Asking Baltimore investors for opinion

[Joanne Small]

I own townhouse in the best location of Hamden, Baltimore, that I want to sell. I live on the other side of country. The problem is the house is not selling (everything else is) although it is priced 30%-40% per square foot less than the sold houses in the area. The problem with the house is that is 3 floors of open space (it has more bathrooms than actual rooms) and hasn’t been updated in long time, though most stuff is cosmetic. I am asking you guys is it worth investing into remodeling to sell. I know that in typical situation, this would be a no-no, but it hurts my heart to see that flips in the neighborhood are selling for almost double price per square feet. The second question is if anyone could give me rough idea of the  cost to remodel. Keep in mind that I am not investor, so I don’t have contractor who I know and who would give me good deal. The house is little less than 2000 sq. feet. I am thinking new kitchen, some of the appliances, new hardwood floors, new paint, one of the bathrooms remodel and of course partitioning the house into rooms. One options is to put dry wall directly, which would make first room very small and second room very big. I have massive master suite on the 3rd floor that I don’t want to touch. The other option is to build addition from the current tiny room which would look awesome, but it is more money. Also, basement update. Currently it is dirt basement. I am thinking some concrete, but more like a nice storage space, not the livable area. Plumbing, electrical, AC all good. I have finances to do this, but I have no time. Let me know what you think.

[Tim Jacob]

Yes its worth remodeling and in Hampden spending extra to get it done right.  To save get used appliances, lvp instead of wood, glaze tile not new tile, and multiple quotes.  No one will give you a gc that is affordable and if you try to nickel and dime that it wont work well as you aren't around to supervise and yo nwill be taken advantage of.  You can get large remodelers on credit card but they wont be cheap.  After running the of reno numbers  if it is too much you might want to unload it at a discount even though it sounds like you tried already.  Prices have risen so much there could you really be underwater?  For 2000 sf if its really all usable and not crawl space even unrenovated you can still get more than a renovated place in a c grade part of the city.  I know its tough to see people get a lot more for there stuff that size but those are the options and reno is not cheap and not easy if you want to deal with it yourself.