House Flipping - Preliminary Analysis - Rehab Cost

[Jonathan Batson]

Hello BP!

I am new to real estate investing and working towards my first deal. I have a question about the preliminary analysis on house flipping. I am going through wholesale lists and reviewing comps for the properties in my price range. So I have the purchase price and the ARV. The wild card that I am missing is a preliminary cost for rehabbing the property to get to my ARV and seeing if the property is worth taking a look at to firm up the rehab numbers.

I am thinking of possibly adding a certain cost per square foot or even a certain percentage of the differential between the purchase price and the ARV but I don't have a clue where to start. Any suggestions are appreciated!

[Brian Pulaski]

Do you get photos of the houses, or no? If not, then there is zero way to get an idea. Pictures don't even give you a great representation, however it is how I base my initial review off. I do a baseline rehab cost on the photos alone. If it lands me ballpark into a deal, I schedule to see the place. Without photos, I wouldn't even know where to start to estimate a rehab cost.