Typical Rehab Budget for Live-In Flip

[Arron Paulino]

I am wondering what is a typical budget for a live-in flip. I am planning on buying a primary residence that I can get as a decent fixer-upper. It can be move-in ready and could use some TLC to increase the value of the home. What is a good strategy to use to reduce the list price when negotiating for a new home? One I know is days on the market but I would like to know a strategy more in terms of the work needing to be done on the property.

What is the typical rehab budget for a full gut versus a fixer-upper that needs some updating such as for the kitchen, bathroom, new carpet, roof, and/or driveway for example? Let's say the home is listed at $500k for easy math and homes newly renovated are worth $800k. My mind imagined it being $50-100k even at most. Would $50k be a decent budget to renovate a good chunk of the home? Would $100k be more than plenty to do an even greater job at making the home very much improved? I'm sure I would need a private/hard money lender before being able to refinance the property with a conventional lender to obtain funds for the home. Would a local credit union/bank be able to support this at purchase and/or once the rehab is completed? I would plan to put in a 5% down payment on the home.

My goal with this is to buy a cheaper home first, fix it up, and roll equity from that for the next big house/goal "dream" home in the future. Or this could end up being the dream home after all rehab is completed who knows?