What is YOUR process for rehabbing/remodeling a house

[Brett O]

Hello BP, I haven't posted in quite some time! I thought it would be interesting if we all shared what our rehabbing/remodeling process looks like. I am currently on my fourth investment property, my strategy is buy and hold. My rehabbing process is usually to go in and a large amount of the work myself. My last rehab took me almost a year because of this. On my new project I am looking for a good balance of keeping costs down while at the same time not killing myself by trying to do Everything. I have gotten quotes from general contractors, which would make it pretty much a hands off rehab for me, and I really like the idea of it being hands off. The problem is that the general contractors want way more money than I can justify. When I can get the house done for about 5k in materials and they want 20k to do the job I just can't bring myself to pay it.

I would love to hear what your remodeling process looks like, maybe I can get some ideas to find a happy medium!

-Brett

[Derreck Wells]

Originally posted by Alex Baev:

As a learning process, I still got multiple bids for nearly every major task I did myself, and realized that In my area the cost of construction materials is about 15-25% of the cost of project, the rest being labor. Finishes are more subjective and personal, and costs vary a lot more.

As a contractor this statement just pisses me off. Unless you paid for these quotes, you were just stealing from the people that you called to come give them to you. These people all have better things to do then drive to your property and work for free. If you have no intention of hiring a contractor, don't call one just because you're curious about what something would have cost you if you didn't do it yourself. You are stealing time and money from them. Yes, money. It costs a lot to keep gas in the trucks we have to drive. It takes 3 to 4 hours of time for every quote. The drive to the house, talking to the client, looking up current prices, and writing up the proposal all takes time. Time that that contractor could have been getting paid for by an honest client. Time that could have been spent with their family. (Yes, we have families too.)

Any good contractor is working on a job most days (if they're not, you have to ask yourself why). That means that we have to do quotes at night, when we should be spending time with our kids. Or we're pissing off our current client by taking time away from our work to go meet you and see your property.

You wouldn't expect your lawyer to consult for free. You wouldn't expect your accountant to work for free. You wouldn't expect your real estate agent to work for free. YOU wouldn't work for free. Why do you expect contractors to work for free?