I never knew when the right property would come up!

Anyways, the home I am purchasing needs about $10-15k of work total to get it to rentable quality for this house hack. I am estimating $7500ish will be for painting walls and re-doing flooring.

The other $2500-7500 will be for bigger tasks like getting heat to one of the bedrooms, repairing the ceiling of another bedroom, and leveling out the driveway.

I think I can re-do the painting and flooring options myself. I have done many hard labor jobs in high school, but I’ve never painted or done flooring. From the Youtube videos, nothing seems challenging besides the labor. I am a remote employee so I can work my office job from this home and renovate during my down time. But the realtor and property management team I’m working with is telling me that I am much better off hiring a contractor for everything. He said he has seen many people in my situation and the task becomes too large at hand and will get overwhelming.

BP community, what do you think I should do?

If I didn’t clarify enough please let me know and I will respond more thoroughly. I could use some advice!

[Anthony Angotti]

@Danny Mak even though now I have over 70 units I still try to do something here and there on my own on our house hack duplexes. 

I always learn something valuable that helps me evaluate or understand/communicate with contractors when I do work with them. 

At first my wife and I did almost everything ourselves and the knowledge we gained from that is invaluable. Didn't really know how to do anything at first, but YouTube, Handy friends/family, and a willingness to learn were all that were needed.

When starting out it's not about the money it's about the education.