need a ballpark rehab cost to determine if its a "buy"
Lender · Martinsburg, WV · Member since 2013 · 171 posts · 93 votes
I have the opportunity to purchase a 2 bed 1.5 bath home with a good bit of work needed.. need to determine the offer price.
ARV will be around 75k to 80k
needs:
1.outside drainage issues repaired (front and back)
2.new floor in kitchen and bathroom, the rest of the hardwoods sanded.
3.paint the whole home 770 sq ft
4.new rear deck on 20x30ft
5. new drop ceiling in basement
6. major cleaning!
just looking for some ballparks to get me in the right direction.. this is my first rehab project. thanks!
Very difficult to give you a "ballpark". The first rehab I did, I did myself. I was way off on my costs, timelines, and what needed to be corrected. Further, what I need to fix in Chicago, is different due to Taxes, materials cost, permit requirements and codes, than was is needed in Indianapolis.
I am a large proponent of valuing your TIME. Don't do the work yourself, use that time to work on your business, not IN your business. Your job is to find buyers, sellers and get financing. Not to do the work. Bring in contractors, get bids, etc.
Very difficult to give you a "ballpark". The first rehab I did, I did myself. I was way off on my costs, timelines, and what needed to be corrected. Further, what I need to fix in Chicago, is different due to Taxes, materials cost, permit requirements and codes, than was is needed in Indianapolis.
I am a large proponent of valuing your TIME. Don't do the work yourself, use that time to work on your business, not IN your business. Your job is to find buyers, sellers and get financing. Not to do the work. Bring in contractors, get bids, etc.
I would suggest you get at least three bids from local contractors, this early on in your career. One way to find these contractors, is just to go to the local big box stores at 6 AM and find out who is there. You can also ask the guys at the contractors desk at the stores as well.
If all the work is overall simple, you can also just put a ad on craigslist under labor gigs and subcontract each of the sections out. I've had overall good success going this route in the past with smaller projects.
Of course hiring a contractor is a whole other subject, I'm sure there are several threads in this form about that.
Good luck!
@Bill Kenny it is really tough to give ballparks across different metro areas, but as a contractor I'll do my best to give you a sight-unseen quote (which I never do for actual jobs) so you should have some rough idea of what you're looking for.
1) Outside drainage issues is too vague--do you mean fix the soil so it is sloping away from your home? I'm going to assume that as well as putting gutter extensions on so you make sure all water runs away from the house and that gutter water drops a solid 3+ feet away from your foundation. I can't estimate costs here, but if you do the gutter extensions yourself it is very cheap and easy. Maybe $10 per downspout extension and 10 minutes of time. The soil grading would be landscapers and probably not too expensive given the size the house. I can't guess on that, but it should be significantly less than $1,000.
2) We'd need sqft totals, but if you go with a laminate (and do it yourself) you can get decent flooring & underlayment for ~$1-$2/sqft (The last one I did was some super cheap $0.49c/sqft lumber liquidators stuff with the cheapest underlayment. I also got all brand new tongue & groove OSB to have a fresh subfloor to put it on and that made the whole finish job significantly better). If you are paying someone to do it, expect an additional ~$3/sqft in labor (with a minimum, I'm sure, of at least $150 or $200). Having floors resanded and coated (2-3 coats of water-based) should cost you about $2-$3/sqft in total (again, with a certain minimum charge applying if you only have 30 or 40sqft don't expect someone to pull out their tools and do the entire job for $90).
3) Painting -- DIY if you can, otherwise it varies wildly. The guys I use if I'm not doing it myself would charge ~$600-1000 to do that much space depending on if they have to do any drywall repairs, if you're okay just using primer coats for ceiling color (hint: you are) and if you're only using 1 or 2 colors throughout the entire rest of the house and they can spray it. In comparison, I had some other new subs bid out a 1600sqft paint job and both of them came in at $4,100 to $4,400 without materials. My original guys came in at $1,600 with materials--but are booked up too far out. Lesson: get bids! Contractors SHOULD expect a homeowner to get 2-3 bids and compare. It doesn't mean to go with the cheapest guy necessarily, but definitely get a few different opinions.
4) Too hard to estimate without more information, but expect the costs to be in the $4000 to $6000 range for a permitted job from a medium-large deck company.
5) Without knowing the size, impossible to say. Assuming it is 400sqft expect to pay ~$500 in materials and another $300-500 in labor.
6) The cleaning people I use do a good job, and for a thorough initial cleaning on a 5200sqft house they charged me $240 (I tipped them another $40 for going above and beyond my expectations and bringing things to my attention that I didn't notice and taking care of it).
There you go, that list will be about as accurate as my next lotto picks ;) Really though, just use it as a VERY base guideline to estimate costs. Sometimes my numbers get a bit skewed as I'm usually doing the work and don't constantly get prices on certain things for subs. Overall my advice: get multiple bids. Remember, you're interviewing the contractor for a job. If you go with the absolute cheapest guy, be prepared for "hey my car won't start" and "can you pay me a little more to get materials" type of nonsense. Not always the case, but scope out their demeanor, tools, transportation, and general professionalism. I know a few times I have been the cheapest bid for a customer, but I have business cards, professional estimate forms, licenses, insurances, references, and reliable vehicles.
Good luck on your potential property.
I agree with the suggestions above, but sometimes you have to guesstimate in order to make a quick decision. Certainly that is the case in Atlanta.
Here goes some wild guesses to get the responses flowing:
1.outside drainage issues repaired (front and back)
- 100 ft of french drain with 6 mil plastic, perforated pipe and a load of #57 gravel
- 4 days of labor
- $100 for materials and $440 for labor
2.new floor in kitchen and bathroom, the rest of the hardwoods sanded.
- I've never done linoleum so you'll have to get another input here ~$200 materials and $200 for labor in both rooms
- New vinyl tiles I hear are great and easy to install so $2/sf installed would be close
- HW floors you can budget $3/sf for a small job
3.paint the whole home 770 sq ft
- 8 cans of paint x $22/can
- $400 for labor
OR
- $1200 for a painter
4.new rear deck on 20x30ft
-$600 ($10/sf) is a rough estimate. Hire this out to make sure it's done properly.
5. new drop ceiling in basement
- no idea, but I'm sure it's cheaper than flooring so $500
6. major cleaning!
- $100 clean out junk
- $200 for the cleaning crew
Then multiply my estimate X 3 because it's your first time. No really, you should.
Hope this helps and I hope someone else beats up my numbers.
Rick
That's a huge deck. If you need a new one, why not build a much smaller one. 10X12 is nice for that price range and will save you quite a bit. You might not even need a new one as it might just need a new floor or similar repairs.
Hello Bill,
Ryan & Shawn hit the nail on the head (no pun) I am a rehabber from South Dakota & I also own my own remodeling company. My toughest hurdle was seperating my remodeling business from my REI business. I found it was counter productive for me to work on my own fixer-uppers. Keep your JOB & your investments seperate! Do Not try to do it all yourself - Jack of all & master of ???.
Good Luck !
Mark G
After reading the @Rick Baggenstoss post I would strongly suggest getting actual quotes from a local contractor His estimates seem really , really low Better to find out before you buy than after ,
Mark G
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Raymond
It's easy to see now that a rehab itself is a loaded question, besides the one you asked in the thread starter.
A rough "BALLPARK" figure that has always worked for me is to literally count up the retail material cost, double it for labor to end up with your total BALLPARK cost, and even add 10%.
If the final cost just doesn't seem right, then you have a not straightforward job. For example, this doesn't work very well for high end rehabs ($50,000 kitchen doesn't cost $50,000 to install). However, for quick fix and flips in suburbs/vinyl villages, this is a quick go to for coming up with numbers you need quickly
Another example, someone will probably paint $500.00 worth of paint for about $500.00 if you assume cutting in walls, ceiling, and trim.
I always go back and adjust up or down as I see fit, but I do most of my own work and recognize what's worth paying a lot of money for, and what's not.
@Account Closed
1.outside drainage issues repaired (front and back)
actual cost Dayton new down spout with extension and cement pad plus re grade one side of property, approx. 20 ft, $350
2.new floor in kitchen and bathroom, the rest of the hardwoods sanded.
new vinyl installed in laundry room and kitchen, $824 Sand hardwood floors and refinish with Poly. $2 -$3sq ft quotes did it with handy man home depot rents belt sander $60 materials sand paper and polyurethane approx. $200 for a floor 600 sq ft.
3. Paint the whole home 770 sq ft
$1700 5 room property approx. 770 sq ft includes paint primer and 1 coat paint all trim and ceiling inc. inside closet. Non professional painter on similar property charged $700 but cut corners and was not a careful with paint but still better than what I would do myself.
4.new rear deck on 20x30ft
no experience here. depends a lot on what material would be used.
5. new drop ceiling in basement
no experience here either.
6. major cleaning!
Depends on what you mean by major. clean out my experience, including rip out carpet and dispose of unwanted furniture in a 770 sq ft property $200 labor, $350 dumpster fee. (cleaned up outside as well)
to clean inside property ( not the same individual that filled the dumptster,( different skill set) Clean entire property including all appliances and basement additional $150.
Just paint the ceiling in the basement. Spray it, just paint everything and it just blends in and it just disappears. I have done this a few times. Tape all the duct work joints, pull all the nails that you can. Secure all the electrical lines and everything else you can. This will save you a lot of time and money.
Also I hate drop ceiling. Yuck.
This is a 85k property no need to over do it.
Also yes a smaller deck would be the way to go. That's just to big for that size of house
I am here in CA so my numbers will not work for you at all, lol. I can just tell you what I have done so far which is several rehabs in the past few years. The first one I did a lot of stuff myself (thankfully it was small a small 2/1 which needed plumbing (bath and kitchen), paint, wood floors and minor electrical). Today I don’t focus on doing the work myself. Time is money for sure! Anyway, now I know what to expect for materials, labor and other things like permits and such. Doing it myself made me savvier in my dealings with contractors, day laborers, and city inspectors.
Anyway, you need to decide if this is a quick one time deal or you plan on staying in the rehab arena for a while. If it’s quick and you don’t care then just do the basics and get out of there. What are the basics, do you want to rent it or keep it?
For a rental: Do yourself a favor and actually go physically look at comparable rentals. That will really help you and your budget. It can be hard doing your 1st rehab because you want to do it all. But just keep it simple, paint, flooring (carpet), base moldings, grass (sod) and good cleaning, maybe a newish stove and fridge. Also, does it really need new bathroom, or just new fixtures and a very good deep clean? Basically the things that NEED work (not your wish list).After you determine which direction you want to go then just go sit a home depot and get them to bid it all out for you. It will probably be on the high side but at least you can get the numbers you are looking to base your decision.
For keeper: check the comps, note the things that need to be changed, and then go to home depot. Those numbers should tell you what you can expect to bid and/or to fix the place you want to buy.
After a few rehabs/flips in your area, you will just be able to look at a place and know with, a fair amount of confidence, what it will cost to repair and what to purchase it for:)
Good Luck
Chris
Too many variables. Id say $10-12K all in with a good painter and good flooring materials.
That deck will probably run you $5-8K installed with permits depending on the elevation
Place a concrete pad if you can or a 10x12 deck
I appreciate all information. Extremely helpful. I am taking the advice to have a professional look at it to determine the rehab cost. I understand the amount of variables made it a tough questions but I am thankful for everyone who commented.. you got me in the right ballpark!