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We're considering purchasing an historic house in Pelham that needs quite a bit of work. Can anyone provide any recommendations or buyer-beware experiences with respect to the following:
-- New roofs
-- Electrical: updating and making safe
-- Basement/mold remediation (some mold, not a lot. Mostly need to find the source and stop the seepage)
-- Insulating and finishing an attic
-- Indoor painting and dealing with the removal of lead-based paint
-- repairing exterior stucco and painting exterior
-- replacing a rotted bay window
-- any message boards, community boards, list servs etc. that one can join to get/share experiences with renovating older homes in Westchester generally or Pelham specifically?
Other Notes: We will be attempting to do the roof, the electrical, attic insulation, and indoor painting simultaneously over a 6-ish week period. Crazy?
We're thinking the above can be accomplished for approximately $100k. Reasonable?
We are expecting a baby in March and have a 19 month old.
We're considering purchasing an historic house in Pelham that needs quite a bit of work. Can anyone provide any recommendations or buyer-beware experiences with respect to the following:
-- New roofs
-- Electrical: updating and making safe
-- Basement/mold remediation (some mold, not a lot. Mostly need to find the source and stop the seepage)
-- Insulating and finishing an attic
-- Indoor painting and dealing with the removal of lead-based paint
-- repairing exterior stucco and painting exterior
-- replacing a rotted bay window
-- any message boards, community boards, list servs etc. that one can join to get/share experiences with renovating older homes in Westchester generally or Pelham specifically?
Other Notes: (1) We will be attempting to do the roof, the electrical, attic insulation, and indoor painting simultaneously over a 6-ish week period. Crazy?
(2) We're thinking the above can be accomplished for approximately $100k. Reasonable?
We are expecting a baby in March and have a 19 month old.
Thanks!
(1) yes, crazy, completely and totally unrealistic. And there would be no way for you actually live there while all this would going on.
(2) Completely unrealistic on the face of it.
Houses in Pelham are not different than anyplace else. Also, some of this stuff is impossible to even predict until the place is ripped open (condition of rooh underlayment, electrical issues, extent of mold, etc.) Find a couple general contractor and start getting real quotes.
It's a very bad idea to buy and renovate without prior experience. Unfortunately prices are very high now because inventory is too low and mostly fixer uppers. It is appealing to buy one of the fixers uppers but they sell at a premium and any gains form doing the renovation yourself will be lost in a downturn.
Also keep in mind when you're doing these sort of renovations, you'll often uncover even more problems. I was going to buy a house with similar problems and it clocked in over $100k. It was recommended I also have 15% set aside for such surprises. Are you planning to do this with the 203k FHA mortgage? If so, keep in mind that it will probably take a good bit of time finding an approved contractor.
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