Intro to BRRRR-- How do I determine my rehab cost?

[Patrick Keene]

I recently watched a video on how to make an offer on a house. It was a simple formula. I think it was:

ARV x 70% - rehab costs - profit

My question is how do I quickly and efficiently determine rehab costs to make an offer?

Obviously, a scope of work from a couple contractors would be the most accurate but it seems a little overkill just to analyze a deal. I could take my property manager or realtor's word for it but that may not be their area of expertise.

Also, I am using David Greene's Long Distance Investing book as a guide so I may never actually see the house. 

Thanks in advance.

[John Warren]

@Patrick Keene I feel that you have to have an awful lot of information in order to accurately estimate rehabs, and I am not sure that there is a quick answer for this one. Are you analyzing the same type of property each time at least? If you are analyzing a bunch of single family homes that are built the exact same time period in the exact same way you might have a shot. 

I just finished up the rehab portion of my first flip in Berwyn where I invest. I am a realtor and also a buy and hold investor, so I have dealt with some rehabbing before on units and also my own personal residence. We still went over our rehab budget, even though I had put a lot of time into the scope of work beforehand. 

I hope this his helpful. There is no easy answer for this that I can see. Maybe check with an experienced builder in the area you are looking at and get a price per square foot estimate? This relies mostly on the builders knowledge of rehabbing, and may be more accurate than what you can put together from afar.