How do you determine Rehab costs before purchase?

[Patricia Baker]

Hi I am looking at some properties that need some rehabbing. Some need complete guts. Is there a way to determine an estimate for repairs before you see the property in person. For instance avg price per sq ft for rehab in a certain area. I’m in PA near philly but also looking in the poconos. TIA

[Dan Milinazzo]

@Patricia Baker I actually just replied to a similar post the other day.  I believe it applies here as well.  

Purchase/Download "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs" by J. Scott. You can get it right in the BP Bookstore or other sources I am sure. I grew up in construction and I am a very analytical type. I have to budget and price construction daily for my full time job so I have a bunch of resources like R.S. Means, National Construction Estimator, Insurance loss estimates (Xactimate) and countless random notes on values. I can tell you if you are new there is no better book than the J Scott book because it not only give you some price ranges but it gives you context that you can uses to either adjust up or down a bit for your individual needs. Keep in mind the pricing will continue to change, but I believe the version I have is 2019. Also consider an adjustment may be needed because the market is priced differently around you than it was for J Scott. But, baseline just use his numbers and add a healthy contingency on top. Best of luck! Happy Investing and we look forward to hearing more about this and other deals!

For the sake of giving you something more relative, this is a very loose chart I have. Unfortunately I do not recall the source that helped me develop it but I believe it was the one by Paul Esajian.

Single Family House | Light (carpet/paint) | Avg (K&B) | Heavy (Gut)

Under 1500sf | 10k | 25k | 50k

1500-2500sf | 15k | 35k | 75k

2500-3500sf | 25k | 45k | 90k

3500-5000sf | 30k | 55k | 100k

5000+ | 40k | 70k | 120k

DO NOT RELY on this data. This just gives you a starting point. Every time you price something starting out, keep the data handy and compare it to the chart, adjust the chart as needed, but this data is very basic and you can miss a lot if you are not careful.