Bringing a contractor to a house showing?

[kwynn]

We've already done a first showing. We liked the house, but it was priced at 115k. It was, however, very well done inside. It was 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. I would only consider the home if the basement could be finished.

Yesterday, they dropped the asking price to 95k. Now I'm even MORE interested.

I'd like to get a contractor in to give me an estimate during a second showing on finishing the basement or even their opinion *if* it can be done.

Is this something people do?
Is this acceptable?
How do I go about even doing this? I am of course willing to pay for that advice.

[mccallister84]

My boyfriend did it when he bought his house. He just had his real estate agent call and say he wanted to look at it again with his contractor, although I'm sure you probably don't have to give that much info - second showings are common around here and really you should be able to bring along anyone you'd like.

No advice on how to find someone though- he was a guy G had worked with before. He didn't charge G for coming to see the house, but they both knew that G would be using him to do the work.

[lindyanne]

We've done it for a few different thing. Second showings are normal and the contractors didn't seem put out or anything by it. The majority of them spend a decent amount of time bidding jobs they don't get.

[lys]

YOu can do this at a second viewing
We actually scheduled an afternoon to have a number of contractors (HVAC, electrical, plumbing and concrete, roofing) come and view the house(an appointment every 45 min)  and give advice & estimates for what we wanted to do if we bought the house.  Every contractor was told that they needed to be on time since there were back to back appointments scheduled and this was our only opportunity.  One contractor showed up 1/2 late --- I eliminated him from consideration as a result.  THe realtor was there with us during this.

[jenjen]

We did it when looking for an investment property. We saw the home and were interested but concerned about the basement/foundation. Our realtor handled setting up the contractor and met them there to discuss our concerns. The renovations to fix the house were 2x the house cost so we ruled that out. I would probably want your family to meet the contractor to tell them what you wanted to do but it is doable! Good luck!

[jwright]

We brought a contractor to give us an estimate on remodeling the master bathroom when we were looking at houses. I think we ended up visiting what would become our home four or five times before we signed the contract with an offer.

[takeonyou]

Dh is a contractor and has clients ask him to be at showings all the time. It is nice to go in with eyes wide open.

[wanderlustfoodie]

If there's an apartment we really like, we bring a contractor to return visits. We tell him what renovations we'd like to do and he confirms whether those would be possible based on factors like whether the walls we want to move are load-bearing or not, whether the appliance placement we prefer would be wet over dry (which isn't allowed), etc. I find it really helpful and I don't know why it wouldn't be permitted. It's not like the owners are there during viewings so how would they even know? Plus if it's allowed in NYC with all of its crazy real estate rules, I can't imagine it wouldn't be allowed everywhere!