Fixer upper question: how much $$$$$$$

[SusanBAnthony]

So we looked at a house today that we really liked. It is a definite fixer upper. We would live in it for five years, and then either stay long term or rent it out if we decide to move into a nicer house or a different location. Here is the list that we have come up with. At guesses that you have on prices would be helpful. I put my guesses below. We will get an actual quote on the driveway before we make an offer, but the other stuff I need a ballpark idea of. It is a 1500 sq ft ranch house in a Lcol area. We are trying to determine if the low price is low enough to justify the work, or if we are better off continuing to look for a move in ready house.

Needs an asphalt driveway, currently gravel. 5-10k? No idea.

Needs new roof in 3-5 years. 6-8k?

Walls are super banged up. Needs lots of scraping, plastering, repainted. Some of it appears to be wood paneling that has been paintd over 50 times. 1000$?

Trim has all been painted a billion times and is banged up. I think it all needs to be replaced. Probably would replace with prefinished wood bc I love wood trim :-( 2000$?

Living room and entry are stick-em tile. Would DIY tile the entry and carpet I guess I the living room. 1000$?

Kitchen is awful but functional. We would not replace for 5 years probably. If we end up deciding to rent it it, we wouldn't replace it all. By for the purposes of us staying in the house, how much for a low to mid end kitchen reno with no moving around plumbing? Is 10k nuts? Galley kitchen, low end granite, mid range wood cabinets, mid range appliances. Do I need to assume 20k?

How much would you estimate DIY landscaping would cost? It has no landscaping currently. 1000$ spread over a couple years?

[lb2006]

Our roof replacement is $13k & we live in a 2300 sq ft house, so perhaps err on the high side of your estimate.

We bought a fixer-upper one year ago & have been working diligently at cleaning things up & planning for our major reno.

For us, it was our dream location. The homes in our dream location are all older 1970s homes that need quite a bit of updating, remodeling. I would ask yourself, is this a location you can/want to stay in a long time? Will you be able to get a return on your investment for selling or renting?

Like most renovations, you need to bank on a %age higher than estimated to account for fluctuations in price or items you didn't expect.

[sjh722]

I think you're low of you're hiring stuff out - I just spent probably $600 - $800 on paint alone (and not fancy, it was ace hardware brand) and we did all the painting and drywall work.

We priced new trim but it was going to be $1600 - $1800 for 2000 sq ft of pre primed white trim. Stained is more. And again, we didn't get a bid from a trim carpenter because H or FIL can do it.

Roof totally depends on materials, pitch, offsets, etc. The last roof I had replaced as part of a deal was a little over $5k, and that was a 1300 sq ft very simple roof with a shingle over instead of a complete tear off.

$10k for a kitchen including even low end granite + appliances sounds low to me if you are paying any labor - we just spent close to that and got laminate counters and my h and fil did all the labor.

I'd also bank on finding at least a few $$ surprises that weren't covered by the inspection once you start tearing stuff out.

[lb2006]

agreed w/above. I didn't clarify. Our house is a 2300 sq ft ranch - so quite a bit of roof, but basic layout.

My H is also very handy, so we're able to save money on lots of items, but still bank on items costing more than you anticipate.

[Deleted]

I don't know about a lot of it, but I have one comment/question and a roof pricing example. Comment/question: What's wrong with a gravel driveway? I grew up with one in a ranch house, and other than having to haul in some gravel every once in a while, I didn't think it was a problem. Permeable surfaces like gravel are supposed to be more EF anyway. Pricing: We're currently putting a roof on 900 SF simple hipped roof in HCOL. The minimum price for the basic architectural shingle and adding venting was $8K. We upgraded the shingle, so it was $10K. This was with a complete tear-off of one layer. And from what I've learned in this project, I would never, ever shingle over an old roof. There was enough rot under our old roof to convince me.

[SusanBAnthony]

We just spent an hour discussing, and I think we are going to pass. I would paint and do trim myself, kitchen would be hired out for cabinets and plumbing, DH can do electrical and I can paint.

I am super willing to do DIY projects, but it seems like you just don't get your money's worth on a fixer upper vs. a already updated house. We would have to spend 30k (on the very low end) to do all the projects, and I can't imagine the house going up in value from 160k to 190k. Boo!

The location is good but not great. For great, we would be spending twice as much, not going to happen. The choice is great location with falling over dump, good location with small/crappy house, or less desirable location with new build. The less desirable is still extremely safe and nice but it is an isolated subdivision with no walkable access to anything, no parks, long bus ride to school, etc.

[SusanBAnthony]

Juno, the reason is that I have a 2 and 5 year old, and the neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks, so if they wanted to ever be able to ride bikes, roller skate, do scooters, etc at home, we have to have a paved driveway. If this was my forever house I would have no problem dropping the 5k for that convenience, but I don't think there is any way in hell we would ever see the money back in resale value. The kids currently play outside at least an hour every day if not more, and I just am not willing to give that up.

Yes I realize kids in the country manage just fine without paved driveways! I know I probably sound a little crazy.

[Deleted]

Yeah, not something I would call a necessity, especially for such a short period of use. But to each her own. PS, bikes ride just fine on gravel

[pitterwoo]

I would not buy a fixer upper without knowing if it was my forever home or if it was going to be a rental in 5 years. Forever home= the new wood trim, granite counters, all sorts of details that are important to me. Rental= sand the trim a bit and do fresh paint, laminate counters, lots of easy care surfacing and neutral design. They just aren't compatible to me. Even in our home we've had to stop and question a few times if this is the forever place or something we'll sell in <10 years.

[SusanBAnthony]

Litter bull, that is my concern in a nutshell.

We looked at another house (that is out of the running for other reasons) that is totally NMS, but it was in good shape so I could deal with the trim and floors for five years, then rent it out. The house I am talking about in this post, though, is in bad enough shape that it really needs to be dealt with NOW. And if I am going to be paying for and doing the work, I want it the way I want it, dammit! Even if it for fine years. Which does not make good financial sense if we are going to rent it out. Which, tarheels (i think it was her anyway) totally called me on when I suggested this plan!

Juno, I know older kids can, but mine can't! My best lazy parenting trick is to send them outside to ride bikes on the driveway. SBA = city girl. No gravel for me!

[pitterwoo]

:-( @ "Litter bull" I hope that wasn't you subconsciously calling out my clutter in my organizing posts.

[house]

Jan 13, 2013 22:32:44 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

@ "Litter bull" I hope that wasn't you subconsciously calling out my clutter in my organizing posts.

haha.. I am sure it was a typo or auto correct! My tablet autocorrects another poster's SN on S&B from Bimbi to Bimbo. :-XSo yeah. Don't worry.

[pitterwoo]

lol, @ Bimbo. Yeah, I'm not really crying over here (too much).

[auntie]

I don't know that it would be worth it for me.

Even assuming you poured the money into this at the estimates you suggest, would the house be worth what you paid + the cost of improvements + the inconvenience of remodeling with 2 kids underfoot?

I paid $3K for a drive way big enough to park 6 cars, 16 years ago. My neighbor and I combined the space, so we were able to negotiate a "twofer" deal. I much preferred the black top to gravel, especially for shoveling snow. But I wouldn't do it for the sole purpose of bike riding. That's a real small window in the life of a child, once they're bigger biking in the driveway isn't going to happen.

If the roof needs replacing, the windows probably do as well unless they've been swapped out recently.

[SusanBAnthony]

Windows, furnace, a/c are new. So it could be much worse. Sill, I think it we would never see the money for improvements again. Oh well.

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 13, 2013 21:02:42 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

I am super willing to do DIY projects, but it seems like you just don't get your money's worth on a fixer upper vs. a already updated house.

Not in a LCOL area. Fixer uppers are worth the effort it when it's your forever home in a great location and on the low end of home prices for that area. That is hard to do in a LCOL area because a move in ready home doesn't cost that much more.

I don't have anything against gravel driveways but there is a huge difference between Juno's sunny CA area and our snowy Midwest location. Plowing snow on gravel sucks. You're continuously needing to spot fill the gravel every spring to keep it looking nice and dig the gravel out of your lawn where you pushed your snow pile in the winter. For a farm or something yeah it's fine but for a home no thank you.

[carifly]

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