I am looking at picking up a property subject to. I was trying to get a good idea of how much Id be spending on repairs before I took over payments.
A few areas of concern for me were the floors, kitchen cabinets and drywall (holes punched in)
My question is, where should I get my estimates from- inspectors or repair and remodel contractors? My thought was that it would be better to get remodel and repair contractor estimates first because they are cheap or sometimes free. Again, I am just looking for an estimate to see if the house would be profitable enough. What is the school of thought here?
If you did the work yourself you wouldn’t spend much at all on the cosmetics…
Flooring - $2.50/sf for ceramic tile (including backerboard, grout, thinset, and screws/nails for the backerboard)…Under $2 for laminate (including adhesive)…
Kitchen cabinets - If they’re salvagable you can paint them and add new handles (Lowe’s has great ones for $1 apiece) for $100 or so per kitchen…
Drywall - Almost free to fix holes…You can get patch kits for about $1-2 per hole, depending on size, or literally spend almost nothing for each hole by cutting a patch piece of drywall, use scrap wood if necessary for support (since the hole probably doesn’t go from stud to stud), and plaster (then paint)…You’ll end up paying a lot for drywall repairs simply because it requires 24 hour drying periods, equating to multiple trips to the unit by the contractor to finish out the job even though the damage is only small holes…
Did you plan to do the work yourself or hire everything out?
it pays to have a licensed inspector assess your property before you purchase it. It also pays to a have a termite inspection done by a licensed pest control agent. looking at a home and feeling it needs cosemtics only cna bite you really hard when it comes time to sell the home.
inspectors don’t have a stake in the actual repair of your home and you can feel pretty certain they aren’t going to try and sell you work you may not really need.
when you go to sell the home, it is very comforting to the buyer if you can produce documentation from licensed professionals that shows you just didn’t fly by the seat of your pants on this flip.
also, contractors like to cherry pick. i should know as i’ve done a good bit of it. replacing rotted sills is way down on my list of favorite things to do and i’m not crazy about climbing under your house to find them either. if your in a busy market, don’t be surprised if your contractor “missed” some of the nastier problems your house has…
once the inspectors have found the good, the bad and the ugly, only a contractor can give you an acurate estimate for repairs…
I had planned on hiring out the flooring and after given it some more thought will take care of the numerous drywall holes myself.
Also, I will just be replacing the cabinet faces with the 'chicken wire’look, which I can do on my own.
Also, note that I have not purchased the property yet, but still just doing my due diligence.
Thanks for all of the input. From what Ive read, I think the best approach might be to first hire subcontractors to get bids on repairs that you know exist and then next, if repairs are small enough where you can still make a profit, then go ahead and get your 400 dollar inspection.
I totally agree with Kenvest…Have both…I routinely have my inspector and contractor work together when I’m looking at properties…No sense in wasting time…